Picking up from clubs

[mumofone]

I've got a mindee who does some clubs after school but I find the later pick up time so disruptive as we all have to wait around for the later pick up (rather than picking up as usual school finish time and getting on with our day) and it clashes with the younger ones tea time which is not fair on them. I'm thinking of saying I can only do regular school pick up time from now on but don't want to upset mindee and p!ss of parents, what would you all do in this situation?

[natlou82]

I would and have dropped the inconvenient pick up. Good luck :-)

[loocyloo]

I don't do late pick ups unless it is convenient for me and fits in!

Currently ALL mindees do an afterschool club on the same day! I offer that day as the day to do a club that I collect from, OR if a child wants to do a club another night, then the parents need to arrange a lift back to mine! I had to do that with DD last year, when she was desperate to do a club on a night I couldn't collect late, and her friends dad offered to drop her back to me!

[Maza]

Oh that's annoying. Often you just don't know how disruptive these things will be until you try them. Just check how long the club lasts for - many schools only run them for a term and so you may be able to put up with it for a few more weeks, and then you can change your policy (before they sign up for the same club again, or a new one). It's perfectly reasonable of you to drop pick ups from clubs.

[JCrakers]

I don't do afterschool club pick ups, mainly because I don't have a car so it would mean waiting around for an hour or walking home, getting in and then having to go back out again.
Any mindees that want to do a club have to get a lift back to mine via a friend

My ds and dd have also missed out on clubs due to the fact that I cant get the there (unless they start at 6.30pm) :thumbsup:

[BallyH]

I don't do school club pickups. If any of the children choose to do a club their parent has to arrange for them to be dropped at mine afterwards for tea by another parent. I do charge from school closing time as the club stops and starts and then the mindee is back with me. Parents are always ok about paying as I have said they will loose the place otherwise.

[AliceK]

I don't and never have agreed to do pick ups from clubs. I already pick up at 3.15 and we ALWAYS walk to school so it's not fair to do a 3.15 pick up and then a 4pm pick up plus I have to do tea as home time starts at 5pm.

xxx

[kellib]

I only do it if it fits in with our day, at the moment none of mine wanted to do any clubs but I've done it in the past.

[messyplay]

walk to school so pick ups are not easy but if I m only picking up the one child I dont mind picking up later if it doesnt interfer with the othrr childrens pick up times

[samb]

I have mainly eyfs children and my children are 7 and 10. Dd goes to a club once a week at the moment. I have a school child I collect when dad isn't on shift. It's worked that in half a term I have to do the 2 runs (3:30 then 4:30) twice. First time I drove, everyone out to collect the mindee and back in the car, home for a snack and story and back in the car where my dad walks to the car so just a quick collection. The second time we walked, leaving at 3:15, went to a park to have snack and a very muddy play time, back to school then home for 5 where dinner was ready as I had put in slow cooker and had table set up etc so was a quick nappy change and wash hands and straight up for dinner. I really don't think I could do it regularly. School is 15 min walk from me if they are all walking well and not stopping etc

[sophie1977]

May I ask what cm charge for school drop offs and pick up? Please

[loocyloo]

May I ask what cm charge for school drop offs and pick up? Please

I charge my normal hourly rate and charge a minimum of an hour. Other than that I charge in half hours and charge a higher fee for care required outside of my usual hours.

[mumofone]

I don't do school club pickups. If any of the children choose to do a club their parent has to arrange for them to be dropped at mine afterwards for tea by another parent. I do charge from school closing time as the club stops and starts and then the mindee is back with me. Parents are always ok about paying as I have said they will loose the place otherwise.

Are we allowed to have children dropped off like this? That was something I wondered about ?

[mumofone]

Thanks guys, I've told the parents that I can't do the club pick up any more but they've not responded to my email so I don't know what's going to happen. I can't be all things to all people though this is the problem :-(

[bunyip]

IMHO, I think you're doing the right thing.

It's just not fair to have to go out for 2 school runs within a couple of hours, often dragging along the preschoolers or taking a schoolie back to school just to collect another from a club.

If the only schoolie I have is at a club, then I can collect them: it just means I do school run at a later time. But then it can clash with the times other children are having tea or being collected.

I've generally aimed to be flexible about it, and do it if the circumstances allow. The trouble with that is I've found mums don't understand "flexible if the circumstances allow." If I've done it once, they just can't see why I shouldn't be able to do it every time, and it gets a bit wearing having to get the puppets and crayons out to try to explain things to grown adults who have somehow managed to hold down a job for themselves. :p

I've also offered the same arrangement as BallyH: for another parent to drop them here after the club. It doesn't really matter who brings them: it's up to school to discharge them into that person's care temporarily. Likewise, I wouldn't get into haggling over the price, just stick with my standard flat fee.

It is, after all, entirely up to parents whether they put the child into an after-school activity. No child is forced to attend. Now late arrivals from school trips...............there's another matter entirely................:(