What to do?

[mumofone]

I look after a child who's been with me since a baby that's moving on to pre school which i fully support. However parents want to keep them with me to a certain date that doesn't suit me. Given they are going to be going anyway they will affect my ability to fill their space with the timings suggested by the parents. I think its unfair on me to expect me to have the child to a date that suits them but will affect me getting new children in given they will be leaving me anyway. What do you do in this situation or do you always go with the parents requests whether its bad for your business or not? To clarify, i am able to give them months of notice on my proposed end date for them so they have plenty of time to find alternative solution.

[moggy]

You need to keep your business head on and say what you are willing to do. If you have a good relationship with the parents, and they understand how childminding works with our ratios and fitting children in, surely they will understand? Can you meet their needs in some way for a short time, maybe until you actually have a new family lined up? I hope you find a solution.

[mumofone]

Thanks moggy:) I do have a new child lined up to start in September as I had anticipated the current one leaving to start pre-school but I thought they would start in September when the new term starts but the parents want me past this date. Parents want to phase their child in to pre-school slowly which is understandable but doesn't work for me business wise. I just don't know how to politely get this across to them!

[mumofone]

Just to say too that I started the conversations with them in January about this so they have months of notice (currently 6 months notice) to sort something else if needed....

[SYLVIA]

I agree with moggy that you have to think of your business. You can give notice the same as they can

[moggy]

...and maybe look at easing the transition as much as possible (sounds like parent is nervous about the move to pre-school, parents can be very sentimental about leaving the setting where their LO was a baby).
Can you take LO to visit the preschool? Does the preschool do visits- can their keyworker come to see you and LO at your house? Can you work on 'when I go to pre-school' with LO as next steps? do you know any other children there you could arrange playdates with so LO makes some friends? Can you start sharing learning journal etc- show parent how you are working together to ease the transition?
I find it is often the parent who is more likely to cling to the familiar (the CMer) where as the LO soon moves on.

[Maza]

Life and contracts are rarely straight forward are they?

I agree, keep your business head on. It's brutal, but basically, either they are inconvenienced or you are. Why should it be you? I have loved all the parents I have worked with and vice versa, but still found that they would drop me like a hot cake when it suited their working arrangements. We, on the other hand, tend to agonise and lose sleep over whether we should inconvenience the parents a wee bit or be out of pocket ourselves.

How far past September do they need you? If it's not much, I'm sure they could between them take holiday to cover childcare, get in a grandparent or friend to do the short term cover.

Good luck.

[bunyip]

OK, so the client is disregarding the needs of your business. But if that were all there was to it, then you could offer to fulfil their demands, but charge an additional fee to make up for the fact they're limiting your ability to earn a living. Oddly enough, parental notions of "wanting the best for my child" will very often change if it means paying a price for it.

But, as I see it, there's more to it than just ignoring your needs. They're also being selfish by effectively denying another family the childcare place you can offer. They wouldn't like it if their child were being blocked out by someone who refused to move on.

I think you need to say their are other people to consider and, whilst you can support transition i some ways that suit everyone (not just them), they need to make a firm decision. If the time has come to leave, then leave.

[halor]

Agree with the others, you need to keep your business head on and let them know that the staggered leaving doesn’t work for you as you need to consider the needs of your business