Mother and Toddler Group Costs

[helendee]

Can I just ask how much you pay to take children to your local groups and whether you pass the charge onto the parents? My local one held in the local church hall charges £1.50 per child, even for tiny babies, and adds up to £4.50 on the days when I have three of them, does this seem a bit steep or am I just being a bit tight? LOL:eek:

[ORKSIE]

Ours is 1.50 for me and my mindees:thumbsup:

[PixiePetal]

Mine charges £2 per adult and includes as many childen as you have.

I pay it as it doesn't matter how many children I have. Yours does sound a bit steep.

[TheBTeam]

Ours are usually £2 for any number of mindees, charge is per adult/family.

[amanda1309]

mine vary from 50p per child to £1.00 per child

[Daddy Day Care]

most of the ones i go to are 50p one is £1 one is £1.50 and the last is 50p per adult and per child

Gareth
xx

[peanuts]

£1.50 per adullt, no limit of children.

[Pipsqueak]

£1 for the first child and 50p for subsequent children

[Joannechildmind]

£2.50 each (adult or child) hense why we dont go now, to visit there for the hour is more than im actually paid per hour :eek:

[youarewhatyoueat]

£1.50 for 2 children and free at the childrens centre and I don't pass the charge on.

[grindal]

Free at Childrens centres - others vary from £1 per child to £2 per child. I only go to free ones!

[FussyElmo]

£1 per child - dont paid until they are one :)

[David Sheppard]

The Support Group I run at the local Sure-Start Centre is free, although their is a voluntary collection of 50p towards craft materials.

[tammerisk]

the drop ins are free at local sure start i go to one on a monday that is £1 per family or for me as many kids a s i bring!!!!
my support group is a £1 per minder but that is only so that i can get snack each week as the sure start center were giving us really naff snack for 35p(bread sticks and rasins)so we decided that paying for it our selfs was better now we have a feast!!!
the one at the school if i go is £1 for how ever many i take with me
the other support childminders group is £2.50 but i don't use that very offten

[FizzysFriends]

go to free o esat childrens centres, one that is £1 per family and one that is £1.50 per child but at that one they provide lunch as it starts straight after pre school.

I don't pass on the costs.

[mama2three]

£2.50 for the first child , 50p after that. or 50p for under 1s.

[miffy]

The one I go to is £2.50 for parent/carer plus one child then 50p for each extra child - includes drinks and biscuits/fruit though.

Miffy xx

[Shar]

The drop-in's I attend/run charge £2 per adult, no charge for children. This cost covers refreshments and art & craft materials. Some mother and toddler's have to pay rent for the hire of the hall so the costs can be high. I do not charge the parents extra for attending these groups. It's tax deductable for me.

[madasahatter]

Around here they are £2 per family/childminder at the ones that are church run but free at the local children's centre (though childminders are not welcome at their toddler sessions because we have our own session :mad: )

[brightstar]

The one I go to is £1 for me and 50p for each child, it includes drinks, toast and fruit, and is for 2 hours. As we were the only ones there last week, they only took £2 for the morning :laughing: :laughing:

[singlewiththree]

Can I just ask how much you pay to take children to your local groups and whether you pass the charge onto the parents? My local one held in the local church hall charges £1.50 per child, even for tiny babies, and adds up to £4.50 on the days when I have three of them, does this seem a bit steep or am I just being a bit tight? LOL:eek:

Ours are per family not per child and they are between £1.50-£2 so yes in our area that would be steep

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Some of mine are £1 no matter how many I take and another is £1 each. I pay for toddler groups.

Soft Play the parents pay for and I charge £6 per week including lunch. I explain this charge to them when doing contracts so it isn't a surprise and doesn't cause conflict.

[RachelE]

The one I run is a £1 donation and is anonymous. I managed to secure the room rent free! :clapping:
The group was suggested by someone at church who also sourced all of the toys for us and we've just ahd a donation from surestart! :)
We use the church's tea, coffee and juice and I then pass on whatever money I take each week.

Our Weds one is £1.50. - for as many children and adults per family.

Friday is £2 entry, 20p per slice of toast and 20p coffee/tea. This ones getting a bit steep, but they have the room to pay for each week and are only averaging 5 parents.

We have a homestart drop in at the sure start centre which is free- but minders arent welcome! :( I wouldnt mind but theres only 2 of us, so its not like we are going to take over! Our CM group only meets once a month.

Its hard because obiuosly if a group has to pay rent, they need to cover it, but some are ridiculously expensive. £1.50 each is def too much. If you did that every day, it'd soon add up.

Rachel x

[It's a small world]

I go to a few...usually £1.50 (CM group) includes snacks and children do an activity ie: Diwali Candle / Make cakes / bird feeders etc all included in the price....fab

others cost £1 plus 50p per child...but again includes snacks and usually around 2 hours.

I dont charge parents in case they turn round and say they dont want to pay so their child cannot attend as this means other children miss out and to be honest my children have gained from groups as they get to socialise with other children in early years age group, gain confidence, learn to share with more children rather than just the odd one or two children.....They can really run around as bigger space than I have/ different toys to me so get to explore more.

Then they come home with me and have a smaller group to play with..I think they are definitley worth the money plus you can put it through your accounts.

[marian]

The ones I go to vary from £1.00 for all at the childminders drop in ,
£1.50 for first adult and child ,then 50p for extra children at another one or £1.00 for each adult and child at another - but I go to a variety to give the children a different outlook and I claim it all back on expenses:D

Marian x

[katickles]

Ours all vary - from £1.00 per child to £1 & 50p for subsequent children, or another charged £2.50 per child & that I do think is far to expencive.

I pay for all our outings - at the end of the day they all go through my books so I don't mind :)

[Jules12Wed]

The one I run at my Church I charge £1.00 per adult kids are free but they get juice and adults get tea, coffee or hot chocolate and we have doughnuts, iced fingers, fairy cakes, apple danish and fuit loaf although these are cut up into tiny thin slices and we stopped putting out plates and just put serviettes cos parents were piling their plates sky high!! We don't tend to do crafts, don't have time to organise it.

[netty]

The ones i attened are 60p per family this includes a drink and biscuits for adults and children the other is £1 per family this includes toast and a drink for adults and children.
Netty xxx:)

[zillervalley]

The one I go to charges £1.00 and 50p for siblings

unfortunately they do not let childminders off with the reduced fee i know that i dint have siblings, but if a gran comes along she pays the reduced fee and the children could be from a son and a daughter.


so annoying

[Curly Quavers]

Mine charges £2 per adult and includes as many childen as you have.

I pay it as it doesn't matter how many children I have. Yours does sound a bit steep.

mine is the same as this

[sophiestars]

All my local ones range from free up to £1 and that's per family. If I had to pay £1.50 per child I would get the parents to pay.

I have a little policy (just in my head at the mo as I haven't had to broach it with parents yet!) that anyhting up to a pound is ok but anything more, eg we have a singing group that charges £3.50 I would ask for payment from the parents. Also my local soft play is £2.40 per child (adults free) so I would charge parents for that if it wasn't for the fact that I used to work there and they let us in free! I just think that when it's creeping up to £4 that's my hourly rate so if I pay and don't claim it back from parents it means I haven't been paid for an hour!!

Also I always put down toddler group fees as an expense however small as I go to one just about every day and it all adds up!

[ChocolateChip]

I don't charge for any groups or activities we go to, in our area it's around 1.50 per family/ cm for toddlers although if I take 3 I tend to bung an extra 50p in the pot as snacks are free, most of the groups run by the children's centre are £1.00, I also go to the library once a month for bounce and rhyme but that's free!
Occasionally I do soft play but as that's 3.50 per child that's kept for a treat about once a month or half term, I would definitely say what you're being charged is quite expensive.

It also annoys me when I hear that cm's aren't welcome at groups, why should the children of working parents miss out on activities? And I bet that actually the mums sit on their backsides drinking coffee and it's only the cm's who interact with the kids if it's anything like round here :angry: