extra hours is this ok?

[mushpea]

at the moment I work 3 days a week for one family one of them being a saturday,, the hours for the saturday are on the contract the same as the other 2days and i am required to give 2 wks notice for my hols,,, the main problem i am having with the saturdays is that I am missing out on courses for work and weekends at my mums who lives 70miles away.
Is it wrong that I take the saturdays off the contract then work them as over time when i can/want to but let the parents know a week in advance if i cant work? I want to take them off the contract because I want to have more saturdays off than the 4weeks holiday I have on the contracts ( I tell the parents I dont take more than 4wkds per year). I will obvioulsy explain this to the parents and tell them i would understand if they would rather go elsewhere but I just dont want to be tied to every saturday.
the child is lovley and is no trouble whatsoever and just fits in lolvey with everything else we do it so I am still happy to have but just not every saturday.
do you think this would be ok?

[venus89]

Maybe the best thing to do is to explain to the parents and come to some arrangement with them? You can't change the contract without their say so anyway so as long as you explain it's about courses and perhaps tell them the number of weekends you do need off? I do understand. I work sundays, the child is, like yours, lovely, fits in beautifully with everything. But I hadn't realised how it would interfere so much with everything, or how many weekends it would prove awkward! If I didn't need the money....

[tulip0803]

I work weekends too. As Venus says you cannot change the contract without talking to the parents and 1 weeks notice is very short if they have to sort out alternative care.

My parent knows that most of the courses that are run in this area are on Saturdays and I will have to take these in addition to the usual holidays. I also do not just put 4 weeks holiday on the contract as a normal holiday (in the UK) runs Sat-Sat which means that you already have 8 Sats there. I explained this to the parent and added the extra sats & the training as and when. Luckily my parent is very understanding and flexible so is happy with the arrangement.

However as there are 2 training days that I would have liked to have attended in March on Saturdays I did only book one as it was unfair on the parent to cancel on her twice in 2 weeks!

[gigglinggoblin]

I dont blame you for wanting Saturdays off but only the parents can tell you if they can manage that, if they have to work every Saturday then its probably not ok and you might have to be prepared for them to look elsewhere. It is definately worth asking though, no point in sitting and wondering if they dont have a problem with it.

[miffy]

I think you need to talk it over with mum. It may be that they can manage without you more Saturdays than at present.

Miffy xx

[rickysmiths]

Could you team up with another Minder and maybe do the Saturdays between you so neither of you is tied to every week but you can still offer the cover for the parents if they were happy with this kind of arrangement?

[jane5]

I am glad that I read this thread because as I am a new minder I have advertised to work weekends.
My dh has to work some weekends so I didnt think it would be a problem but now that you have mentioned training ect... I may think again and no be to eager to sign a contract for regular weekends:rolleyes: