please help - re other job/opening hours?

[bluebell3]

Hi I am childminding at mo but losing children in september - i will have no children then. I also work 2 jobs. I have had NO enquiries for some time and other childminders are reporting the same.
Yesterday my boss in my main job was horrible and i thought its about time i get out of here!! i can probably pick up more hours in my other job to tide me over money wise until my childminding picks up BUT i don't want to tie myself up so if i do get enquiries i have to turn them away. this is going to mean working evenings and weekends!! I'm really upset about this as i don't want to do this i want to be childminding but i can't afford to not have a job and not have any mindees.
If I work 4 evenings I would have to start at 4 (maybe 5) but feel I would then turn people away if parent was working til 5 or later. If I start later I am going to have to work every evening and probably a day in the weekend aswell.
Please please help!! What time do you feel I need to be open til in the evenings? What time do parents with young children work to? Do they try and fit it in with school times or do they work til 5 or 6 in the evening? If my opening hours are until 4pm or earlier I might aswell be a pre-school! Even the nursery is open til 5.30 but obviously I can open at whatever time in the morning so can have the edge on them there. I am so confused and upset I don't know what to do!!! I also have 2 young children of my own (at school and pre-school) so working evenings is not going to be very beneficial for them or my husband who will have to look after them!) wanted to do childminding to spend more time with my children and so far it has not worked like this at all!

[smurfette]

Hia sorry to hear things have worked out like this so far for you --'sounds like you Would be better off without the first job
And I think If you can get more hours in the second one that could be the way to go for the moment ... Will you be able to adjust your hours down if you get some Childminding? Most parents look for a minder a good few weeks before they need it so you should have time to sort it. There does seem to be a lot of part time hours minders needed so you never know it might all fall into place. I have had enquiries this week for a two day week and three afternoons a week. Most of My pick ups are around 5 ... One is 530 and mum works from home and can't be bothered to get her here until 930 in the morning. One Is 5pm mum works 830-430 and one is all over the place mum can be finished at 2'or not until 630 and granny picks up sometimes early enough around 4 so mum doesn't have to pay me as many hours. I think if possible you need to be flexible for hours or it might take longer to fill the spaces but something might just fall into place!

[The Juggler]

oh hon what a horrible time you are having :( I would go with the job you like and increase your hours. you can take enquiries but you'll have to tell them you can only work until xxx. If you get enough enquiries you could ditch the job maybe but for now you have to think about your family and an income so go for it.

At one point I dropped all the childrne I had during the day to their parents in the school playground at 3pm, then swapped them for a group of afterschoolers so it is possible to get those enquiries for early finishes - especially if you advertise with school teachers/ta's/school office staff in mind :)

[marleymoo]

i only work till 4.30 as i have a part time evening lecturing job. my parents know this from the outset and they also know that as soon as i finish my last year at uni (next may) then i'll be lecturing full time but handing over complete running of childcare to my current co-workers but they have also known my co-workers for the past 5 and 6 yrs respectively.
parents may finish work later than that but it doesn't mean a granny or aunty can't pick child up for them does it? if parents really want you, they will work around you. why should we be the only ones expected to be flexible?

[The Juggler]

i only work till 4.30 as i have a part time evening lecturing job. my parents know this from the outset and they also know that as soon as i finish my last year at uni (next may) then i'll be lecturing full time but handing over complete running of childcare to my current co-workers but they have also known my co-workers for the past 5 and 6 yrs respectively.
parents may finish work later than that but it doesn't mean a granny or aunty can't pick child up for them does it? if parents really want you, they will work around you. why should we be the only ones expected to be flexible?

what do you lecture? sounds interesting? :) Just curious, do you work from your home or in another property used solely for co-childminding? Just wondering as if I was going into full-time employment I would def. want my house back :laughing: that'd be one of the benefits for me :clapping:

[marleymoo]

believe it or not, i deliver the DHC, NVQ, childminding workshops, EYFS etc and from next year i will be delivering the EYSEFD from my local Uni. i do work from my own home and i can't grumble about carrying on the childcare business from here because i will be taking a good salary from it ;) I do expect it to be left in pristine condition every afternoon (as i do now)

[bluebell3]

Thank you everyone for your answers - i'm really in turmoil here with so many things going on and am having a spectacular fail to make any decisions but I have decided to leave my current job and pick up more hours in the second job its just whether they can accommodate me and what hours i'll end up doing!
Marleymoo - no wonder you always sound so knowledgeable!!! How on earth do you find time to get on here!!!

[funemnx]

I don't know if it'll help but when I was starting out I had a supermarket job evenings and weekends plus I did a few cleaning jobs in the area during the day (about £7.50 and hour). As I got a few children to mind I could move/cancel some of the cleaning plus you'd still be self-employed too ;)

Good luck with the juggling, hope it all works out well for you :thumbsup:

[The Juggler]

believe it or not, i deliver the DHC, NVQ, childminding workshops, EYFS etc and from next year i will be delivering the EYSEFD from my local Uni. i do work from my own home and i can't grumble about carrying on the childcare business from here because i will be taking a good salary from it ;) I do expect it to be left in pristine condition every afternoon (as i do now)

blimey! busy woman. what are you doing at uni - degree or post -grad? you are a very brave woman allowing 2 other minders and a hoard of kids to mind in your home whilst you are not there - you must have a really good relationship with your co-workers :laughing:

[caz3007]

blimey! busy woman. what are you doing at uni - degree or post -grad? you are a very brave woman allowing 2 other minders and a hoard of kids to mind in your home whilst you are not there - you must have a really good relationship with your co-workers :laughing:

and a huge house :laughing:

[marleymoo]

I don't know if it'll help but when I was starting out I had a supermarket job evenings and weekends plus I did a few cleaning jobs in the area during the day (about £7.50 and hour). As I got a few children to mind I could move/cancel some of the cleaning plus you'd still be self-employed too ;)

Good luck with the juggling, hope it all works out well for you :thumbsup:

there, it can be done but i can see how this wouldn't do if you were wanting to spend more time with family as you'd be going out as they were coming in (from school, work) so for a short while at least, you might just have to go where the money is for now, as much as it might pain you. i'm sure it will only be very temporary. how about thinking about something else you could do from home? have you thought about catering for parties or office sandwiches, kids party organising (you know, like face painting, temp tattoos, girly makeovers, or even doing those home party things like Virgin Vie etc). as i was crossing over from my old job to childminding i still did interviews and witness statements etc for my old law firm and i would still go back to do this now if times got tight.
i like working for myself and if i'm honest part of me is dreading taking a full time teaching job and going back to that type of work environment (lots of women badmouthing, targets to meet, eugh). i much prefer being home.
and answering another question, i only have time to spend on this forum because i have free time till i go back to uni next tuesday so after then i will be a hermit with not a minute to spare!

[marleymoo]

blimey! busy woman. what are you doing at uni - degree or post -grad? you are a very brave woman allowing 2 other minders and a hoard of kids to mind in your home whilst you are not there - you must have a really good relationship with your co-workers :laughing:

ha! one is my dear sister and the other is a lady i met whilst teaching, she was a learner in my DHC class. she is the total opposite to me and a generation older and doesn't do things AT ALL how i like to do things (very old school) but opposites attract don't they? i thought she'd bring something different to my setting and she does - she's our mother hen. we love her to pieces and so do the kids.
as for the kids, i know i grumble and you'd think i hated them wouldn't you but they are the nicest, most well behaved, helpful little souls you could ever want to meet and i have wonderful parents too. One is my cleaning and ironing lady and another is a local new childminder that i'm mentoring. all of the others have been with me almost from the beginning - they just keep having more and more babies which keeps my business ticking over very nicely thank you. and then of course i get all their neices and nephews and friends' kids etc. so my parents know what behaviour i expect from them and their kids and we are all very flexible with each other.
i don't think my house is big, it's quite average in itself but i do have a lot of outbuilding space and rather large garden.
as for what i'm studying, i'm kinda doing this backwards (type of person i am lol). I did my PGCE/Cert Ed BEFORE i did my degree (see, i told you i do things backwards), then i did my Early Yrs Found Deg and now i'm topping up my Cert Ed with the BA Hons in Education Studies. I am not going down the EYPS route. hope this answers all your questions and i haven't forgotten anything anyone has asked :o

[smurfette]

Just curious marleymoo at what point you expanded your business and what made you decide to do it? I am only minding a few months but have had lots of enquiries lately there seems to be plenty of work here at the moment. My issue is I have to drive my kids to school and back and therefore I am limited to fitting kids in the car ( I do have a 7 seater) and dragging them out at nap time. Before i did this I had my own business and I suppose I see a business opportunity in employing an assistant for a few hours a day! I would be concerned though that my current parents wouldnt be pleased as it's not what they signed up for .. Does it become more like a Creche even though it's in a home? Would love to hear the pluses and minuses!

[marleymoo]

Just curious marleymoo at what point you expanded your business and what made you decide to do it? I am only minding a few months but have had lots of enquiries lately there seems to be plenty of work here at the moment. My issue is I have to drive my kids to school and back and therefore I am limited to fitting kids in the car ( I do have a 7 seater) and dragging them out at nap time. Before i did this I had my own business and I suppose I see a business opportunity in employing an assistant for a few hours a day! I would be concerned though that my current parents wouldnt be pleased as it's not what they signed up for .. Does it become more like a Creche even though it's in a home? Would love to hear the pluses and minuses!

i did this a year after i started CM so it was in 2005. i had worked as a legal exec in a law firm for 15 yrs and my sister had been there for 17 yrs as the office manager. my son had an accident at school and as i rushed to get to him i got snarled up in traffic on the motorway. i got panicky, thinking, god, if he had an asthma attack at school i would never get to him on time. due to the nature of my job, i could be at any court anywhere between York and Newcastle on any given day. at that time, my law firm was streamlining and i asked if i could be made redundant to become a CM to be home for my son. after the partners had a good laugh at me becoming a CM they realised i was deadly serious but my job has always been there for me if it all went terribly wrong. a year after i started CM i was caring for my baby neice but my sister (law firm office manager) just couldn't bear to be away from her any longer so i asked her to come work with me. she did her ICP and first aid etc whilst working at the law firm and until i got business for her and then she too left to come work with me full time. a couple of years later i began my journey into teaching. the NCMA supported me brilliantly. when i started my PGCE (lifelong learning sector not children) i took on my other co-worker who is a registered childminder from her own home too though she only works from home part time. it's definitely a childminding setting not a creche. we all work from my home but my part time co-worker usually only comes when i am at uni or studying from home, when we're going on outings, to enable me to work one to one with a particular child or to cover when one of us isn't feel too well. she also covers our holidays. i don't have to have all the mindees out on school runs as there can always be someone back home to have them. parents love our arrangement. i can't think of any negatives at all

[gegele]

i was caring eevening and week end when i first started minding not ideal but essential for the survival of my family.

i reduce the days i worked when minding picked up. first mindee before and after school was gone by 4, other by 5.30. i was leaving for work around 5.45-6.00

then i did week end caring, then alternate and now just minding.

just have to remember at the time that it's not for ever.

just don't put any time and see with enquieries as they come if they're worth the swap of job