I'm a new Childminder and would really like some advice as I'm getting myself in a pickle and hope you guys can help. At the moment I have a 10 month old I care for whose Mum works on a five week shift rota which means she can need any of the days of the week for care.
I currently have three sets of parents interested in me looking after their LOs - two are shift workers who have irregular days during the week they need.
The first parents have a one year old they need care for on an 8 week rota meaning that they may won't need me for 2 weeks of the 8 and then varying days for the other 6 - what would you charge for this as I would have to hold the space open for all 8 weeks? If I take them on I may be loosing a good deal of money...
The second parents work on a four day on four day off rota which means they would need me to work various days of the week including weekends so I would have to hold the place open all week because I wouldn't know until the week before when they needed me - should I ask them to pay a certain amount to cover all the days? They also don't need me until August but have said they are happy to pay an amount to cover the months until that day - do you have any advice on what I should charge them? Their little ones would be 1 and 5 by August.
The third parents need their little ones to start in September but the hours would be a much more regular 4 days a week from 8-3.30 for their two year old and before and after school for their 4.5 year old.
I am really stressed as I want to help all of them but can't offer care for all as this would take me outside my ratios....
Also if I work with shift workers would I be able to get a variation to allow the fact that sometimes the days the parents need would overlap?
Any help would be very,very gratefully received!
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