Childminder's holiday

Hello everyone :clapping:

I'm a childminder who works with an assistant and I realised that I always struggle with money every time I take time off (we are closed for 5 weeks every year). I am just not able to save enough money to pay for my holiday, my assistant's holiday, rent and bills when I'm without income. I know many childminders don't charge for holiday, but would you in my situation charge at least half fee when you are off?

I'm also a bit worried how parents will take it. How did you tell them about it?

:blush:

Families might have to pay for alternative childcare so I wouldn't charge for my holidays but I know that some CM do. An alternative would be to spread families charges over 12 months which take into account your holiday. That way you would get paid the same every month.

I have a parents evening with my parents at the beginning if the year and we agree on 15days holiday where we are all off at the same time, so in essence I get paid, and they don't have extra childcare costs.

It's usually the same weeks every year, 7days over Xmas, 5days in July and 5 days spread out to make long weekends. It works for me! As I don't have a partners wage to rely on to help pay the bills, it's the only way I can afford to have a break! X

Thank you for your reply.

We give parents holiday dates every September for following year so they know in advance when we'll be closed. Most of them take holiday at the same time. However I understand that some parents are not happy to pay for childminder's holiday :panic:

I think parents wouldn't like to think they are paying you when you are on holiday as you are self employed however if you put your hourly rates up by 25p an hour which x 3 children would be 75p an hour x 40 hours (or whatever you work) is an extra £30 a week x 47 weeks a year is £1400 - quite a lot towards your loss of earnings for the 5 weeks holiday you take off - obviously similar figures for your assistant and less likely to put the parents backs up.

You just need to make sure you save that extra income in a separate account so it doesn't get swallowed up :)

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Originally Posted by tulikraska

Thank you for your reply. We give parents holiday dates every September for following year so they know in advance when we'll be closed. Most of them take holiday at the same time. However I understand that some parents are not happy to pay for childminder's holiday :panic:

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It's this turn of phrase that frustrates me "not wanting to pay for childminders holiday" yet their holidays are payed!

I would suggest syncing your holidays together, give parents a couple of options, if they don't want to pay you whilst your all on holiday at the same time, you can charge extra per hour or charge a 50%.

Don't see it as them paying you whilst your on holiday, just see it s you all going on holiday at the same time x

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Originally Posted by hectors house

I think parents wouldn't like to think they are paying you when you are on holiday as you are self employed however if you put your hourly rates up by 25p an hour which x 3 children would be 75p an hour x 40 hours (or whatever you work) is an extra £30 a week x 47 weeks a year is £1400 - quite a lot towards your loss of earnings for the 5 weeks holiday you take off - obviously similar figures for your assistant and less likely to put the parents backs up. You just need to make sure you save that extra income in a separate account so it doesn't get swallowed up :)

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Thank uou for this idea think I will implement this for all new parents have a few moving on shortly xx

to spread out the low/no fee involved in holidays - I decided to do this.....

each family have a pro-rata number of days (according to how many days/hours their child comes to us for) and they are allowed to take that number of holiday's off at half fee....anything on top of that is full fee.

we have 21 days (based on what a full time child would get) and we can take up to that number also at half fee - and if we have to take any more than that (which is rare and haven't done before) then we do not charge.

All parents that we already on contract agreed to this and all new parents have signed up no problem.

Hi all, just a quick question as I would like to get a bit more from your experience as I'm new at this :)

When signing new contracts I have told parents that I would prefer to have my holidays altogether during summer holidays as my sons are also home, and that they would pay half fees as to keep the place as I really need to know if I'll have children to care when I come back or not as well need to know if I can offer any places to parents looking for childcare. And they all agree!!!

But now that the time is approaching they don't want to pay as before everything was ok and they could have their holidays at the same time or having some family member caring for their children, now they all suddenly need someone to cover during that time.

I completely understand that parents think that they are paying for my holidays but that's not the case as I don't even take any paid training days to avoid affecting parents' works.

What do you do at your settings? I understand that if they signed a contract and accepted that they should pay but I don't want to be unfair but also think that they are being unfair to me as this has been agreed and also will make me struggle during that time.

I definitely cannot be another year without a break, not good for me and definitely not good for the children that I'll have to care for!

Thanks in advance!

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Originally Posted by AdeleMarie88

It's this turn of phrase that frustrates me "not wanting to pay for childminders holiday" yet their holidays are payed!

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Unless the parents are also self-employed.

If I've counted my beans right, every CM could increase their fees by about 7-10% and then not charge to take 4 weeks' holiday, and my gut instinct is parents would only moan about that increase for a week or 2 instead of the constant moans about paying for holidays closures.

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Originally Posted by bunyip

Unless the parents are also self-employed.

If I've counted my beans right, every CM could increase their fees by about 7-10% and then not charge to take 4 weeks' holiday, and my gut instinct is parents would only moan about that increase for a week or 2 instead of the constant moans about paying for holidays closures.

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I increased my fees by 15% to cover half fees for holidays ... not one parent commented!