taster session with prospective mindee - good or bad?

[butterfly]

I've got a taster session with a prospective mindee on friday afternoon! i'm quite excited as this would be my second child. i know i should be pleased but this parent only wants one afternoon a week. i'm worried i won't be able to fill the morning so i'll miss out on half a day's money. i really need to work 8 hours a day to make childminding pay. i don't think ther's much chance of this parent increasing their hours either as she says she 'finds mornings really difficult' (imagine the whiny voice!) i really need to find my positive side!

[sarah707]

1 afternoon a week!?!

Not sure I'd do it tbh ... at the very least, you can charge for a full day!

No way will you fill the space ...

I think you need to think it out again (in the words of Lionel Bart's most famous villain!)

[Chimps Childminding]

To be honest unless you really have to, I wouldn't bother for one afternoon a week. It could stop you taking on someone else who wanted more hours and the chances of filling the morning are slim in my experience. Unless you can get the mum to pay for the whole day, explaining that it is difficult to fill the other half, but maybe say that if someone else did want the morning you would then only charge her for the afternoon.

Good luck with whatever you decide, I know how difficult it is to turn people away, but if you are not careful you end up with lots of bits which don't always work out. I do have part time children, but it is for one or two full days, not part days.

[butterfly]

you guys have said exactly what I was thinking! i'm rubbish at this sort of thing as i hate confrontation! what you're saying makes sense though. how should i put it to her? to be honest she's a little vague any way so it wouldn't be a huge loss. i really do need to fill full days and i'm already short on the one day i do have a child as they are booked in for 6 hours not 8 - ideally i want 10! When she first visited i said i had a minimum of 4 hours - do you think it's ok to go back on this now and say it's a min of a full day?

[miffy]

I think you are right to reconsider this - it's a lot of work settling in a child for one afternoon a week and then there's all the paperwork too.

It's best to be up front with the mum - good luck

miffy xx