Holiday charges

[Katteriffic]

Hiya,

I have 2 children who come after school. Their mum works funny shifts so they come different days every month. I charge them a higher daily rate, as it is not a predictable shift pattern. Mum has just told me that they wont be here for the whole of the summer hols. Would you charge them something during the hols and what would it roughly be?

Am getting such a headache just trying to work it all out!

Thanks x

[DollsHouse]

Hi
I have always had the same problem as you. I have always had after school children term time only and I have never ended up charging in the holidays. I really feel that parents really begrudge it! In the end I do a very small retainer in July that keeps the child's space for September. I think it is really hard if they only come for a few hours. My friend tried to charge for the holidays and the mother made her have the children in the holidays to justify it. If they are full time it is far easier to come up with the holiday pay!

[itsybitsyteeny]

I completely agree - parents do begrudge paying when their child is on holiday. I charge half the hourly rate when a child is on holiday though I think a lot of childminders do charge full rate.

[bunyip]

Hiya,

I have 2 children who come after school. Their mum works funny shifts so they come different days every month. I charge them a higher daily rate, as it is not a predictable shift pattern. Mum has just told me that they wont be here for the whole of the summer hols. Would you charge them something during the hols and what would it roughly be?

Am getting such a headache just trying to work it all out!

Thanks x

Hi Katterriffic :waving:,

Do you have a contract?

What does it say about holidays and charges for non-attendance?

[Katteriffic]

Hi thanks,

Yes I do have a contract but because they don't do regular or predicable days it says variable days per month. For example I had them mon, thurs and fri this week, not at all next week and every day the week after. I finally settled on making a £100 charge for August to keep the space till Sept. Mum doesn't seem to mind that, as I had explained that if they had regular sessions I would have been charging more.