Help please!!

[kaz26]

Hi wondering if you can all help me i had a mum come to see me today she wants me to take her 3 yr old to pre-school one day a week but not pick up do i charge for the full day or what does anyone recommend i charge this is my first one and i want to get it right dont want to overcharge but also dont want to undercut myself? :panic: x

[Milli147]

Hiya,

I have been doing this - but I have the younger sibling all day too, not sure if I would have taken it on on it's own...but anyway, I think that if I am not collecting, and also not 'on call' should the child be ill then I don't charge. You do need to consider whether it is likely to prevent you from using that place for another full time child. This is why a lot of childminders wouldn't want this. My under 5 spaces were full from 9am so it made no difference to me, but do think it through!

[kaz26]

i am having his younger sibling 3 mornings a week aswell but he is going to use my space up for a full day so didnt know if i should charge until lunch?

[jane5]

I have a lo 3 mornings a week and 1 of those mornings mum drops her a mine at 7.15am and I drop her at nursery at 7.30am. I am paid for the full morning even though the nursery is open all year not just term time and if she was ill I would not collect her as I do not take sick children, so if too ill for nursery then also to ill for me. Mum expected that she would have to pay so it wasn't an issue.

[Milli147]

I would say it's up to you! Are you expected to have the child in the holidays?

I could not take any more children from 9am onwards as I am full. It was no problem to have an extra one from 7-8. Because of this I couldn't do holiday cover, or anything else so I did not feel I could charge for time when I couldn't have ever had the child.

Perhaps you could set your fees as a 'morning' and/or 'afternoon' fee, rather than by the hour? Then the charge for the morning would be £x whether they used you for one hour, or four.