advice needed on difficult decision making!

[lucylou30]

Hi all. Please offer advice if you can, am not sure what to do......

In June I had no mindees so agreed to take 2 kids who have parents that work for fire brigade. The hours I agreed to were 6pm-9pm but only around 12 days per month (this month only 1 session) and this is sometimes weekends. At first it worked ok but now I have more children that have regular hours on consistent days and am finding myself completely shattered with working some days from 7.30am to 9pm.

I have my own family and it is a struggle to give my daughter my attention at bed time when the kids are still here and my husband is still at work.

Their contract is due for renewal this month, any ideas how I approach this? Part of me wants to say "no more, its too difficult" but the other part of me feels bad as I know no one else will have these kids the times I do and they are just pushed from pillar to post so their parents can work, sort of feel they need me to be their familier face.

My husband is now sick of hearing me mulling it over so need to make a decision I stick with. At the mo I don't charge them extra for anti social hours and sometimes only have them for 2 hours at a time which is not a great earner for me when weighing up the time and effort I make for those 2 hours.

Thanks in advance for your nuggets of wisdom

ooo, btw, got a GOOD on my first inspection last month!! yay!

[The Juggler]

oh hon, this is hard.

I would be honest. sit them down and say when you started you imagined working full days but as you had no children you thought you could manage nights and weekends but that now you are fuller and working early morning to late at night and weekends, your kids are missing out on their mum.

Maybe for 7pm-9pm and weekends they might be better off with a babysitter??

[lucylou30]

That's what I think but they only want someone who is ofsted registered so they can use their childcare vouchers. They have exhausted every other option in our village and I was their last hope of childcare at funny hours. I feel so bad for the kids when they fall asleep on my sofa with their coats and shoes on ready or when they are saying "when will daddy be here" knowing full well its probably not for another hour!

[nipper]

Hi, I have a little lad on my books whose mum is a Nurse, so I have him from 6.30am-8.50am (school drop off) and then again after school 3.15pm until 8pm.
My normal hourly charge is 3.50 and working hours 7.30-6pm, so I charge double time for the hours outside my normal ones. I can appreciate what it's like trying to get your own children ready for bed and your mindees go home an hour later than mine. Simetimes I have to sit mine infront of a DVD, whilst I put my 4yr old dd to bed, Difficult, as my son is same age and in same class as mindee so invariably always wants to stay up until he goes.

I think at the end of the day, you took these two little ones on when you where quiet and could spend time with them, but you now have to consider that you are busier during the day and are getting fuller so it might be time to sit down and consider the impact not only on you but also your family.
I'm assuming that you have a good working relationship with the parents? How old are the children?

I hope you manage to come up with a solution.

[The Juggler]

you've got to do what is right for you hon and your family :)

[Waveawand]

What about if you reviewed your charges ? If you were earning premium rate when they were with you would you still do it ? Or if it is that it is encroaching on your family time then you have to say that it is too much. They should get a babysitter, most are cms anyway earning extra cash. A tough one I know. But it has to be worth your while if your kids are missing out. They dont have to both work the same shift pattern surely? Cant they change their rota so that one of them can be available to pick up at a normal time. Their kids are suffering too , but thats their call not yours. Best of luck with it :)

[lucylou30]

Thanks everyone. The kids are 2 and 4 and the parents have a so called work life balance shift pattern which means they are always on opposite shifts so that one parent is usually at home but as one of them is quite senior they do a shift that finishes between 8 and 9 leaving a couple of hours without child care. Think I am going to put my price up after 6pm and say no more weekends.:huh:

[Wendybird]

I think that sounds like a reasonable compromise if you can live with it. I know they want to use vouchers, but (correct me if I am wrong) the vouchers only save the tax they would have paid on the money used to pay you. If they aren't using a lot of hours, it isn't saving them much money to use vouchers. If you increase your fees you may find that negates any savings they are making and they may also decide that a babysitter is best. ;)

[ajs]

I think that sounds like a reasonable compromise if you can live with it. I know they want to use vouchers, but (correct me if I am wrong) the vouchers only save the tax they would have paid on the money used to pay you. If they aren't using a lot of hours, it isn't saving them much money to use vouchers. If you increase your fees you may find that negates any savings they are making and they may also decide that a babysitter is best. ;)
Unless they are claiming the childcare element of wtc which means they would have to use an ofsted registered childminder or nanny