Paying to hold a place

[AdeleMarie88]

Hey all- I need a bit of advice, I have a fantastic parent who has recently told me she is pregnant (I did have my suspicions) and is off on maternity leave from the second of October. Her first child, who I currently have 4 days a week turns three soon, and is going to nursery for my 4 days (only to do his 15free hours every morning). He would be at nursery 9-11.30, grandma would pick up and have him at home for the rest of day. This was arranged pre-second baby being conceived. Now with moms maternity leave she is panicking about the logistics of nursery, and doesn't want to spend all her time with mother in law, so she wants to swap so he can have two full days at nursery, and three days at home with her and new baby. But in case it gets too much she wants to make sure I still have a space for three ry old, so she intends to keep paying me for his four days (I would only have him 11.45-6.15 mon-thurs, but she would pay me from 8.15-6.15)
Now at first I thought great, nothing has to change, I don't have to think about taking on new children, new parents blah blah. But now I am wandering about cons, what happens about me planning my days, it's not really convenient for me to know who is coming and when, also what if a 5day child enquired? I'm not really looking to increase my income, I'm happy how it is, but I'm just wandering is this as good as it sounds...what would you guys do? Thanks in advance! X

[AdeleMarie88]

Should point out three yr old doesn't start nursery until sept!

[line6]

I have a sibling pair who don't always do their contracted hours and the days/ hours vary depending on mums uni days/placement days etc. I get paid my contracted hours no matter what and she lets me know at least a couple of weeks in advance what she needs me to do. Obviously I need to be available if she changes her mind with short notice as I'm contracted but it has been a great arrangement for me as I quite like the flexibility and enjoy my extra days/hours paid leave! It depends how you work I guess. I only have these 2 children (1 of which is at school) and a baby one day a week so it's meant I get a lot of extra time off! In return I sometimes do the odd extra half hour without invoicing but it's very rare. Fantastic working relationship has developed. What I'm trying to say is you have to figure out how you work, how you want to work and if you can cope as long as there is some level of reasonable notice. Make it work for you if you want to try it.