Getting really confused with this please help

[1michelle]

Hello

I have got my self into a bit of a state have been childminding for two years all flowing well now I have a mum who is expecting and Im at a loss of what to do can any one help.

My mindiees Mum is expecting her second baby in April she has approached me about the childcare of her child i care for at the moment.

I currantly have mindee full time 8 - 5.30 five days a week once mum has had the baby she would like to reduce mindees hours mindee starts pre school in may and they are hoping to get the morning slot and send mindee to me 2 or 3 afternoons so I guess from 12 - 5.30 while mum is on mertanity leave she has already said mindee will be coming back fulltime when she returns to work around September time my question is do I still charge her the full time slot whilst she is on mertanity as i have to keep the space open for mindee and will not beable to fill it.

confused.com

[The Juggler]

i had the exact same problem recently. what you need to decide is whether or not you can afford to offer to drop her days/hours without needing to fill the place.

My mum wanted to drop from 4 days to 2 days during her mat leave. I explained that was fine but if she did so I would need to fill those other 2 days and there was no guarantee I'd have space when she went back to work.

I told her if she could manage 3 days then I could keep all 4 days open and would then be able to have mindee and baby when she goes back.

Perhaps if she is keeping all 5 days then maybe you could set a min. number of hours per day that will work financially for you?