Parent wanting to spread hours over more days

**Leela** · 16-08-2013, 11:05 PM

One of my parents requested an extension to her hours. I said yes and them no. The parent asked my assistant if she could look after her child on Fridays 3.00-5.30 (day we don't work) as her mother is finding it difficult to cover. Assistant said no. Parent asked me if she could swop her Thursday to Tuesday. I said yes ok. Then she said could she have the Thursday as well. I said yes. Then she showed me the hours it would be Tuesday 11.00-5.30. Wed 8.00-5.30 and Thursday 12.00-5.30 but it would be 3 out of 4 Thursdays in the month. It would only be one extra hour a month from what doing now but spread over the 3 days instead of 2. When I realised the hours were all over the place I said no, but felt stupid for saying yes in the first place without asking about the hours. I said can we stick to present arrangement as this is too complicated. I think she is a bit annoyed but I feel she should have been more open about the hours in the first place. Also I need to give myself thinking time and not agree straight off to requests. The thing is there is no vital reason behind her request for the hours other than her mum not wanting to have child all day on Friday so parent wanted to change work days and accommodate her mum on Thursday mornings instead. My husband asked what was the big deal, why did I say no? What would any one else have done?

**linzi133** · 17-08-2013, 05:46 AM

If the child is a EY child then I have a minimum hour policy for each day so in that situation with my it would prob end up coating the parent more..... Having said that if it fitted in with me then I just charge for the hours attending.

**Rick** · 17-08-2013, 06:01 AM

I hate it when things like this happens. I have one parent who tries to swap days when she can't do a contracted day. There was one day in particular when I said yes without thinking. She couldn't do a contracted day so asked to swap. I have a mindee who's Friday isn't on the contract so I can say no to her if I want. Well I agreed to swap the original parent's contracted day to this one and said no to the other one. I then thought, hang on, I could have said no to swapping and still got paid, plus I'm losing the ad hoc money so it actually cost me money to swap in the end. Needless to say the next time she asked to swap I said no but she still sent them for the morning before a family party rather than spend time with the sisters.

**Leela** · 17-08-2013, 06:58 AM

No it wasn't an ey child and then I realised the odd hours would be blocking ad hoc requests of which there are quite a few.

**Koala** · 17-08-2013, 08:43 AM

I used to have a sneaky parent who would ask if I could do an extra day, Just to make sure I had it available and then ask to swap because she didn't need her booked day. I soon got wise to it.

I know it isn't a big deal but I objected to the way she did it, I felt it was a little under hand, she would do it if her child was sick, bank holidays etc...
If she had been up front about it instead of trying to play me I wouldn't have been so offended and would be more inclined to help. People like that generally shoot themselves in the foot eventually!

I would be offended too if she had approached my assistant to provide care - cheaky mare.

I can see your frustration at how she has tried to manipulate you, I would be cross too.

Look at it pragmatically though - Do you want to do it? Can you do it? Is it financially viable?
You could say No - worse case cenario she goes elsewhere
You could say yes - she's happy, you are p'eed off, you still get paid, is it worth it?

Or maybe say yes FOR NOW, but I would seriously look at your fee structure - you are governed by places not hours - and look at fees you need to charge for a 3 day week and charge accordingly.
Getting paid the equivalent for two days when you are holding three days for this family is a lot of money to loose every month. Maybe ask for a higher rate - I would be charging 3 full days care every week as I don't do partial days for exactly this reason, I may look at discounting 50% for the Thursday she didn't need but it would have to be paid for, no freebies.

Whatever you do, do what is right for you, everyone else does.

Take care

**hectors house** · 17-08-2013, 09:41 AM

I had a child due to start last October, 2 whole days a week as that was all I had available - then another day became free and I put it on newsletter to see if anyone wanted extra day - the new mum then decided she wanted to work 3 shorter days instead, at that time I had an unofficial (not written down anywhere) 6 hours minimum contract - I said yes she could do over 3 days but quickly changed my unofficial minimum contract to 7 hours! Otherwise she would have been taking up a whole extra day and not paying anything extra - as it is I am still a couple of hours a day short but don't mind that too much.

I am thinking of doing funded spaces does anyone know if I can insist on a minimum hours contract for that - I think you can use 3 sessions in one day ie: 3 x 2.5 hours = 7.5 hours as I'm not going to accept children for just 2.5 hours a day and hope I can fill the rest of day?

**samb** · 17-08-2013, 11:06 AM

Hector's house: yes you can set your own terms for funded sessions as long as they also fit with the LA rules. Mine you have to do minimum of 2.5 and max of 10 hr sessions but you can stipulate say 5 hour sessions etc.

I had this happen too OP with parent wanting to decrease hours per day but add extra days. She wanted me to go from 8:30-5:30 mon-wed for 2 EY children, 1 of them I would take to a ore school session within this and I didn't charge for that time. She wanted to change to mon-fri 9:30-4:30 for 1 and the other 12:15-4:30 mon-fri but guarantee the full days in the holidays too with no retainer. I didn't have space on the thurs wasn't prepared to give my fri off up either but agreed to the shorter hours on the days I had them with no guarantee of space in hols. She managed to find care for thurs and fri and then wanted to reduce hours more so I suggested she ask her other lady to take over for more continuity for the children. She did and within 2 weeks of them leaving I had a new child start which covered 1 of the child's hours and another child up their hours and 4 weeks after that I had 2 school siblings start twice a week the following week a return to work from maternity leave mum asked if i could take baby from sept and so I am now full mon-thurs from sept which is even better than when they were with me.

I have learnt if things don't fit then offer what you can do and if they still want to change and it doesn't work then it's better to let them go. Although i do also realise I was very lucky and had other ideas in the pipeline before they left too I perhaps wouldn't have been so brave if I wasn't aware of anything else coming up.

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 17-08-2013, 12:12 PM

If it isn't an EY child then they will be at school?

If they are then I would charge for the whole day for the 11.30 start.

Next time instead of saying yes or no ask for the hours needed and say you will let her know the next day as you need to check your schedule to see who is booked in.

Mum could easily look for another childminder to cover the friday and then move altogether but instead she is trying to work around you and keep her child with you. There must be a reason for her needing to change hours.

Use this as a learning curve.

**Leela** · 17-08-2013, 09:49 PM

Definitely a learning curve for me and from now on no immediate response to any request. I think I was upset because of the drip feed way the requests were made first wanting to change Thursday to Tuesday, then wanting the Thursday, then informing me of the times and then that it was going to be 3 Thursdays in 4. I only realised the hours would be cut when she said it was only an extra hour. She's a difficult parent and I didn't fancy having to deal with her 3 days in the week 2 is hard enough. I just have to be absolutely professional and consult my Rotas and calendar more strictly. Thanks to everyone relieved it's not just me it's happened to. Xx

**karen m** · 18-08-2013, 09:42 PM

In a dilemma parent of TT only contacted me today saying only A& E was returning as she had got D into nursery she works in not a problem we had discussed this at end of term. After I agreed yes still had place start date new hours , I get email of cm friend saying parent had contacted her about care as she can't afford my fees ( £4 a hour ) my fees have not gone up had her 3 children from September last year, now do I let parent no she has asked other minder who said no anyway have had other enquiries I turned down as these children were coming back or just let them come and hope parent stays and doesn't just go when she finds someone else

**dawnn93** · 18-08-2013, 10:35 PM

Personally I would have done the same patent should have more upfront with the hours in the first place xx

**Leela** · 19-08-2013, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by karen m

In a dilemma parent of TT only contacted me today saying only A& E was returning as she had got D into nursery she works in not a problem we had discussed this at end of term. After I agreed yes still had place start date new hours , I get email of cm friend saying parent had contacted her about care as she can't afford my fees ( £4 a hour ) my fees have not gone up had her 3 children from September last year, now do I let parent no she has asked other minder who said no anyway have had other enquiries I turned down as these children were coming back or just let them come and hope parent stays and doesn't just go when she finds someone else

I would not let her know about conversation with other cm. I found out that a parent of mine had looked for childminders closer to her home, I knew the journey was killing her, I didn't say that I knew just acknowledged that the journey was hard and that she must do what was best for herself and her child. She was grateful that I was aware of her difficulties but then her dad stepped in and brought her a car. If I had said something about her looking for other Cms it might have been difficult with a bit of tension. As it is it has worked out very well and it's a very happy relationship all round. Good luck.

**BlondeMoment** · 19-08-2013, 12:59 PM

I was collecting a little girl from school on an ad hoc basis. I never minded collecting her as I was down the school anyway, but I never have any work on a Friday. Not for want of trying - just turns out that way. When I was asked to start collecting her on a Friday I stupidly said yes without thinking it through.
The little girl would be collected often within an hour of me picking her up so it turns out I was giving up my whole Friday for one hour of work which wasn't even really worth the petrol money. After that I bought in the 3 hour minimum charge.
It's hard isn't it. I've learned so much by my own mistakes lol