Childminder taking the mick

[stinkyspanner]

I know, i know i should put this on mumsnet but does anyone else feel like their childminder takes advantage with their charges? We have 2 kids in childcare, the older one has wraparound care 3 days a week, and the little one goes 3.5 days full time and our bill for the upcoming month is £1600 which is a bit of a choker but there it is. Maybe we were spoilt with our original childminder who was very fair, flexible if we were in a pickle (the wife and I both work quite far from where we live so sometimes got a bit stuck in traffic or whatever) but it worked both ways in that i would quite often just keep the girls at home with me if i wasn't working - obviously we still paid for those days no problem. My wife is a teacher so we only need term time, we didnt pay for childcare during the holidays as our childminder easily filled the spaces with children whos parents did work during the school holidays.
Anyway she moved, we got a new lady who is fine, kids like her and all that but bejesus does she run a tight ship. We now have to pay 50% fees during the holidays (even though she fills the spaces with other kids) its dressed up as a 'retainer' or some bollicks, the one time we asked if she could look after the girls for a day during the holidays? 'No, sorry'. Bank holidays: full charge. Her going on hoilday at random times: 50% charge. Our girls off, full charge (fair enough). If she's off sick: no charge but get this-if its Covid related its miraculously 50% charge, her child had covid so she was off to look after her: 50% charge. Then she got it, another week off: 50% charge, and seemingly no recognition that the financial cost to us is crippling - we don't get paid if we don't work but we're still obliged to prop her business up.
There just seems to be no give, but lots of take - we nearly always drop off later and pick up earlier than the hours we pay for, but if it even looks like we might be a few minutes late she's sending 'friendly' texts.
The problem is she's pretty much got us by the short and curlies, she's got a waiting list, we cant find anyone else so it very much feels like we're stuck with it. Anyway that's it, don't know why i'm posting this really, its incredibly boring to most people i just hoped putting it in writing might be therapeutic or something :-)

[Tyre Smoke]

Your wife is a teacher, yet doesn't get paid if she is off sick? Really?

Nothing constructive to add, but I agree, your childminder is having you for mugs. Because she can.

Surely you could employ someone directly for less?

[stinkyspanner]

The wife gets 2 days care of dependents pay per year..

[Spare tyre]

She only gets away with it because she can

Vote with your feet, if you can find someone better

[21TonyK]

Live-in nanny?

[steveo3002]

sounds like you could have a nanny for similar money , call it nanny housekeeper and get the hoovering and washing done too

[TEKNOPUG]

Standard nursery fees are ~£60 per day.

6.5 days a week = £390

4.3 weeks in a month = £1677

Don't turn up - you pay
Back holidays - you pay
Covid - you pay
Any closures whatsoever - you pay

Therefore what she is charging sounds entirely normal. Is she a registered child minder? If so, you get tax free (20% deduction) childcare payments via HMRC for under 3s. Over 3s get 30hours free childcare a week.

[Bobupndown]

I feel for you.
Our boys, now well grown up, were fortunately a few years apart so we only had one in childcare at a time. It was still another mortgage every month though. It is crippling but only for a few years thankfully.

[_Mja_]

Sadly it is a pretty common state of affairs. I've spent £96,000 on child care on my two kids who are now 6 & 8. You know it will be pricey before you have kids but it is a shock to the system paying those bills out.

Post covid has made an considerable saving for me but I still have a childminder who is quite fair - short notice care, extended half and hour etc. I do have to pay the retainer etc but then she's the only child minder serving my village so I just have to suck it up.

[BoRED S2upid]

Why a childminder and not nursery / pre school?

I doubt very much that teachers don’t get sick pay.

[stinkyspanner]

TEKNOPUG said:

Standard nursery fees are ~£60 per day.

6.5 days a week = £390

4.3 weeks in a month = £1677

Don't turn up - you pay
Back holidays - you pay
Covid - you pay
Any closures whatsoever - you pay

Therefore what she is charging sounds entirely normal. Is she a registered child minder? If so, you get tax free (20% deduction) childcare payments via HMRC for under 3s. Over 3s get 30hours free childcare a week.

Yes she's registered, we get the 20% thing but it's per child not combined so the youngest one goes over the payment threshold, and the older one doesn't use the full allowance.
30 free hours would be useful, we want her to go to preschool with wraparound childminder care. Obviously the childminder still charges for the hours when the little one is at preschool so the free hours basically get swallowed up.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

you're paying £1600 a month, and your wife is a teacher. Assuming she's a resasonably experienced teacher, maybe UPS3 that's a take home of about £2200, maybe less because of pension.

So for the hassle, heartache, and expense of a childminder, you've gained £600. I'd say it's not worth it. I am sure you could persuade your wife to give up work and look after the kids. She might even be able to do a bit of exam marking or other casual work to close the gap to less than £600.

priorities I guess.

[TEKNOPUG]

stinkyspanner said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Standard nursery fees are ~£60 per day.

6.5 days a week = £390

4.3 weeks in a month = £1677

Don't turn up - you pay
Back holidays - you pay
Covid - you pay
Any closures whatsoever - you pay

Therefore what she is charging sounds entirely normal. Is she a registered child minder? If so, you get tax free (20% deduction) childcare payments via HMRC for under 3s. Over 3s get 30hours free childcare a week.

Yes she's registered, we get the 20% thing but it's per child not combined so the youngest one goes over the payment threshold, and the older one doesn't use the full allowance.
30 free hours would be useful, we want her to go to preschool with wraparound childminder care. Obviously the childminder still charges for the hours when the little one is at preschool so the free hours basically get swallowed up.

That's how much it costs then. It is expensive but then how much would you want to look after someone else's child all day? I'd want a lot more than £60! That's not even minimum wage.

[HTP99]

21TonyK said:

Live-in nanny?

You don't need a live in nanny, my wife is a nanny she takes home a similar amount (perhaps a tad more) for 4 days a week, approx 10 hour days looking after and ferrying about 3 kids ranging from 18m to 5 or 6, she doesn't work for this family in the school holidays as the mum is a head teacher, but she does do holiday work for her previous nanny family.

Problem you will have is, if you employ a nanny you will have to pay tax and NI and obviously expenses and also offer paid holiday.

[Spare tyre]

TEKNOPUG said:

stinkyspanner said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Standard nursery fees are ~£60 per day.

6.5 days a week = £390

4.3 weeks in a month = £1677

Don't turn up - you pay
Back holidays - you pay
Covid - you pay
Any closures whatsoever - you pay

Therefore what she is charging sounds entirely normal. Is she a registered child minder? If so, you get tax free (20% deduction) childcare payments via HMRC for under 3s. Over 3s get 30hours free childcare a week.

Yes she's registered, we get the 20% thing but it's per child not combined so the youngest one goes over the payment threshold, and the older one doesn't use the full allowance.
30 free hours would be useful, we want her to go to preschool with wraparound childminder care. Obviously the childminder still charges for the hours when the little one is at preschool so the free hours basically get swallowed up.

That's how much it costs then. It is expensive but then how much would you want to look after someone else's child all day? I'd want a lot more than £60! That's not even minimum wage.

I’m guessing it is 60 per kid, so as long as you look after more than one it’s more than min wage

[Countdown]

Thank the Lord for grandparents!

[Blackpuddin]

Anyone remember au pairs?

[LankyFreak]

Blackpuddin said:

Anyone remember au pairs?

[okgo]

Blackpuddin said:

Anyone remember au pairs?

Yeh but who wants someone living in their house.

Nursery for me is 95 per day (60 sounds like it's a far away land from the south tbh, but then he's assumed everyone gets the 20% thing and 30 hours, which they do not, so perhaps that there north ), I'm sure it's considerably more than an au-pair or getting towards a nanny but I wouldn't fancy someone here all the time.

Childcare in this country is a bit mad and society and the 'system' doesn't seem to have caught up with the fact women can and do have careers now - I mean, wtf do people do in school holidays if they both have full time jobs!

Edited by okgo on Wednesday 23 February 10:15

[Spare tyre]

Countdown said:

Thank the Lord for grandparents!

We have a 3 year old
Mon Tuesday in nursery
Weds swap between two pairs of grandparents

But cheaper now she’s 3, but costs are bonkers

If only there was a pool of people sat at home doing nothing who you could use for some form of child care, rather than paying them to do nothing….. whether you’d want them looking after your kids is a different matter of course


Very expensive, but the social side (especially during covid) has been worth it for the kid, other outlets were limited for interaction


If we’d got our act together we should have formed a child care bubble with other nct parents, but I guess it all falls apart when other parents are ill, want to go on holiday,get bored of it etc