Advice re: childminding fees/family :)

[heldraincloud]

Hi all,

Im in the process of becoming a registered CM and I need your advice/opinion please....

I'll start from the beginning, I previously worked and shared childcare with my sil She looked after my 2 children (age 4 & 10) three mornings a week and dropped them at school, I looked after her three children 2 days a week, dropping her 5yr old off at school and looking after her 2 year old and 10 month old during the day, which worked pretty well, But I found that I wanted something different, thus deciding to become a CM and giving up my PT job

Heres where I need your advice....Ive mentioned to sil about what Im doing ( I dont look after kiddies at the mo as bil isnt working) and if she needed me to have kiddies I would be happy to.....Weve not discussed money, I do find discussing money between family a little difficult and dont want to upset anyone, but as you can see from the ages of the children, they are very popular spaces........how would you work the money if you were in the situation?? would you charge a % of cost? or a set price

Thanks in advance, I look forward to your ideas ;) ;) ;)

xxxx

[angeldelight]

Hello

Welcome to the forum on this cold lovely snowy day

This is difficult like you say it is hard talking about money with family

What would you do if you was not doing childminding and you were going to work somewhere else full time ?
You would have to give up helping her so she would have to sort something else out for her children then wouldn't she ?

Maybe you could continue with the arrangements that you have until you start to fill your childcare places
You would have to tell your sil that if you fill your places then you would not be able to care for her children at least she would know then in advance

If you want to continue looking after them then -
Does she receive family tax credits or could she receive any help towards childcare costs if so could she not pay you with that ?

This is difficult I think and I am not sure if you would charge her the same or not

I think Pauline might have some answers so check later

I think I will wait and see what she says before I suggest anything else

I will pop back on later

Angel xx

[Pauline]

Hello and welcome

It's a tricky one isn't it?

In the past you paid each other in kind - each looking after the others children, which was fair enough. But now you will be looking after her children and if you don't charge you will get nothing in return.

While on the one hand you want to be kind and helpful, because she is a relative, you also have to consider that childminding will be your job and you need to receive income from it. As Angel says, without you she would have to pay someone else anyway so surely she would prefer to stay with you.

I'm not too up on tax credits but I wonder if she wouldn't have received them in the past if she was not using registered care? If that is the case then she would be able to claim once you were registered, and then use that to help towards paying you.

Perhaps you could consider giving her a bit of a discount as you know that she will be reliable and consistent and that is worth a lot in childminding! Plus you know the children.

Say for instance you were going to charge £3 per hour you could maybe charge her £2.75 and include meals for free, that way you would feel less guilty and she would feel like she was getting something out of it for being a relative.

Hope that helps!

I'll be interested to know what everyone else thinks.

[stacie1985]

Hello just wanted sum advice really basically my sister wants me to start minding her little girl who is 2 so i worked out price for her 18 hours a week and i based it on the min for this area 3.25 an hour and come to around £250 a month so i told her and she said it seemed reasonable to her but wen she told her partner he wanted to look into other things like nursery which is completly fine but i cant help feeling a little annoyed as all the time i have bin training to do childminding she has never let on they mite choose another method of childcare but my partner is saying to me well just leave it and go on a bout trying to fill ur vacancies and if u full u full when they finally decided what they going to do but i feel very guilty as its my neice at the end of the day but i know we gotta start earning money so but im also worried my prices are a little high but ofsted told me best not to go under the price guidline bcoz people tend to go for the cheaper option rather than the best childcare which im afraid to say i think is my sisters bf's idea of finding childcare he also can get leapfrog vouchers to help with cost of nursery and i told him childminders can accept that kinda thing too but i think they really wanna send her to nursery now cant help feeling a bit disapointed as wud of had one child from when i was registered never works out the way i want lol thanks for reading my moan lol

[Pauline]

Glad you were able to have a moan Stacie, hope you feel better.

Have you tried finding out what your local nurseries charge and pitching your price just a little cheaper?

In your advertising promote childminding as an excellent option - children learning and playing together, rather than separate baby and toddler rooms. Also that children with childminders have a normal family life visiting shops and parks rather than being in one room all day.

Perhaps if you point that out to your sister it will make her think again.

[angela234]

I look after 2 grandchildren term time and 3 in the holidays i do hate charging for them but they take up most of my places i just charge them what they recieve in family tax credits. i know i lose out this way but they are my grandchildren and i get great pleasure in looking after them. Most of the time my other places are full which helps make my money up.
I think if you just charge a rate just a little lower than than your normal one if you can afford to. Hope this helps
Angela

[jules]

Hi, I have had several children come to me whose parents went to look at nurseries, but decided that a childminder would be so much better for their child as they would be brought up in a family home. They would have one person to look after them, (who is probably a mother herself) and not several different people depending on what days the child does at a nursery.

I think what Pauline suggesting (finding out what the nurseries charge) is a great idea. I think your sister might find your rates fairly competitive.

[tasha]

I looked after my brothers child when I got registered (I actually got registered at their request ) I charged as I would any other child. His wife got the hump with this as she felt I shouldn't charge at all, in the end I got fed up with the family politics and gave notice. The child in question went to a local nursery, which to begin with Mum was always saying how wonderful was and basically the care I gave was no where as good (was miffed as I think I am better)! Anyway, both nursery and I got inspected by OFSTED in March. Nursery got satisfactory and I got OUTSTANDING! Mum has since asked me to have child back, but I've declined which felt wonderful!!!!

Family situations can work well, but I think it's probably better that it's worked out as it has for both of us, as there are enough headaches without adding more!

Hope it helps to know that your not the only one !
Tasha