After-school childminder

Glamazon

jimexbox wrote: »

She has one child, hence £4 per hour.

Its funny how many parents moan about childcare costs considering that their children are the most precious of people. Its not like trawling the internet for the cheapest TV supplier....

but if she had 2 children she would get £8 per hour. I will be lookign at childminders (north West) and £3 an hour seems the average. I expect the childminder would have more than one child to mind otherwise I don't see why it's worthwhile doing it!

sarahs999

I haven't noticed anyone moaning how much they cost.

Having said that, this country makes it appallingly expensive to go out to work and to have a child under the age of five. We pay over £850 a month in childcare just for one child; I have no idea how people afford more than one. And that's with grandparents doing some of the caring too.

Caroline73_2

jimexbox wrote: »

She has one child, hence £4 per hour.

Its funny how many parents moan about childcare costs considering that their children are the most precious of people. Its not like trawling the internet for the cheapest TV supplier....

That's her choice to have one - legally she could at have at least 3 children I believe. Moaning about only earning £4 an hour is like moaning you only earn £5000 per year but only work part time.

stardoman

I used to be a registered childminder and you would not believe the number of people who contacted me asking for childcare between the hours of 3:30 and 3:45. They literally only wanted to pay for 15 minutes and wondered why I was not interested. Talking to other childminders, it would seem this is common and I think this might be why some charge a minimum.

I used to charge a minimum of 2 hours across a day. This could be 1 hour in the morning and 1 after school or 2 after school etc. Most came for 1 hour before and 2 after.

There was one family who did shift work and I charged them slightly differently. Instead of the minimum across a day, I charged a minimum a month. This was paid to me by direct debit at the start of the month and then I gave a bill at the end of the month if they owed any extra.

For all the paperwork Ofsted wanted, I ended up deciding it just wasn't worth it. They expect you to do lots of diaries, plans, observations etc. The thing is, this is all done in your own time and you get nothing back from it. I loved looking after the children, but not the paperwork.

Mandy.

gabyjane

Hi hmm the xmas day im guitly for too but i do charge it as a half fee as take it as a day off, i have actually been asked to have someones child on boxing day too there is no stopping some people! full fee no way though. The £4 per hour is yes oer child, some of mine are £4.50 if they are school runs and some are daily fees..i would not get out if bed for 1 child at £4 per hour tbh but seeing as i have numerous children on my books it is well worth it!
Sarahs 999 that is a lot for one child..nursery?

Spendless

stardoman wrote: »

I used to be a registered childminder and you would not believe the number of people who contacted me asking for childcare between the hours of 3:30 and 3:45. They literally only wanted to pay for 15 minutes and wondered why I was not interested. Talking to other childminders, it would seem this is common and I think this might be why some charge a minimum.Mandy.

My guess is it is due to the time a lot of jobs finish. I am just about to apply for one that finishes at 3pm but it's the other side of town to where I live and kids go to school and I did a 'dummy run' today and it's roughly a 22-25 min drive, so not much time to allow for things to go wrong.

I have toyed with the idea of finding childcare but realise I'd be paying whatever the minimum is to not need more than a few minutes. Fortunatly for me a mate has offerred to hang about in playground should I be late if I get the job.

I guess a lot of mums must be stuck with a similar situation.

sarahs999

gabyjane wrote: »

Hi hmm the xmas day im guitly for too but i do charge it as a half fee as take it as a day off, i have actually been asked to have someones child on boxing day too there is no stopping some people! full fee no way though. The £4 per hour is yes oer child, some of mine are £4.50 if they are school runs and some are daily fees..i would not get out if bed for 1 child at £4 per hour tbh but seeing as i have numerous children on my books it is well worth it!
Sarahs 999 that is a lot for one child..nursery?

Yeah, nursery two days a week at £50 a day (a usual amount for London). Then £35 a day for childminder one day a week. Plus £65 a week for grandparent care (they used to do it free but are short on cash now so we pay them £20 a day plus petrol to drive from the coast to London each week). Oh, that makes £800 not £850. It's better now we get the government help that all three and four year olds get but when he was 1 and 2, it was seriously expensive. Plus my DH wasn't working for those two years as he was doing a PGCE, so you can imagine how we scrimped around for cash.

gabyjane

Ah sarah i see! you need to move down south id'e save you a fortune!!

sarahs999

Well come september just him going to school is going to save me a fortune! I feel like he's been at private school for the past three years!