How to tell my CM....

mutley74

Whats the best way of me telling my child minder I want to quit (2 weeks notice) in polite way? I have not fallen out and been happy with service just object to paying them ½ pay for summer holidays! Even when CM may be away for 2 weeks hols too!

Next school term planning to use the after school club.

Doodles

Hi, I was in the same situation as you last summer. My son had been with the childminder for 5 years and I had no complaints with her, but the school opened an afterschool club and my son wanted to go there was there was tons of activities, and they do get a little bored round chilminders as they get older.

I was dreading that conversation as well - its hard to say to someone I don't want to use your services any more, even though I've been very happy with you isn't it!

Anyway, what I said was something like "the school has opened an afterschool club which stephen (my son's name!) wants to try so from next month (or whenever you're planning) I'm going to try the club out so I'm having to hand in notice with you. Its nothing personal, you've been an absolute star with stephen, but you know how much he likes sports and they do loads of afterschool activities so he wants to have a go"

Worked out fine - she totally agreed with me, said that once they reach 9 or so they can get a bit bored round a childminders, especially as the other children she was looking after were babies/toddlers. My childminder is a lovely lady, and even now helps me out on the odd day such as inset days if I'm desperate.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

mutley74

i have only used my CM a few months - no complaints to date really. She has good reputation with parents around.
Just i object to paying 1/2 of summer hols. Okay i know its not a lot of money ~£50 but its a lot to me right now.......but i want to keep it polite way in case i need to use her again next term if the new school club is delayed or not as good as expected.

Doodles

Yeah I agree, always best to keep things on good terms. Always good to have reliable support structure around you when you have children and you never know when or if you might need to ask to use her services in the future.

Savvy_Sue

atpug wrote: »

i have only used my CM a few months - no complaints to date really. She has good reputation with parents around.
Just i object to paying 1/2 of summer hols. Okay i know its not a lot of money ~£50 but its a lot to me right now.......but i want to keep it polite way in case i need to use her again next term if the new school club is delayed or not as good as expected.

By all means keep it polite, but remember that even if you WANT to use her again for whatever reason, she may not have a vacancy for you! If she has a good reputation, there may well be other parents wanting to use her services.

So if you're in any doubt about the club, is it worth negotiating a decrease in hours for the summer and from September onwards? Even if you don't NEED to use her over the summer, would it be useful to continue to send your child, say, once a week?

A lot of these things would depend to me on the age of the child and how many hours you were using the CM and wanting to use the Club. I've helped set up and run after school clubs, and IMO children in Reception don't cope well with going to an ASC five days a week ...

newcook

if its only because you object to paying for holidays could you not ask her to change the contract to term time only???

mutley74

thanks for reply.
My child is only 5. I only use the CM twice a week after school.
I could ask her to reduce the reservation payment, but to be honest i feel a bit embarrassed to do that. Especially as some of the parents who use her are very well off (ie.big BMW 4x4s). She does not offer any service over summer hols except full day care on agreement. To be honest i am bit confused what to do, as i need to give her 2 weeks notice if i want to stop using her and not pay over the summer.

Spendless

Do you only work term-time? What are you doing about childcare thru the hols.

The CMs in this area were not happy when the breakfast/asc opened here as they saw it as taking away their business so I'd be careful how you word your notice letter.

Savvy_Sue

Spendless wrote: »

The CMs in this area were not happy when the breakfast/asc opened here as they saw it as taking away their business so I'd be careful how you word your notice letter.

With the first one I helped set up, there was one CM who had a go at me about it, but the CMs I knew well were absolutely fine with it! They knew they'd still get the babes and pre-schoolers, and many of them were much happier that way as the school pickups could be a bit of a nightmare.

With the second, I'd never been able to find a CM in this area so I have no idea what they thought!

I don't really know how to advise you: I don't want to rekindle the 'why do I have to pay my CM a retainer over the holidays when I don't use her?' debate, as I think we did it to death before. I was, frankly, astonished at the number of parents willing to stop using a CM in order to use an untried ASC! Although we did have some who waited to see how long we'd last before transferring to us, which is what I would have done.

But not being a particularly 'natural' mother myself, if I could possibly afford it, I think I would be booking one day a week at the CM through the summer, and using that day for all the things which are particularly trying with a young child in tow: shopping, cleaning, dentist, haircuts etc. Mind you, my children loved their CM, possibly more than they loved being at home with me ... :rotfl:

Then, in September, I would try out the ASC BEFORE giving notice to the CM, and possibly do one day a week with each and see which my child got on best with.

although that might depend on the child: TBH I think my older two preferred the quiet of the CM to the hubbub of the ASC, whereas my youngest would throw himself into any situation with abandon!