Childminders and Paying them through holidays

Im talking paying them half pay while THEY (the childminder) are on holiday!

Apparently we have to pay them half rate when they are away and full rate if we are away.

Now i can kind of see where they are coming from with paying them while we are on holiday, but us paying the childminder while she goes away, is she taking the michael?

Sorry buddy, are you for real?

Standard practice. Its the same concept of you being paid during your annual leave at work.

She’s on annual leave, and still gets paid.

You pay them X pounds a year to look after little Johnny. Five days free, 10 days half price etc., is all rubbish.

Just use the one number, then if you want to work it our per week divide by 52. Easy.

Matt

Depends what the contract is. Are you employer them directly or are they contracting the service to you?

I assume you are paying a “retainer” to prevent them going elsewhere?

She needs (targets) to earn £xx thousands of pounds a year. If you can find a childminder who doesn’t charge for holidays, then she’s either adding that money to your normal bill, or she’s struggling for clients (read not very good).

So you just gotta suck it up!

Kryton57 – Member
Standard practice. Its the same concept of you being paid during your annual leave at work.

She’s on annual leave, and still gets paid

Is the correct answer.

Kryton57 – Member
Standard practice. Its the same concept of you being paid during your annual leave at work.
She’s on annual leave, and still gets paid
Is the correct answer.

Only if you are employed on that basis in the last 10 years working in the UK I was only paid holiday for 18months. The rest I was self employed and therefore had to sort that bit out myself.

Big difference between Employer/Employee and Hiring a contractor.

You don’t pay your builder to have 2 weeks off in the middle of the job..

mikewsmith – Member
You don’t pay your builder to have 2 weeks off in the middle of the job.

But we aren’t talking about Builders, we are talking about child minders.

You don’t pay your builder to have 2 weeks off in the middle of the job.

Yes you do. It’s factored into the hourly rate.

mikewsmith – Member
You don’t pay your builder to have 2 weeks off in the middle of the job.
But we aren’t talking about Builders, we are talking about child minders.

This is where i struggle to grasp it, surely she is self employed and thus if she cant provide a service she cant invoice for it. I would have thought we either pay when she is on holiday (x weeks per year) or if we decide not to use her?

There is no such thing as ‘Standard Contract’ for a childminder but there are several common terms. It is not uncommon for them to be paid (all or part) during holidays, to expect paid during your holidays, when your child is off sick or to want a retainer to cover the summer if you are a term time worker who doesn’t need them during school hold etc.

As others have said though if you wanted to negotiate only to pay for the days you actually use them this is possible but they will just redistribute the cost onto your hourly/daily rate.

If you don’t like it, find someone else. You’re getting a cheap deal by using a childminder instead of a nursery in any case.

You could try looking after your child yourself, then you dont need to pay anyone.

Now i can kind of see where they are coming from with paying them while we are on holiday, but us paying the childminder while she goes away, is she taking the michael?

other childcare providers available

Starting to look into child minders for when my Wife goes back to work. As i understand it, you have to book them in advance and pay them for how many days a week you want them normally, if you actually use them or not? Seems cheaper than a nursery, any how.

We pay Au Pair when on holiday with us, or when we go on holiday and leave them at home.

Better to be generous imo.

this is why i don’t have children. well this and the fact no woman wants me to sire a child with them 😥

We don’t pay our childminder when she’s on holiday.

How much does it cost you every week for a childminder, out of interest.

£550 a month here, 3 full days (10 hours), 1 x 8 hour day

We only use them two mornings a week to give my wife a break (have a 5month and 19month old) but did pay £480/month for 4 days.

Apparently the childminder has changed the contract to half pay when both parties are on holiday

£475 per month here for 4 days, 8-5

Apparently the childminder has changed the contract to half pay when both parties are on holiday

Never go on holiday yourself, that’ll teach her

FWIW…my childminder charges nothing for her hols but specifies them on her yearly planner.

If we take hols she charges us half price as a place retainer kind of thing i guess.

If my child is ill we pay full price, including when he is in hospital.

Standard practice i thought to be fair.

we pay for 5 x 6.5hr days a week, £146.25 per week payable a month in advance.

Do you still pay your rent/mortgage when you’re on holiday? After all, its not like you’re using the property, is it? In fact; you’re paying for the use of another one

Its…. Just….. Like….. SOOOOOOOOOO unfair!

We only use them two mornings a week to give my wife a break (have a 5month and 19month old) but did pay £480/month for 4 days

So your wife is not even working but has a rest during the week and you complain at the childminder?
i am struggling to not have a go here and I have been there with a slightly larger age gap but WTF?
family , friends, MumTFU?
Again no offence but this is one of the ultimate first world problems

Why not give up work one day per week yourself – is it not about the same cost?

Sorry otsd not meantot be a troll or offensive

The nursery child minder thing is standard practice FWIW and very annoying when you teach as you essentially pay them to do F all and they take term time only kids as well to supplement
Nothing you can do but change every holiday buit that gets tiresome

😆 @ Junkyard

*was wondering who would bite

£44 for a 10 hour day around here in a nursery. We pay for 51 weeks a year (we have to look after have our own children at Christmas *sigh*).
The obvious advantage being that when the staff take holiday, the nursery can cover it

we pay ours a flat weekly rate of £9 an hour for 12 hours a week. We pay her for holidays, sick days etc but the time that she doesn’t work is ‘banked’ for use in the holidays or babysitting as and when.

she’s cool with it, so are we.

If you don’t like your current arrangement, then shop around.

What happens if you go on holiday with her?

Get a Swedish Au Pair. Then pretend to live your life in some kind of 70’s BBC sitcom world involving hilarious compromising situations involving vicars and escaped rabbits

mental that’s what it is. this is exactly the reason Mrscarlos went part time so we could do the childcare between us. We currently earn about 16K a year less than 7 years ago but its worth it to bring our kids up rather than pay someone else to.

Get a Swedish Au Pair. Then pretend to live your life in some kind of 70’s BBC sitcom world involving hilarious compromising situations involving vicars and escaped rabbits

If at all possible, there should also be a ‘beaver’ episode.

holy crap childcare costs is probably the most effective contraception I’ve come across (…stop sniggering at the back!!…).

holy crap childcare costs is probably the most effective contraception I’ve come across

and there was me thinking they were totally optional

there should also be a ‘beaver’ episode

Does the beaver get lost in the bush?

We only use them two mornings a week to give my wife a break (have a 5month and 19month old) but did pay £480/month for 4 days.

This is trolling surely? No one is that weak?

The woman across the road from me, who has two boys aged 5 and 3, pays for her younger son to go to nursery before his ‘correct’ start date (6 moths early or something). She used to send him to a childminder 3 mornings a week too, just so she could have some time to herself, until the childminder told her thanks but he’s too much trouble! Expelled from a childminder, that’s some effort.

Wife childminds, has done now for 15 years. No one complains about paying when the child is in School or at holidays. Why? Because they understand that they are taking up a place that would be filled. We have a waiting list that is over a year if people dont like the terms and conditions they can god else where, funny thing is they dont!!