childminding

RedXIV

Hi all,

Just a quick question. Basically i want to know what the average price for mindnig a child is?

My OH is taking on a child as of tomorrow and she's watching the kid for something like 32 hours a week and picking the child up and dropping him home. Some weeks she'll only get 13 hours and some weeks like the above but she tells me she's only getting 80 a week to do this? I thought she was joking! I know she recently became unemployed but surely she can charge more than this??

Cheers

lalalulu

Some childminder's will charge 5 euro an hour and some 10 euro an hour. Is your wife qualifed? If she is she can charge a lot more money but unfortunately there isn't great money in childminding unless you are looking after more than one child.

RedXIV

no she's not qualified (apart from having a child of her own ) but i did the math and this week she'll be working for 2.50 an hour. surely thats her getting taken advantage of?

easyeason3

It sounds like a ridiculous amount of money especially as she does a school run. I'd give it about a month of weighing up the cost of petrol used,food eaten etc before I'd make a suggestion of increasing the cost.
Because she has no formal qualifications I'm not sure if she can look for much more but it definately sounds like the deal of the century for the parent of the child.

lalalulu

absolutley!! 2.50 is not the average. Is she minding a friend or neighbour's child? I work in childcare and they would be the only reason's i would look after a child for such little money. It's hard work especially when it's someone else's child. If you put your child in to a creche for those hour's you wouldn't pay the creche 80 euro a week!! I presume your wife has to feed the child aswell?

RedXIV

lalalulu wrote: »

absolutley!! 2.50 is not the average. Is she minding a friend or neighbour's child? I work in childcare and they would be the only reason's i would look after a child for such little money. It's hard work especially when it's someone else's child. If you put your child in to a creche for those hour's you wouldn't pay the creche 80 euro a week!! I presume your wife has to feed the child aswell?

no she's not watching a friend or neighbour's child. Yes she also feeds the child. when you add all that up, especially having to be up to pick the child up at his house for half 8 in the morning (i like my sleep ) i was gobsmacked to hear that price.

easyeason3

lalalulu wrote: »

absolutley!! 2.50 is not the average. Is she minding a friend or neighbour's child? I work in childcare and they would be the only reason's i would look after a child for such little money. It's hard work especially when it's someone else's child. If you put your child in to a creche for those hour's you wouldn't pay the creche 80 euro a week!! I presume your wife has to feed the child aswell?

I think if I worked in childcare I wouldn't take on a friend or relatives child because I personally think you shouldn't mix business with pleasure especially when it comes to children.
To be honest I wouldn't want to mind anyones child because of the huge responsibility involved.
What I'm shocked at though is the amount of people out there 'minding' children when I wouldn't let some of these people mind a dog. But I'm also shocked by how some well paid people ship their children off to an unqualified & uninterested person for the sake of saving a few euro a week.
Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting the OP's wife is a bad childminder or anything. Or I'm not saying all childminders are useless but I know of two people minding kids that shouldn't be.
One woman drives around without her child & the other kids not strapped into the car, in this day & age it's disgusting.
Maybe the OP should ring around a few childminders & creches to find out how much they charge for a child per week & that might give him an indication of the going rate.
Personally I think this lady is being paid a pittance.

RedXIV

easyeason3 wrote: »

I think if I worked in childcare I wouldn't take on a friend or relatives child because I personally think you shouldn't mix business with pleasure especially when it comes to children.
To be honest I wouldn't want to mind anyones child because of the huge responsibility involved.
What I'm shocked at though is the amount of people out there 'minding' children when I wouldn't let some of these people mind a dog. But I'm also shocked by how some well paid people ship their children off to an unqualified & uninterested person for the sake of saving a few euro a week.
Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting the OP's wife is a bad childminder or anything. Or I'm not saying all childminders are useless but I know of two people minding kids that shouldn't be.
One woman drives around without her child & the other kids not strapped into the car, in this day & age it's disgusting.
Maybe the OP should ring around a few childminders & creches to find out how much they charge for a child per week & that might give him an indication of the going rate.
Personally I think this lady is being paid a pittance.

Oh don't get me wrong, i completely understand that she hasn't got a degree or anything and this is the first time she's done anything like this but she has a child of the same age and she's a terrific mom. To work for so little when she puts 110% into everything she does was a real shock for me. I do appreciate you're input though

easyeason3

RedXIV wrote: »

no she's not watching a friend or neighbour's child. Yes she also feeds the child. when you add all that up, especially having to be up to pick the child up at his house for half 8 in the morning (i like my sleep ) i was gobsmacked to hear that price.

Jesus! Surely it's costing her money to mind this child?
If this is something your wife wants to get into then maybe she should look into doing a childcare course in her local VEC? As well as getting paid a back to education allowance she would be gaining a relevant qualification.
Some of these courses start at 9/ 9.30 & finish at around lunch time so it would mean your own child would only have to be minded for a few hours. If that isn't viable there are distance learning courses she can do at home that will offer the same.

I'm shocked at this to be honest.

easyeason3

RedXIV wrote: »

Oh don't get me wrong, i completely understand that she hasn't got a degree or anything and this is the first time she's done anything like this but she has a child of the same age and she's a terrific mom. To work for so little when she puts 110% into everything she does was a real shock for me. I do appreciate you're input though

I have no doubt she is well able to do the job but I wasn't making myself clear. I'll put it to you this way, if I had a child & had a childminder like your wife I would be paying a hell of a lot more money for the following reasons:
1) The child is being genuinely looked after
2) Your own child is the same age which means they will both help each other in they're development
3) Since your wife is feeding your own child chances are 99% of the meals are home cooked good healthy food which the other kid will get too
4) Since she is only looking after one other child she has plenty of attention to give & watch what's going on
5) There is little or no worry about the childs parents having to be at a school at a certain time to collect junior because your wife is doing all that for them
6) If it was a creche & the child had a cold then a lot of them would not accept him in until it cleared up

Look I could go on & on here. That is disgraceful.
Can you tell us what the childs parents work at?

RedXIV

as far as i've been told the mother is a civil sevant and father works a regular sales job.

Thanks for that, just need to make sure she see's this now and reiterates to her client that she can def cough up a bit more.

littlebug

My childminder would be at the more reasonable end of the scale in charging 5 per hour per child but she minds quite a few children. She also only charges for the actual hours she has the child. Maybe your OH could do something similar? 80 euro might be ok-ish if she's only got the child for 13 hours but certainly not for 32 hours.

beth-lou

She is charging way under the odds if she is getting €80 a week for 32 hours.
She would be better off having a rate of €5 an hour. Childminders who mind in their own home are generally cheaper than getting someone into your own home. But your wife is really being taken advantage of.
Do you have kids yourself? If nt would she consider childminding in the parents house. She could earn up to €400 a week or more in a more affluent area.

RedXIV

littlebug wrote: »

My childminder would be at the more reasonable end of the scale in charging 5 per hour per child but she minds quite a few children. She also only charges for the actual hours she has the child. Maybe your OH could do something similar? 80 euro might be ok-ish if she's only got the child for 13 hours but certainly not for 32 hours.

I wouldn't mind even if she charged 80 for 13 hours so much, although i still think she could do better but for 32 i think it's disgraceful. I'd actually love to get her to charge by the hour but my problem now is that the OH doesn't want to make things awkward. she's too damn nice!!

beth-lou wrote: »

She is charging way under the odds if she is getting €80 a week for 32 hours.
She would be better off having a rate of €5 an hour. Childminders who mind in their own home are generally cheaper than getting someone into your own home. But your wife is really being taken advantage of.
Do you have kids yourself? If nt would she consider childminding in the parents house. She could earn up to €400 a week or more in a more affluent area.

She does have a child so it makes far more sense to stay in her house but the fact that she picks up and drops the child back I thought would compensate for not minding the child in his house.

Thanks to both for your input though

Lizzykins

My youngest is not long out of formal chilcare and I gave the childminder 130 a week for 25 hours which is just over €5 an hour. I would have thought that was the going rate. I also paid if I was on holidays and also at Christmas even though the little one was at home for the bones of two weeks. Mind you Christmas payment was my idea and the childminder was thrilled with it. Made up for the odd time I might be late or wanted a favour.

deisemum

I'm a childminder and have been childminding in Waterford for nearly 9 years. Nothing surprises me when it comes to some people and their children.

Fortunately most parents are very fair but their will always be those that are only interested in getting the cheapest childcare possible and don't give a damn about qualifications, first aid, insurance, safety etc and it's normally the very well paid that expect to pay pittance.


OP I recommend your OH contacts the local Childminding Advisor on the County Childcare Committee. She's an extremely helpful woman who can give tremendous advice and support to both childminders and parents. I can provide her contact details if your OH is interested.

There are significant costs involved in childminding and it's the little things here and there that add up a lot more than the more obvious costs.

You don't need childcare qualifications to become a childminder but the childcare committee can provide subsidises courses including occupational first aid which I think is extremely important to have. Insurance is a must.

I have found that most people making childcare enquiries are not too interested in what qualifications that I have (which I do), the 2 main questions that I get are 1) have I a vacancy and 2) how much do I charge?

My qualifications, insurance, first aid are seen as a bonus by some but others aren't too fussed over that. At least half of people that have come to me over the years didn't even bother checking out my references.

deisemum

I also meant to add that once you're childminding your house and furnishings take a lot of abuse and the wear and tear increases significantly. You've to polyfill and paint a lot more often. Also your heating and electric bills are much higher.

kaa

RedXIV wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a quick question. Basically i want to know what the average price for mindnig a child is?

My OH is taking on a child as of tomorrow and she's watching the kid for something like 32 hours a week and picking the child up and dropping him home. Some weeks she'll only get 13 hours and some weeks like the above but she tells me she's only getting 80 a week to do this? I thought she was joking! I know she recently became unemployed but surely she can charge more than this??

Cheers

wel my child is at a childminders now. and i am paying 5euro an hour for that. i know there is people out if work or have hours cut down and thats all they can affored but i would say urg her to ask for more money since she does collect and drop.

even charging 5euro an hour would be the normal rate for a childminder.

John Mason

Your wife needs to be registered to mind children.

you should tell her to contact her local County Childcare Committee. if you tell me what area you are in, i will be able to give you all the contact details.

they will also be able to advise on costs and grants etc.

deisemum

pink fluffy bunny wrote: »

Your wife needs to be registered to mind children.

you should tell her to contact her local County Childcare Committee. if you tell me what area you are in, i will be able to give you all the contact details.

they will also be able to advise on costs and grants etc.

If a childminder is looking after 3 or less children from different families that are PreSchoolers then the childminder in not under any legal obligation to notify or register with anyone.

The PreSchool regulations are only for children aged 6 and under that are not yet in school. Currently there are no regulations for those who've started school.

Having said that a childminder who is not under any legal obligation to notify the HSE may voluntary notify to the Childcare Committees to avail of training, grants and support. Personally I think the benefits of voluntary notifying far outweigh not voluntary notifying.

Childcare Committees and Childminding Ireland cannot advise childminders what to charge as it's seen as price fixing but they may advise (as a guideline only) on what they've heard as the average rate in an area.