Continue to pay child minder?

chases0102

Interesting reading here.

We have paid our childminder full rate for the last four weeks. I am not privy to her circumstances.

Wife just had second baby so we were going to finish up in the summer anyway.

She suggested a 33% reduction going forward.

It's a tough situation - I am Public Sector so job is secure, but wife going on unpaid leave in due course. Certainly don't want to rack up a significant amount of cost with no service.

It's tricky, as we have been so happy with the service.

Interested Observer

What's the going rate for a childminder to come to your house and look after 2 kids, would anyone know?

Anne_cordelia

chases0102 wrote: »

Interesting reading here.

We have paid our childminder full rate for the last four weeks. I am not privy to her circumstances.

Wife just had second baby so we were going to finish up in the summer anyway.

She suggested a 33% reduction going forward.

It's a tough situation - I am Public Sector so job is secure, but wife going on unpaid leave in due course. Certainly don't want to rack up a significant amount of cost with no service.

It's tricky, as we have been so happy with the service.

It’s not your responsibility to ensure she’s registered if she’s a childminder in her own home. Paying for a month is more than fair. Requesting a 33% reduction is very cheeky of her imo. If she was correctly registered with Revenue she could avail of the €350 pandemic unemployment payment. It’s not your problem if she’s not. If your wife is going to be off work for the next 8-9months I would stop paying her now and risk not having her available when you need her again.

Anne_cordelia

Interested Observer wrote: »

What's the going rate for a childminder to come to your house and look after 2 kids, would anyone know?

That’s a nanny. You would have to pay at least minimum wage but probably more. You are also responsible for registering as an employer, deducting taxes and paying 10.75% employers PRSI.

Sleeper12

Anne_cordelia wrote: »

That’s a nanny. You would have to pay at least minimum wage but probably more. You are also responsible for registering as an employer, deducting taxes and paying 10.75% employers PRSI.

You also need to pay for her car insurance. She requires "Nanny" car insurance & employer pays for this. My daughter is a nanny. Qualified childminder. Hourly rate is high. She works around six hours minding four children. Collects them from schools, brings them to after school lessons, does homework etc. She's on close to 20 euro an hour. Well very high teens hourly rate anyway.



You can get someone with no qualification to babysit your children in their own homes for as little as 5 euro an hour. It's very unlikely they will be insured to mind children as a business & most likely wont have nanny car insurance etc.

NetChat101

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You also need to pay for her car insurance. She requires "Nanny" car insurance & employer pays for this. My daughter is a nanny. Qualified childminder. Hourly rate is high. She works around six hours minding four children. Collects them from schools, brings them to after school lessons, does homework etc. She's on close to 20 euro an hour. Well very high teens hourly rate anyway.



You can get someone with no qualification to babysit your children in their own homes for as little as 5 euro an hour. It's very unlikely they will be insured to mind children as a business & most likely wont have nanny car insurance etc.

From my experience, a childminder who minds children in the minder's home does more than just "babysit" - they also do all the things you've listed, collect from school, bring to any classes/clubs the child goes to, and does homework with the child/children.

Parents have lots of options when it comes to childcare, grandparents/a nanny coming to the house/creche/bringing the children to a childminder. And there's a place for every option, it's not the case of one option being better than another, it's about what's best for each individual family and what setting they prefer.

Sleeper12

NetChat101 wrote: »

From my experience, a childminder who minds children in the minder's home does more than just "babysit" - they also do all the things you've listed, collect from school, bring to any classes/clubs the child goes to, and does homework with the child/children.

Parents have lots of options when it comes to childcare, grandparents/a nanny coming to the house/creche/bringing the children to a childminder. And there's a place for every option, it's not the case of one option being better than another, it's about what's best for each individual family and what setting they prefer.

I totally agree with you however having proper insurance, child life saving training & general qualification in childminding you won't get for 5 euro an hour in anyones home. Five euro gets you a glorified babysitter. For a lot of parents this is all they want/need.

NetChat101

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I totally agree with you however having proper insurance, child life saving training & general qualification in childminding you won't get for 5 euro an hour in anyones home. Five euro gets you a glorified babysitter. For a lot of parents this is all they want/need.

And here's me thinking I'm a childminder who treats the little child I mind like one of my own and is valued and appreciated for that. Turns out I'm just a glorified babysitter!!! 😉

But it's a bit insulting to parents who leave their children with a childminder to say "this is ALL they want/need" for their children, as if they are somehow failing their children in doing this.

Anyway, as I said before, people do what's best for their own family, everyone wants something different and that should be respected, not judged.

cant26

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I totally agree with you however having proper insurance, child life saving training & general qualification in childminding you won't get for 5 euro an hour in anyones home. Five euro gets you a glorified babysitter. For a lot of parents this is all they want/need.

This is not true.
My children’s childminder is registered with childminding Ireland, registered as self employed with revenue, first aid trained and Garda vetted. She has childminders insurance.

Her home is subject to inspections by the childcare committee. She adheres to the correct child ratios. Her husband is also vetted. She obviously had her own children young as they are no longer at home and she is still in her forties so young and well able for the kids!

She charges me 5 per hour per child. It’s actually a more expensive option that a crèche for us but she is an absolute legend. She has four or five families, some of the kids are full time, some part time, some Afterschool, some mornings. She is so professional yet unbelievably kind to the kids and the parents! We all love her!

You obviously have some inside knowledge on how a nanny works but you clearly haven’t a clue on how a professional child minder works.

cant26

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You also need to pay for her car insurance. She requires "Nanny" car insurance & employer pays for this. My daughter is a nanny. Qualified childminder. Hourly rate is high. She works around six hours minding four children. Collects them from schools, brings them to after school lessons, does homework etc. She's on close to 20 euro an hour. Well very high teens hourly rate anyway.



You can get someone with no qualification to babysit your children in their own homes for as little as 5 euro an hour. It's very unlikely they will be insured to mind children as a business & most likely wont have nanny car insurance etc.

Is your daughters rate 20 euro per child? If not she’s getting paid a fiver an hour per child! Just like a lot of other childminders

spaceHopper

Has anybody tried the 70% now 85% employment subsidy. Our child minder is on the books as our employee and minds in our home. We are still paying her but it would be nice to get something back. We contacted Revenue and they said we didn't qualify, that was two weeks ago, has anybody else tried and succeeded

lazygal

spaceHopper wrote: »

Has anybody tried the 70% now 85% employment subsidy. Our child minder is on the books as our employee and minds in our home. We are still paying her but it would be nice to get something back. We contacted Revenue and they said we didn't qualify, that was two weeks ago, has anybody else tried and succeeded

I know this is a while ago but I have checked and if your income hasn't changed the employee won't qualify. We also employ a minder in our home and register with Revenue. We're both getting paid the same and working from home. I feel slightly annoyed we're paying for nothing right now but I'm taking the attitude that paying our minder in full is the ethical thing to do. If we had a significant salary drop we'd have to reassess though.

Jim Root

Has anyone brought their minder back to the home to work?

lazygal

Jim Root wrote: »

Has anyone brought their minder back to the home to work?

We haven't yet as it hasn't been essential. If we need her to work (I am an essential worker) we will arrange for her to work offsite in another building we have access to. Once you have them working in your home you're an employer and there's a whole host of things you have to do legally with Revenue etc.

fits

We are still paying also but don’t know for how long. We will see what they say tomorrow. Ours doesn’t mind in our home so it’s a bit different but she only has our two.

spaceHopper

fits wrote: »

We are still paying also but don’t know for how long. We will see what they say tomorrow. Ours doesn’t mind in our home so it’s a bit different but she only has our two.

I don't think much will change, they may relax the 2k bit for exercise but that will make no difference to allowing child minders to start working again. For now we are limbo. Paying her to stay at home and youtube babysitting to kids

spaceHopper

Well it looks like best case end of June worst case phased bases end of July. We are going chase up the wage subsidy again as we don't want to upset our childminder by laying her off. Wish us luck.

cabogirl

lazygal wrote: »

We haven't yet as it hasn't been essential. If we need her to work (I am an essential worker) we will arrange for her to work offsite in another building we have access to. Once you have them working in your home you're an employer and there's a whole host of things you have to do legally with Revenue etc.

Do you mind me asking Lazygal, did she work in your home before? My nanny is coming back to work next week, I’m an essential worker too but can work at home....the demands exceed my ability at this point, can’t do half days anymore to mind my daughter. I didn’t think there were any additional responsibilities at the moment with Revenue, should I give them a call?

lazygal

cabogirl wrote: »

Do you mind me asking Lazygal, did she work in your home before? My nanny is coming back to work next week, I’m an essential worker too but can work at home....the demands exceed my ability at this point, can’t do half days anymore to mind my daughter. I didn’t think there were any additional responsibilities at the moment with Revenue, should I give them a call?

Yes she has always been our employee working in our home. It is simply easier to be above board eg insurance in the home covering any accident, she can claim sick pay, she would have been eligible for the covid payment if necessary. It's easy enough to set up with revenue.

chases0102

Hi all,

I had the conversation with our childminder, and told her that it looks like we will not need her again.

She completely understood. We both are annoyed and disappointed that my son's time there finished in the way it did, abruptly, with no proper goodbye. She was a wonderful childminder but we simply could not justify paying with no service, having paid up for 5 weeks (1 week with a 33% reduction).

A daunting thought, no childcare until September for us. I'm worried about our three year old and the complete lack of interaction with other children. But then I know children are incredibly resilient....it's just hard to see him become lethargic, constantly bored, looking for snacks, etc.

shesty

We are continuing to pay ours as we cannot lose her, but our jobs are ok.
It's a flipping disaster and is spelling major trouble for the next Government (add it to the list, I reckon) as I am beginning to hear one or two anecdotal reports now, of creches not reopening at all.
I am the same, I have gently broached it with the kids that they won't be going back to schools til September. They don't really understand how long that it is though. It is going to be a horribly long few months. I was struggling this morning, at the prospect of weeks of homeschooling and fighting children and juggling work ahead, with no end in sight. My minder is willing to take them, but I need to keep schoolwork going (and I can't ask her to do that) and for now, I don't feel they should be going elsewhere every day.
I am very angry at the whole situation right now, if I am honest.
Sorry.Derailing the thread.

chases0102

Totally understand shesty, I feel the same.

chancer007

we have a childminder who is un-registered, cash in hand. Shes very good. Agreement is we dont pay her when we have the kids ourselves, we also pay her 2 weeks holiday way for the summer, me & my wife just take our holidays then.
So we havent paid out child-minder since Mid-March. Shes looking to take kids back this week but we said when restrictions get lifted from 18th May we'll start with 2 days a week,she started minding other kids 2 days a week from today,so we might send them the other 2 days of the week. We are planning on getting her a voucher for the weeks she hasnt been paid. thats my situation.

fits

I've told mine we will keep going as is until May 18 (i.e still paying) and look at options after that.

spaceHopper

From what I understand on the 18th of may child care for health worker's children can startup. Then on June 20th for other essential workers then July 28th the rest. So I can't see ours being back till June 20th I'd love for it to be sooner so correct me if I'm wrong.

shesty

Ours is prepared to take them whenever we want her to.But I don't feel quite right about it and if I am honest, I am not massively busy at work so we are managing, although it is a bit mad.So we will see after May 18th alright.

chancer007

the bottom line for parents if they want to send their children back to the childminder is to send them back when the parents feel it is safe to do so..whether the childminder needs the money or not

spaceHopper

chancer007 wrote: »

the bottom line for parents if they want to send their children back to the childminder is to send them back when the parents feel it is safe to do so..whether the childminder needs the money or not

I'm more worried about the legal aspect of it, if I felt it wasn't safe I wouldn't do it no matter what