Creche closed for funeral

ZeroImpurities

nc19 wrote: »

Longford Town is a town and having been there for 45mins a few years ago I can confirm 2 things; It is rural and 45mins there is 45mins too long

Longford town is more of a sort of place you bypass. You did well to last 45 minutes!

eviltwin

ZeroImpurities wrote: »

I worked in one small business where their father died. The business was closed for 3 days. Simple as that.

Family business is one thing, the death of one member of staff though?

Gandhi

ZeroImpurities wrote: »

I worked in one small business where their father died. The business was closed for 3 days. Simple as that.

Was it a creche, though? Not really relevant unless it's being closed for 3 days meant that every single customer had to either take time off work, or scramble to get babysitters for 3 days.

Cienciano

Gandhi wrote: »

A creche is not a cafe or a sweetshop. If you can't depend on it, it is useless. Closing a creche for a day at short notice is massively disruptive to your customers. While I'd feel bad for the owner's loss, I'd be looking for a new creche the very next day.

As someone who uses a creche, I agree with this.

salmocab

Really depends on the size of the creche regarding whether it shuts or not although paying would be a bit much Id give the owner the benefit of the doubt on that for now, if its a small creche with say 6 staff and 2 or 3 are attending the funeral then with the legal requirements on ratios it would be pretty impossible to open but if it has 16 or 17 employees and 2 or 3 are going then they could probably organize to open especially if they just closed their sessional classes.

lukesmom

Now closing a crèche for a funeral is beyond ridiculous. What are the parents meant to do? Where are all the kids meant to go? Very unprofessional in my opinion.

Moonbeam

I was thinking about this..Is it a small creche?
Could it have been that they did not have sufficient child to staff rations if the family were at the funeral to legally open?

December2012

Moonbeam wrote: »

I was thinking about this..Is it a small creche?
Could it have been that they did not have sufficient child to staff rations if the family were at the funeral to legally open?

I was thinking that too - maybe by having one or two out, even for a short amount of time the ratios could be off.

Ficheall

Well, if taking such a practical view of things, perhaps OP should stick with the current creche, given that the owner now has at most one parent to lose inconveniently.

pwurple

Moonbeam wrote: »

I was thinking about this..Is it a small creche?
Could it have been that they did not have sufficient child to staff rations if the family were at the funeral to legally open?

How would they normally deal with staff illness or holidays though if that was the case?

The creche my child goes to had a few of the staff go sick simultaniously, and they asked the parents if we could reduce hours that week as they were having difficulty getting replacements. They spoke to us by phone, and we were able to oblige. We were not charged for the hours.

The owner/manager is probably shaken and not thinking through their communication or how they will charge.

Give it a couple of weeks to settle and address it (sensitively) before the next payment would be my advice.

Have you any interaction with other parents to see how they were affected?

ZeroImpurities

pwurple wrote: »

The owner/manager is probably shaken and not thinking through their communication or how they will charge.

Give it a couple of weeks to settle and address it (sensitively) before the next payment would be my advice.

Have you any interaction with other parents to see how they were affected?

The first two sentences

GarIT

If there is a problem with staff there is always temp agencies. They could put an ad out saying they are looking for garda vetted locals for a few days work.

lazygal

GarIT wrote: »

If there is a problem with staff there is always temp agencies. They could put an ad out saying they are looking for garda vetted locals for a few days work.

That's not always as easy as it sounds. Creches need specific staff, e.g. FETAC level 6 for those teaching preschool classes under the ECCE scheme. If the creche is in a small area access to suitably qualified and vetted staff at short notice may be impossible.
OP I would wait a week or so (or until the next month's fee is due) before asking about a refund. I would have thought one of the advantages of a creche is that you don't have to deal with a minder needing time off at short notice.

greengirl31

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago with my daughters afterschool provider. They provide the afterschool service for a number of local schools but all the schools don’t have the same holidays, particularly the odd days between Easter and summer. Anyway, they called us about a week before my daughter’s school was closed and apologised that they couldn’t take her that day cause they had children in that morning and just nowhere to facilitate the children from my daughters class that day. To say it was a pain in the @ss is an understatement and at the time I was fuming. I was considering how to approach them about the payment for the day that they couldn’t provide the service. Then when I took the long view, I though it wasn’t in my best interest. These people look after my daughter very well every day, she loves it there and I know they’re very fond of her, as they are with all the kids. They go the extra mile for me and my daughter and I am more than happy with the service they provide. Had I started moaning about the few quid I felt that it may have changed their opinion of me and my daughter (it shouldn’t have but human nature is a strange thing) and in turn soured our relationship.

I agree that you do need to be able to depend on a crèche but in the grand scheme of things, it’s one day – the owners father had just died and she probably wasn’t thinking straight so give them a break

Sheldons Brain

zefer wrote: »

It's not about that, the OP already said they aren't ignorant of the fact that someone died

The creche give the OP 1 day's notice, so they have to either try take a days holiday (at cost to themselves) or pay someone else to mind baby (which in such short notice isnt easy to do and again at a cost to OP)
.

It was insensitive of the person concerned to die without more notice. I'd suggest finding a business where people die by appointment only.

Neyite

Sheldons Brain wrote: »

It was insensitive of the person concerned to die without more notice. I'd suggest finding a business where people die by appointment only.

Funnily enough, I had a supervisor who, when I asked to book time off to attend my uncles funeral, told me that he would have to decline the annual leave day as I didnt give the required 2 weeks notice.

I agreed sarcastically that it was most inconsiderate of my youngish healthy uncle to suddenly drop dead without taking into consideration our staff handbook. Thankfully the idiot was overruled by our more sensible general manager.

Moonbeam

GarIT wrote: »

If there is a problem with staff there is always temp agencies. They could put an ad out saying they are looking for garda vetted locals for a few days work.

You need to be vetted for every place separately.

IvyTheTerrible

If my son's creche closes unexpectedly (it hasn't happened yet but it is stipulated in the contract), we don't have to pay for the day missed. It's the least I'd expect.

KCC

Pat McGhee wrote: »

The father of the owner where my LO goes to creche passed away, (not unexpectedly) and staff contacted us to say they will be closed tomorrow as a mark of respect. Has anyone else had a similar experience and if so, were they obliged to pay the creche? Now I'm not insensitive to the man's death, but he has nothing to do with his daughter's place of business and I am having to pay someone else to look after my child tomorrow, money that, quite frankly, I can ill afford.

I already pay for them for holidays, sick days (when she picked up the illness in creche), xmas hols etc....

What an awkward situation. It's definitely a bad decision on the part of the creche. I would also bring this up with the other parents to get their views. I would then raise the issue with the creche (ideally not directly with the owner given her troubles, but perhaps with the creche manager or another senior member of staff). I would empathise with the situation they found themselves in, but explain the difficulties it caused for you (e.g. loss of earnings), that you were surprised by the decision and that you would feel it's only fair that you not pay for the day in question. It's not as if it's a café or clothes shop - you have paid for the service, likely in advance.

farmchoice

The amount of petty minded meanness and general me fein-isim on this thread is unbelievable, a person's father dies, the person who you entrust your children to and all some people think about is the few pound and the inconvenience to them.
I really hope that when one of your parents or any family member dies that you are not subject to the crap that you are heaping on this woman.
I have never come across such pathetic pettiness on this forum before.

Those of you who reacted in such a shameful way really need to have a long hard look at yourselves, god, I hope you can raise your children to be bigger people they you are with a little bit more humanity and concern for there fellow man in times of hardship.

uck51js9zml2yt

farmchoice wrote: »

The amount of petty minded meanness and general me fein-isim on this thread is unbelievable, a person's father dies, the person who you entrust your children to and all some people think about is the few pound and the inconvenience to them.
I really hope that when one of your parents or any family member dies that you are not subject to the crap that you are heaping on this woman.
I have never come across such pathetic pettiness on this forum before.

Those of you who reacted in such a shameful way really need to have a long hard look at yourselves, god, I hope you can raise your children to be bigger people they you are with a little bit more humanity and concern for there fellow man in times of hardship.

It's not petty at all and no one has forgotten the circumstances. The point is that people should not have to pay for a service when it's not available to them.

MarkR

farmchoice wrote: »

The amount of petty minded meanness and general me fein-isim on this thread is unbelievable, a person's father dies, the person who you entrust your children to and all some people think about is the few pound and the inconvenience to them.
I really hope that when one of your parents or any family member dies that you are not subject to the crap that you are heaping on this woman.
I have never come across such pathetic pettiness on this forum before.

Those of you who reacted in such a shameful way really need to have a long hard look at yourselves, god, I hope you can raise your children to be bigger people they you are with a little bit more humanity and concern for there fellow man in times of hardship.

The issue isn't about death. It's about paying for a service that wasn't provided. The reason it wasn't provided doesn't come into it.

Yer Aul One

farmchoice wrote: »

The amount of petty minded meanness and general me fein-isim on this thread is unbelievable, a person's father dies, the person who you entrust your children to and all some people think about is the few pound and the inconvenience to them.
I really hope that when one of your parents or any family member dies that you are not subject to the crap that you are heaping on this woman.
I have never come across such pathetic pettiness on this forum before.

Those of you who reacted in such a shameful way really need to have a long hard look at yourselves, god, I hope you can raise your children to be bigger people they you are with a little bit more humanity and concern for there fellow man in times of hardship.

I bet the air is pretty clean up there?

I don't think anyone was expecting the daughter to open the creche and miss the funeral. The question for me is if the whole staff needed to take the day off too. The way it was phrased was: "Out of a mark of respect" and not that it wasn't viable or legal to open with such little staff.

The money aspect is a secondary point but not unimportant

farmchoice

MarkR wrote: »

The issue isn't about death. It's about paying for a service that wasn't provided. The reason it wasn't provided doesn't come into it.

Its certainly about death for the woman's whose farther died. You would be a lovely person to have to deal with as a customer after bereavement.
''The reason it wasn't provided doesn't come into it'' callous hardly covers it.

Kenny Logins

I'd have to ask how many other elderly or ill family members the staff have...

farmchoice

Yer Aul One wrote: »

I bet the air is pretty clean up there?

I don't think anyone was expecting the daughter to open the creche and miss the funeral. The question for me is if the whole staff needed to take the day off too. The way it was phrased was: "Out of a mark of respect" and not that it wasn't viable or legal to open with such little staff.

The money aspect is a secondary point but not unimportant

not only is it appropriate that the staff attend the funeral, if it was the father of the lady who runs my sons crèche id make sure that I was there to pay my respects as well.
Respect is a 2 way street if you want to receive it you need to give it and you need to accept there are times when you put your own immediate needs aside to consider the greater needs of others, like that most earth shattering event that is the death of a parent, one days inconvenience for you, one of the saddest days of that woman's life, you won't remember the date that the crèche closed but until that woman dies she will remember the date of the day she buried her father.

eviltwin

farmchoice wrote: »

not only is it appropriate that the staff attend the funeral, if it was the father of the lady who runs my sons crèche id make sure that I was there to pay my respects as well.
Respect is a 2 way street if you want to receive it you need to give it and you need to accept there are times when you put your own immediate needs aside to consider the greater needs of others, like that most earth shattering event that is the death of a parent, one days inconvenience for you, one of the saddest days of that woman's life, you won't remember the date that the crèche closed but until that woman dies she will remember the date of the day she buried her father.

do you expect the parents who use the creche to take a day off work to go to the funeral of a man they don't know? who does that??

farmchoice

eviltwin wrote: »

do you expect the parents who use the creche to take a day off work to go to the funeral of a man they don't know? who does that??

no, all I'd expect is a basic level of human understanding and compassion which in this case would at a minimum constitute dealing with the fact the crèche was closed for one day, understating the good reason why and get on with their lives without the need to moan complain and bitch about every little inconvenience that befalls them even when the cause of it is a the death of a close relative of a person they know and the need of that person to deal with their grief

pwurple

eviltwin wrote: »

do you expect the parents who use the creche to take a day off work to go to the funeral of a man they don't know? who does that??

Loads of people go to the funerals of people they don't know... To support the bereaved. I've done it.

That still doesn't mean the creche should charge for the day they were closed.

eviltwin

pwurple wrote: »

Loads of people go to the funerals of people they don't know... To support the bereaved. I've done it.

That still doesn't mean the creche should charge for the day they were closed.

I'm not saying it should, I just find it strange someone would take a day off work to go to a stranger's funeral. A card is enough. My dad died a few years back and if the regular customers had come to the funeral I wouldn't have liked it, that would feel like an invasion of privacy or something. Our office stayed open, no one came to the funeral but they didn't need to, I knew they were thinking of me.