Childcare questions

Becks610

Hi I have a few questions on childcare:

- what is the going rate per day. I am in Waterford/Kilkenny. I hear it’s around 35 euro.
- do people pay their childminder for holidays etc. I assume they do if child is sick as that would be short notice.
- I assume people supply all food/nappies/cream etc to childminder.

Thanks - just looking to discuss things with childminder and want to know the general standard.

Bacchus

Becks610 wrote: »

Hi I have a few questions on childcare:

- what is the going rate per day. I am in Waterford/Kilkenny. I hear it’s around 35 euro.
- do people pay their childminder for holidays etc. I assume they do if child is sick as that would be short notice.
- I assume people supply all food/nappies/cream etc to childminder.

Thanks - just looking to discuss things with childminder and want to know the general standard.

I think it will vary a lot from childminder to childminder. A good (and I mean really good) childminder will know his/her worth and will charge accordingly.

How many children/babies the minder cares for will also be a factor in the cost... and your decision. If the childminders going to be 5-1 ratio, you're losing one of the big advantages over a creche. That should definitely be something to ask about.

You're probably about right with €35-40 a day as a ballpark figure.

Again, it will depend on the childminder but I think food is generally provided by the parents. A childminder may include food at an increased daily rate. You'll probably want to be providing all that stuff yourself anyway so you know what your child is being fed. Nappies etc. would come from the parents for sure.

Regarding holidays, same story... its going to come down to the childminder. Our arrangement is 3 weeks off in the Summer. We're paying for 1 week. At Christmas we had 2 weeks off and there was no fee, but we got her a few gifts If the minder is sick or her kids are sick, there's no fee to us (though it does mean we have to take time off work). Our little one has (thankfully) rarely been sick but we did send her over one day in the depths of a cold, and it wasn't a problem. That's one of the benefits we saw with a childminder... a creche (technically) won't take a sick child which means the parents taking time off work. This is compounded by the fact that parents still drop off their sick child to creche which increases the likelihood of your own child getting sick... and the cycle goes on. With a childminder you should be more flexible with dropping off your child if they're sick (within reason... they'd probably draw the line at vomiting). Do ask about their policy around this. TBH, if they have a "no sick child" policy and have >3 children being looked after, I'd be looking at a daily rate closer to creche prices.

Hope that helps, and I hope you find a great childminder. They are worth their weight in gold if you can find one.

Moonbeam

I would expect the parents to provide nappies and cream.
I always provide the food myself because then no child is different at meal times.

sillysocks

I’m in Waterford and our childminder charges 30 eur for full day and 20 for a half day.
We provide all food, nappies, wipes etc.

The general rules she goes by for pay is that if she’s available and we don’t send the child (so say the child is sick or we decide to take holidays) then she still gets paid. If she is sick or takes holidays then we don’t pay (although for the goodwill depending on how much time off it is we often would just pay her anyway).

It’s a while since I was looking for a minder but all of the above seemed fairly standard in the area.