Carol is very money oriented
My son attended Carol's setting nearly a year. Throughout that time, he consistently resisted going there. However, when we switched to a different childminder, his resistance noticeably decreased. The experience I mentioned below showed me that Carol may not be as warm and caring with the children as she initially appeared.
During that period, Carol needed to take a month off on short notice due to her mother's health issues, and I paid the full fee for that month despite there being no childcare provided. A month later, I informed Carol that we would be taking a holiday for 1.5 months and requested that she adjust the invoice accordingly, to which she verbally agreed. She did not mention I needed to pay the full fee. I had assumed she would not invoice us as I had not terminated our contract during her difficult time.
However, she later sent a full invoice. When I raised the issue, expecting a reduced rate as we had discussed, she justified it by stating in the invoice "Leo on holiday," which seemed like a play on words and greatly frustrated me. I expressed that had she informed me a month ago that the full fee would still apply, I would have opted to terminate the contract then. I then attempted to terminate the contract, but she insisted I needed to pay for another full month, citing the absence of a written request to end the contract a month prior. In summary, I ended up paying for two months of childcare that wasn't provided, all due to misleading communication.
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Response from Carol
Responded
Dear ID
I am taking the time to respond to your review as I was quite shocked and disappointed to read your comments regarding the care that I provided to your child which strangely come 14 months since your child left my childcare provision. Your review and comments are being made with an intent to discredit my childcare setting for unknown reasons with a title stating I am money orientated which is untrue. You came seeking a place within my childcare setting for your son who you explained would be very hard to settle as he rarely left you before coming to me he started with me in November 2022 and you had told me after his settling in sessions with me that you were overjoyed that he settled with me so quickly. In December 2022 you started him on 2 day half sessions per week with me initially as you wanted to see that he was happy and settled and you quickly increased this in January 2023 to 1 full day and 2 half days and he was doing so well you increased this again in February 2023 to 2 full days and 1 half day and finally in his last few months you increased his days again days to 4 days per week plus private evening babysitting sessions as you were very happy with my care of him. The increasing your child's attendance from 2 half days to 4 full days does not seem like a parent who did not think their child was happy and settled your son was with me for only 6 months. But after his initial settling in there were never any issues with him coming to me that you never mentioned any resistance from him, he came to me happily every day otherwise I am sure you would have removed him from my care sooner. The reason I believe you may have left this review which is quite negative is because in May 2023 my Mother passed away after a period of illness I had advised all the parents of the children in my care about 2 months before that she was terminally ill however I made the difficult decision not leave the children in my care to be with my Mother as I felt this would be a struggle for the parents to manage a long childcare provider absence even though this was very hard for me. So it was not until my Mother actually passed away that I advised all the parents that I would be taking 12 days (of my legally entitled 28 days Annual) Leave in June 2023 to arrange my Mother's funeral - it was not as you say to deal with her health issues she had already passed away all of which was very painful for me and quite a sensitive issue for you to raise in a review of my services. You were aware advised that the time I was taking was my annual leave which is as agreed and signed in your contract with me at the start of your childcare placement for your son (which is the same as most employed persons have) and you were also aware that if you were to take your child out for family Holidays/Trips then full fees are due this is the same as all Nurseries and childcare providers charge as childcare places have to paid to hold a child's place whilst the child is absent. So a few weeks after I returned from handling my Mothers funeral you informed me you were going on holiday for 6 weeks and I confirmed to you that was fine and invoiced you as normal. However you were very upset about the fact that you had to pay for your child's absence, and that was the first time you became discontent with me as there were no issues at all before. However I still tried to help by reducing the full fees due for your holiday period to 50% fees (not something a money oriented person would do) which I did not need to do, but you were still upset and decided to give notice instead of paying to hold your sons place for the holiday period (which was quite long) as such I advised you that the 4 week notice period payment was due. All of these facts were the contractual terms and conditions of your childcare placement and not to do with the good care your son received from me which never changed until his final day when he left. You will appreciate that being a childminder is a caring profession which I do wholeheartedly for all the children in my care. But I am also a self employed person as are all childminders so have to manage things such as child absences and unpaid bills however this is not being money orientated it is running a business which I am sure you will understand. However I am quite surprised that now more than a year after your son has left my care you would leave this review which did not tell the full facts of the matter.
