…or is my childminder?

The childminder should have her own buggies and child seats as yours may not be safe to use.

It's their living on the line if yours isn't safe, they use it and it causes injury/death.

Mine had her own singles, doubles and a triple plus car seats.

This would drive me mad. I pay my childminder from 8-6 but really I can drop off or pick up anytime between 7:45 and 6:15 without paying extra as long as I let her know and she's home. Depending on traffic when I pick up can be any time between 5:30-6pm, I'd hate to have to sit outside her house waiting my alloted time. I chose a childminder over a nursery for the flexibility.. also the pram thing is bonkers

How can nursery be flexible? Most childminders are a lot more flexible than a nursery....have you heard of nursery keeping a child because mums in labour, doing emergency weekend care?
Most settings accommodate late drop offs and early collection. Many of us have conminders or can arrange emergency placements.

You would be surprised at how many people think you need to be here at 10 past I leave at 20 past leaves them pulling across the drive blocking me in and think I have time to load their children feed breakfast and have a chat at 8.20.

No, mine was really flexible. If she ended up working more hours then I'd be charged for it, it's only fair, no-one was taken advantage of.

At the same time we didn't have a strict time for drop off, it was between 8am and 8.15am but that was set by us according to when we needed to leave for work. If our trains home kept being delayed and we couldn't make say, 6.30pm pick up then we've change it to 6.45pm.

One of the major reasons for using a childminder is that there was flexibility with drop off and pick up times and nursery was far too rigid.

the lunches are a huge disappointment too. My son went to nursery so had proper hot meals, but toast/breadsticks/pouches isn’t something I expect many parents give at home on a daily basis either.

I know it's a bit different but when my boy was in nursery we could drop anytime between opening tien at 7:30am and 9am, as after that interrupted their activities, the not letting you in would make me feel uneasy

I Don't think the lunch thing is odd particularly, most of my friends childminders do hot meal at tea time and it's 'freezer tea' which isn't as good as what they get at nurseries.

Drop off is, what if you live longer than 2 minutes away. Presumably you leave the stroller incase they go out anyway and build it to leave outside or similar? It can be quite distressing foe a non walker to be passed to someone new. 2 days a week for 5 days isn't long to get to know each other.
You don't sound happy so move the child whilst you are still off to look around places

Wonder how long he stays in the buggy when he’s dropped off? I fear it will be a long time.

This gave me chills. I hope she’s not still working as a child minder.

Do you mean ring if there are too many children or just do a what the hell let's make someone's life hell on a feeling?

Find a new one asap. my childminder liked my son in a buggy and then i found out he was in it all the time

Totally agree.

I did think that possibly if the baby is new and suffers separation anxiety, then the poor childminder can’t beholding him when others are knocking at her door within minutes. She is also not allowed to leave the baby u supervised out of her sight. I would guess her reasoning for knowing exactly when pick ups and drops are is because she doesn’t want to leave your little one for too long in his pram. All it would take is a simple conversation with your childminder instead of asking a bunch of strangers, most of whom know nothing about the rigid rules childminders have to follow as well as making sure ALL the children are in and safely settled. As for parents being allowed in, yes I do if I am in the room to supervise them so long as it doesn’t disrupt their child or the other children for one month. After that it flows easier and is far safer to do doorstep pickups. Not all parents want other parents watching their child. Also please remember it’s still the childminders home. She may just have her smalls on her radiator drying. All those saying report her to Ofsted are shocking people. What for? Doesn’t sound like she has done anything wrong. Her setting, her rules. How soon you all forget how the headmistress with a whole team behind her committed suicide because of Ofsted, yet you want to report a childminder who otherwise seems to be doing a good job, supplying a reasonable lunch and doing safeguarding to Ofsted! If you are that unhappy leave. There will be a queue of others waiting to grab that space.

When you start back to work this arrangement will be really stressful. What happens if your child fills their nappy as you leave the house? You risk being late if you go back into your house to change the nappy. Or are you supposed to leave your child in a dirty nappy in the buggy for drop off? And you can’t predict traffic. And all this before a days work. It’s hard enough without childminder stress.

This sounds insane to me!
my 17 month old goes to a childminder 2 days a week. One day her hours are 9:15-2:15, the other they are 7:45-4:45. Never once has she been dropped off bang on those times both days 😂 (never early though, I’d totally understand not dropping off before the time you’re paying from!) I ring the bell and then walk in, we do handover in the house. The fact she wants your child dropped off on the driveway in a buggy so you don’t ever set foot in the house concerns me - what are the other children doing in the house while she’s at the door? Are they all strapped in buggies too?
Lunch just sounds like a conversation needs to be had about your expectations so that issue alone wouldn’t bother me but the stress of the drop-off slots and things? Nah I’d be looking for alternative childcare

This is so sad and so scary to think that people would actually do this :(
breaks my heart. I’m glad your friend found out and raised the alarm to the authorities.

YANBU ❤️‍🩹My neighbour has been a childminder for 20 years. She left her frontdoor on a glant so parents could simply walk in with their baby. (Anyway, so your childminder comes outside leaving the other children unsupervised inside?) Also, my neighbour made a hot meal from scratch every day at noon and prepared homemade fruitsnacks for the afternoon. Yes, she insisted on being timely for pick-up but not on-the-minute. I think your childminder might have a touch of OCD.

Something isn’t right, I’d park and watch just how many children are dropped off too, think I’d even raise my concerns with the council or whoever protects children, somethings definitely wrong here.

My mother is a child minder 25+ years.
drop offs are 10 min window (no texting or buggy drop offs) this sounds a lot to me and a bit regimental, what if baby doesn’t want to be in the buggy?
meals during the day are meals, real food consisting of vegetables, meat, potatoes, fruit and various snacks and sandwiches. This week gone has been cottage pie, pasta bolognaise and chunky soup (all prepared in advanced and to the age requirements of children.
I think your child minder sounds far to strict.

Or would she like you to text behind the wheel? Ridiculous

She is unreasonable to not only expect you to never be late, even by 1 minute.. but also to have to text 2 minutes before arriving! …… so basically you have to arrive at hers 5 minutes early so that you can text her, then get the buggy out, strap son in and get him to her front door dead on time… but not a minute early or late… so you literally need to stand on her doorstep watching your watch and press her doorbell the second it changes to 8:00
yeah I would look elsewhere!

She sounds a total pain in the neck. I would find it hard to put up with this nonsense. I would be looking elsewhere. Its folk like this idiot that give childminders a bad name.

Sounds like army boot camp. Stuff that.

Okay this gives me red flags due to my best friend's experience years ago. Her childminder was much the same, everyone said she was lovely and on the surface she was, but a complete control freak. Kids had to be in car seats or pushchairs and you couldn't go in. Friend got a call to say her DH had a car accident and she went straight to childminder to get bubba, she knew she couldn't leave him bc childminder had said no late pick ups or she would call social services! Anyway friend turns up, she had tried to call CM but no answer. Cm went nuts saying you can't just turn up and take your child, you have to text and arrange in advance etc. Refused to let my friend in to get HER OWN CHILD and told her to come back at her normal time. Friend pushed past her and went in to complete silence, kids all in car seats or buggies. In silence. No TV, music, nothing, all crammed in a tiny room. Took her kid and went to hospital. She ended up calling the police and reporting bc something felt off. Anyway all got investigated and turns out that's how the kids were all day every day. One neighbour never even knew she looked after kids bc she never saw or heard them... Anyway, trust your instincts on this one. Have you ever been in her house, seen where the kids play/sleep etc