Childminders at soft play

These threads just go round in circles. ( tomorrow they’ll be a thread about how disappointed a parent is with nursery because little Johnny has been bitten 3 times in a week )
The truth is, no parent will ever know exactly what goes on all day everyday, whether the child is in nursery, with a childminder, or a nanny. They’ll never know because they’re not there.
The vast majority of children in childcare are looked after well I’m sure ( or at least adequately )

Well I don’t consider having my child in the care of someone who isn’t likely to let them come to harm is job well done to be honest, it’s an extremely low bar! I do expect them to notice when my child’s nappy needs changing, stop them from lamping other children or intervene fairly if they are the lamper, I do expect supervision when eating, I do expect them to be engaged and interested and help my child if they need a hand up the slide etc etc. And actually a lot of small children DO need an adult on hand in these spaces, not as glue but as someone to help them, comfort, assist and advocate for them whenever necessary.

A lot of childminders get away with the above because the parents only hear what the childminder tells them or the pictures they are sent.

I also (as a nanny) work with no break or adult interaction most days but it’s not like I didn’t have a choice of what progression I went into, you make it sound like childcarers are working in an incarnation facility.

Enough of us on the thread have first hand witness accounts of what the OP described in the very first post. Go to any soft play or playgroup provision or park Monday-Friday during working hours and before long you’ll probably see it yourself.

I am a good nanny but I know there are plenty of rubbish ones. To deny that would be stupid.

I think there are enough of us who have seen the same sort of scenario repeatedly to say it’s a problem. It isn’t just limited to childminders and of course most of us (me included) want to believe that the setting we use is professional and our children are thriving.

I think it’s probably going to be an issue until we start viewing caring for young children with the respect it deserves.

THIS IS A POST FOR THE PERSON WHO HAS PUT THE POST AND OUT CHILDMINDERS IN SOFT PLAY AND FOR THOSE WHO AGREE WITH HER!
That would be like saying: “I went to the GP several times and 4–5 different doctors only told me to take paracetamol. Later I was diagnosed with something serious — therefore all GPs in England must be rubbish.”
It doesn’t make sense, right?

1. You cannot generalise thousands of hardworking, professional childminders because of a tiny minority.

1. Childminders know the children in their care incredibly well.

1. Childminders work alone, with no colleagues, no lunch break, no HR, no backup and often no adult conversation all day.

Before posting judgement online, it’s worth remembering that a short Snapchat view rarely shows the full context or the reality of what’s happening.
Go and ask school nurseries how well developed children are overall if they come from childminders as opposed to those who have never been to one and and then you will have the answer!

1. You cannot generalise thousands of hardworking, professional childminders because of a tiny minority.

1. Childminders know the children in their care incredibly well.

1. Childminders work alone, with no colleagues, no lunch break, no HR, no backup and often no adult conversation all day.

Before posting judgement online, it’s worth remembering that a five-second Snapchat view rarely shows the full context or the reality of what’s happening.

I’ve also temped in nurseries so I’ve seen a lot! It’s a real mixed bag. Most are just ‘ok’ really and the majority of the staff do their best up against long hours, shite pay, constant staffing issues and poor management. The only one I considered very good was an expensive Montessori in an affluent area, everything was made of wood and they had cleaners in every day so it was spotless, and the teacher to child ratio was well higher than the minimum.

In all nurseries staff have good days and bad days. I’ve only reported one as she kept saying how hungover she was and telling the toddlers to shut up, and spent her shift lying half asleep in the book corner. She absolutely only did the job as it was a paid option available locally to someone who wasn’t very clever academically. She had no love or interest in it whatsoever and openly said how boring it was to be around children.

However I mainly come across older women who are mums themselves doing it as a lot of nurseries offer a 50% discount to employees who send their own children to the nursery. It’s the only thing that’s ever made me consider doing it full time.

Easily said when you have the luxury of choice.

This is honestly so sad . Im a childminder and i work myself to the bone . We dont visit soft play alot or playgroups we are out exploring the woods, collecting sticks and leafs for our crafts , on rain day we go out jumping in puddles ect . The children are the whole point of my job, we do visits to the supermarket or farmer market so the little one can see any new fruit or veg they may want to try. We meet up with other local childminder as this help our little ones to be able to make more memories.

I would most definitely have gone over and asked them to pay more attention to the little ones.

I just hope people know not all childminders are the same. I hope you get to see other childminders in action.

Nurseries are a necessity and provide a perfect setting for all sorts of abuse to take place, neglect and just a terrible setting for children and babies all together.

I’ve no idea what sort of nurseries you have been into, but the one my children attend(ed) certainly isn’t. I wouldn’t have sent my child somewhere that wasn’t.

Child SA is almost always done by males. Yes this can be a parent, family, friend or boyfriend but the key factor is access rather than relation. That cohort of people are likely to have unfettered and easy access to the child hence why they may be over represented as a stat however without you providing a stat to support it you shouldn’t make sweeping statements like that. To suggest that nurseries are safer than a child’s own home when it comes to CSA is a massive cope. Nurseries are a necessity and provide a perfect setting for all sorts of abuse to take place, neglect and just a terrible setting for children and babies all together.

I’m not doing the prove it game. from practice I will tell you It’s an unfortunate truism child statistically at risk of abuse in Family setting. Parent or step parents , family member are unfortunately likely to be a perpetrator. In particular a non birth new partner being introduced in family

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/13/lancashire-childminder-who-killed-baby-in-her-care-jailed-for-12-years-and-seven-months?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Exactly, the hunter gatherer model is similar to maternal/paternal grandmother’s and aunts assisting with childcare rather than complete strangers who’s main motive is to
be remunerated. Only in that environment can a child make more than one primary attachment.

Link please?

Where is your stat for that? Most perps are yes known to the child hence why they have access to them and a nursery/childminder is the perfect setting for that.

parents & family and step parents are main perpetrators of CSA. Applying yiur logic Shall we ban parents and step parents?

Pay peanuts you get......

I’ve witnessed this before too a group of them used to go to the same place I did each week: I’ve seen kids bang their heads and the childminders just not give a F *ck

Used to see things like this & worse with the childminders in my area when DS was small, I was absolutely disgusted by the things I seen, totally put me off using paid childcare. The ones in my area are all full as well and have long waiting lists.

I am a fellow childminder and I wouldn’t be doing this but I can actually tell u that quite a few childminders have an app you hand to add on infomation about the child like nappies food intake milk everything is now documented so when do they get a chance to do it and they don’t have breaks to be able to fill in paper work on the computer and tapping on the phone is easy to upload it and some perents are keen to keep in touch via message so please be mindful before u judge it’s not nice to judge a book by its cover so they say and also some children may cry a lot and sometimes have to be left to being themselves out of the situations themselves and if they don’t they will get worse so be more mindful again don’t judge u don’t no what is going on mabye if u are that bothered ask them

I witnessed similar at many nurseries I used to work in. I temped for an agency so worked in many and only liked one nursery out of 15, the rest were bordering neglect, and yes I reported them to ofsted before anyone asks. I used to nanny, and most Nannies were great.

In the OP it says they weren't even watching them properly when the children were eating.

This is missing the point of the thread though, the OP was on about child minders who are being PAID on their phones not watching their charges, not parents. These child minders are supposed to be "at work".

A woman has just illustrated lack of rationale and critical thinking. And some people still think everyone should have a vote.

And a toddler was murdered by a childminder. Extreme sort of cases make bad generalisations.