Childminders at soft play

I'm sorry but this has annoyed me!

Most Childminders have Early Years qualifications (not to mention first aid, food hygiene etc) and undertake continuous child development training alongside doing the job. We also often invest our free time ensuring we stay up to date on all SEN and Safeguarding changes.

My mindees are happy and well looked after. Sometimes to the detriment of my own family time. I take my job very seriously, as being entrusted with other people's children is such a huge responsibility.

I appreciate there are indeed Childminders as you describe. But it's only some of us. Please don't tar us all with the same brush!

Not all are crap, but it is a job women do when they lack qualifications, like being a beautician, hairdresser or dog groomer. No one, even themselves, expect much, certainly not a career.

This just isn't true at all. I'm in Scotland and all our nursery staff have to be registered with the the commissioning body and be trained to SVQ level 3. None of them are there because they failed their qualifications and in fact my child's nursery has a large age range of staff.

Similarly there are childminders out there are who do it for the love of children and certainly aren't thick. What a horrible judgmental post.

There are childminders that go to all the groups I regularly take my children to. There is only one that I would trust with.

In the summer it took the leader of our forest school around 10 minutes to find the childminder in charge of a baby left crying completely covered by a blanket on a boiling hot day. She had wondered off on her phone. There are two that go to a local soft play who regularly bitch about their charges and don't bother intervening when they are physically hurt or fighting with other children. And I've had to return one toddler that had ran out of the library without his childminder even knowing he was gone.

There are definitely some good childminders out there, but the number of awful ones I've witnessed has put me off for life.

You might say the same about the NHS, church etc. We all know how much reporting goes on there....none

I use nursery for my babies because I want that environment
I don’t want them fitting in around someone else domestic environment, they already have a home

And, although it does still happen, in a nursery you have other adults around pretty much all the time keeping an eye on things. I'd like to think that the majority of adults would report a co-worker if they saw them doing something really bad; at a childminder's those kids are often all alone with that adult.

Hence why I never wanted a childminder. I wanted a setting that wasn’t out and about, those looking after them wouldn’t have their phones and other staff to hold them accountable. I’m sure though there are amazing childminders out there.

Absolutely this. My child has a family and is no need of another one or have one replicated. I need childcare to be safe and stimulating.

Of course there are good and bad childminders and good and bad nursery staff. But while of course it's unsettling to hear of shit childminders, I think this thread has been quite a refreshing read to get a balanced view on childcare.

More often than not, whenever nurseries are mentioned on here you will be guaranteed that on the first page someone will post "have you considered a childminder?" and then post after post saying nurseries are awful "institutions" (by people who have no idea what institutionalised care actually is), staffed by teenagers who know nothing about children, children are ignored and their needs aren't met etc etc. While childminders are seen as the gold standard, provide "homely" nurturing 1:1 care despite the fact this is impossible if they have more than one child.

As we've seen here this is far from the case. Nursery/childminder - one isn't better than the other, it's about choosing what you feel is better but it's good to see a reflection that childminders aren't quite the gold standard they are made out to be. Of course some are, just as there are some excellent nurseries.

The childminders my daughter has used have been wonderful! (As a former nanny and nursery nurse I know I can be judgy)
I did take my granddaughter to soft play quite a lot although I found it quite cliquey and the adults ,parents,totally ignored the children .I felt like I was on duty,rescuing the little ones.
There again, adults need the company of other adults although this should never trump the children's welfare. I'm sorry for OPs experience, children deserve the best care possible.

Mumsnet doctrine is nurseries are akin to Guantanamo detention with felon staff and childminders are homely,stable,big hearted saints
All the cm will rise up telling you its ardest job ever and oh all the paperwork and checks…

I’m pretty sure in my first comment I did say I don’t agree with that. Parents or childminders

If that’s your take on the entirety of the nursery profession then I’m afraid I don’t believe you.

Many m

Many many years ago I used to see the same group of childminders doing exactly as you described OP everywhere I saw them (small town, limited options!). Put me right off that form of childcare!!

I was at soft play one day and a little girl was over wanting to play with my baby which is fine but it soon turned into basically minding her as she was asking for help on the slide etc. I said to the girl “where is your grown up?” And she pointed to her nanny who was slumped in a chair with a coffee scrolling her phone, enjoying her down time while I minded her charge!She waved over at me when she noticed the girl pointing at her and went back to her phone. The bloody cheek! (Obviously I sent the girl back to her nanny I’m not minding other people’s kids!)

Also the inevitable consequence of people being told on here to set up as a childminder as it’s a job they can fit around school hours / look after their own children at the same time.

This is why i only entrusted DC when they were verbal and able to communicate what happens, almost 3 yrs old

You must live in a really shitty area.

Lots of childminders near me have lovely lifestyles and do it in spite of the awful pay, not because they are too thick to so anything else.

Yeah but there not being paid!

I'm always at toddler groups and soft play and I honestly think this is the norm, there's a group of childminders I see regularly, they don't interact with the kids and sit eating and chatting with each other instead.
Don't even get me started on the amount on the school run picking up their kids with their childminded littles on tow - there is one who parks for a space at 2:30 with car time those kids are in her car for 2 hours a day. Wouldn't be what I would pay for.

Ex childminder here. I could have written the OP myself. Sadly it's common to see this happening. It gives the good childminders a very bad reputation.

I don't think I ever sat down when I would take the minded children to a softplay centre as I was constantly checking they were safe or playing with them. I would often end up with other childminders children joining us as we engaged with our children.

There are good childminders out there but often they have a long waiting list. If you see these same childminders sat chatting and ignoring the children in their care I would report them to Ofsted. They are neglecting the children in their care at best, at worse it's an accident or safeguarding issue waiting to happen.

This is awful 😭 those poor babies.

YANBU but there are good and bad childminders, just like there are good and bad nurseries. And good and bad schools!

I was a nursery assessor for years.