Childminder Clubs - Help re: NAPS

I'm a bad bad childminder.

I stay to the bitter end at our morning activity group, feed mindees whatever it is parents have supplied (I'm a naughty naughty childminder who does not want to provide food because I know they won't eat what I eat!!)

And if any children have any naps, it coincides with school runs.

This doesn't look good, bad bad childminder, think I will report myself to OFSTED tomorrow

(I would like to add that parents do know all this!)

I did get an hour occasionally though.
As to eating lunch, I have given in and now eat mine with the children, and try to eat much the same, whether it does help with table manners in the long run is debateable sometimes when I watch them but......

Don't you just love children

IME it's well worth leaving Toddlers at 11.30 ready for lunch at 12 and bed by 1 .

Mindee asleep. DD snuggled up watching care bears dvd. She is shattered and in need of nap, but bad mum keeping her awake so she goes to bed tonight.
Means a grumpy tea-time probably though.
I too left toddlers group at 11.30 to walk home so they could eat just after 12. This meant pitta bread, cheese, salad etc though as no time to cook. Have just made shepherds pie while mindee asleep with 2.5 year old helper - munches on raw carrots and watches.
What is an hour break BTW????
however have had coffee and snuck on here for 10 mins while care bears on . but got to go now and make sure she stays awake.

Not easy either way though

I'm just impressed you are going back to lunchtime naps again though. My DD is also 2.5 and I find on the days she does nap - about once or twice a week, I can't get her back to bed in the evening as she is too full of beans. So at present I'm ploughing through the late afternoon grumps.
As to changing a little one's nap time. I have found that when the children are with me, to an extent it happens naturally. I tend to go out and about in the mornings as that is when playgroups are on around here, and if a child falls asleep in a buggy then fair enough, but more often than not I find that they have decided that they are enjoying what they are doing too much and stay awake all morning. If you can get lunch into them reasonably early ie 12 and they nap afterwards you still have time to fit the nap in - just and the parent should still find that the child is tired again by bedtime. I found that if they woke later than 3.30-4.00 then a 7 o'clock bedtime would be a problem. But you are not proposing this. I guess the only problem wuld be if the parent expected the mindee to have a second nap later for her.
I also found that neither of my children and some of those I minded were tired by lunch and didn't eat too well so I always make sure that tea is a big cooked meal and they all eat much more at this meal. If they are hungry after an afternoon nap they coauld always have fruit to tide them over to dinner.
The only time I had problems was when I was collecting DS from nursery at 11.30 and one mindee kept falling asleep in the pushchair on the way back for lunch. It was completely impossible to wake her, and one day a week she was collected at 1.30 often not having had lunch . I was supposed to wake her on this day, but sometimes it was totally impossible to do.
But the parents would much rather that I went out and did activities with the children, provided that they do get enough sleep one way or another.
They don't seem to be worried about a slight change to the ruotine at all

What about a folded up quilt/blanket on the floor or a little mattress?

Would any of them sleep in a buggy?

Can you not put your ds down for a nap in his normal cot/bed?

Tan - you mean I lie well?

Hi Hellybelly!

All the toddlers I know ( which is only a few ) have naps after lunch.

Certainly if they were at nursery, lunch would be at 12, swiftly followed by a nap.

What they do at the nursery is get them on their own little mats with a blanket & they rub their backs - not suggesting you do this of course! but perhaps, if you can put them for a nap at the same time, they might all want to have one ?

I'd say, you're the childminder, you're in charge. I wouldn't ask nursery to give my DD different treatment to the others !

Perhaps just try getting them to sleep at the same time & see how it goes ? I don't think it will impact mindee 1's time with his mum either way.

Hellybelly - I have just taken on new mindee and he too eats junk food from time to time, he also eats pretty healthily too but when his mum told me what she gives him sometimes and told me what she would send in his bag in case he got hungry in between meals, I just said that it would be healthier if she could provide only fruit.

Katymac; perhaps I should have sought advice from you as you seem much more diplomatic!

HellyBelly - youcould always try making the morning nap 15 minutes later each day til they coincide. My 3 or 4 all go down straight after lunch (playgroup pick up at 12, lunch 12.15ish, in bed by 1!), all in the same room. Didn't take long to get them used to the idea. Up at 2.30-2.45 to get ready for school run. It is lovely to have a short break in the long day (after I've spent an hour wiping food of every horizontal surface in the kitchen, mopped up spilled water etc etc!)

I go out somewhere most mornings (toddler group, music, soft play), and usually do a morning and afternoon school run. I've always explained this to parents. All parents who have chosen me to be their childminder know that we are out and about, and are fine that their children may therefore be asleep in a buggy or on a car journey. I think I would find it nigh on impossible to accommodate everyone's "ideal" day in my house unless we stayed in all the time.

If parents definitely want children asleep in cots for a fixed time, then they will probably choose someone else!

The children's usual routines often change anyway once they are with other children, or we are busy out and about.

"one of the children has an allergy - I can only serve 'safe' foods that have been checked, It's wonderfully kind of you to put such lovely foods to share - but maybe it would be safer if I provide all the food"

d'ya think?