I told a potential mum and her children to leave immediately this morning. :(

Poor little baby You did the right thing.

Must say that I would be a bit concerned for the 7yr old and his little brother too. It makes me wonder whether they have ever been subjected to 'hurting back'

Hi Im a childminder and I think you reacted brilliantly and showed professionalism in staying calm well done.

Nicknacks - I agree with all the other posters on here, you did well to remain so calm, and did the right thing in
A) telling them to get out
B) Telling all your CM friends

NickNacks, you don't need to feel awful about anything. You did the right thing with this awful mother.

Too often we come across this type of mother at toddler groups. They let their little darlings run riot, grabing toys off other smaller children and being generally little bullies. It's no wonder that by the time they are 7 they think it's allright to do as they please.

I have always tried to teach my charges that they don't hurt children younger than themselves and if they get hit by another child to tell me or another grownup. It's good to teach children from an early age that other people are important too.

I think you were very professional.

It would have been much worse if the baby was another mindee, how on earth could you explain they were bitten by a 7 yr old!

Poor you and your poor baby.

I agree with flagging this one up with SS though, it is not right and could be just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on with the 2 little girls. Very strange parenting at the very least.

The Mum sounds barking! How awful for you. The one good thing is that it happened before you had agreed to mind them so you didn't end up taking them on.

My goodness - I would have expected a parent to seriously tell a child off for that not just shrug it off

I am stunned that anyone could allow their child to do this and amazed by how calm you are

As well as telling yuor CM friends I think I'd be tempted to make some gentle enquiries at school perhaps I am being suspicius but I'd be concerned about how she is learning this stuff (i.e. is she being physically abused by a parent to have learned to have considered biting a child) this sounds symptomatic of a really disturbed child (and a very unsuitable mother)

my son is nearly 8 his sister is 16 months, and he takes a hellish amount of abuse from her at present, but has never once in any way hurt her. Just calmly states that he "doesnt like that" and removes himself.

I am appalled that someone thinks that kind of behaviour is acceptable.

no words

I suppose you can't file an assault report against the mum by proxy, can you? I mean, you can't really do it against the DD, surely - but the mum not only allowed it to happen, she encourages her DD to do that - might make her sit up and think a bit! Very disturbing parenting.

As someone with a child at a cm, please tell all local cms about her. I wouldn't want my DS at risk of this sort of behaviour and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Your poor baby :( how awful.

that behaviour makes my flesh crawl.. very disturbing for the child to do this at all but mums behaviour... very frightening imo... your poor baby.. i would have been absoluitly livid..

and - a 7 year old thought it was normal to bite a baby???

Nicknacks you were very calm in the way that you handled it - I would not have been able to do so.

And good point about warning other CMs

Goodness me, that is appalling, you did exactly the right thing, disgusting from both the child and the mum.

It amazes me how lax some people are, today at toddler groupe my DD (2.5y) pushed a much younger child over, I put her straight into time out for 2 mins then took her back to the child for her to apologise which she didn't, so she went straight back to time out for another 2mins, she screamed the place down but didn't budge from the chair, and she apologised on the 2nd attempt.

A parent said how impressed they were that she hadn't moved even tho I had left the room - errr she's in time out, she wouldn't dare!!

wll done for remaining calm - looks like you had a lucky escape with this family

I'm surprised the 7YO didn't know that the hurting back thing doesn't count with a baby at least!

oh my god this is so shocking. Even my DS2 2.5 years knows not to bite/eat a baby. Even when my baby hits his head on his highchair he tells him "no baby brother, don't do that, you are fragile, you will hurt your head". Once or twice the baby hit DS2 and DS2 said to him "don't do that ever again" but that is it.

I would be quite worried that a 7 years old could be cruel enough to bite an innocent baby. I would be tempted to report it to someone but can't think whom might be appropriate. Maybe I would call my HV to ask her what she thinks and if I should contact someone

Blimey you reacted in a far more calm fashion than I'd have managed! Is your baby ok now?

I really dislike the hurting someone back thing (we're very much a turn the other cheek kinda family, but that doesn't make us doormats!), but really, a 7 YEAR old versus a 7 MONTH old? Surely they could know that that was wrong??!

My ds2 (7mo) can be, well, pretty violent when he chooses to be. Ds1 (7) will absolutely not hit him back. Sure he can sometimes be less than gentle when removing his brother from various parts of his person, but he'd never deliberately hurt him - he'd certainly never bite, even when ds2 has bitten him!

Oh Nicknacks! I wouldn't normally click on threads in this borad but something about your title made me look - and I have been sitting here with my jaw just hanging open in after reading that! Your poor baby, I hope she is all right - that's outrageous behaviour from the mother - you can't even really blame the 7yo for it, since she's been taught that it's ok! again.

I agree with the others to let all your CM friends know her name and warn them - it could get very nasty very quickly.

I also think you did absolutely the right thing and did very well to keep calm until they were out the door - I'm pretty sure I'd have been a lot less cool about it and had a go!

God, even if you do teach your children that if you get hit first, then it's ok to retaliate (which I don't necessarily agree with) they should ALWAYS be taught not to hit back at children smaller than themselves, especially babies!!