how much of their own lives do childminders get on with?

My younger mindees help me with do little shops, help wash and put away their wee dishes after meals, etc. I clean up mindee related stuff, and at most, in summer would throw a load of laundry on to hang out on a nice day, but thats it.

My dd and older mindee disappear off and play and I would do non-cm things then if they needed done - folding laundry, making dinner, make phonecalls etc thats all downstairs- as they dont need, or tbh, want constant attention from me unless its to feed them!

what the others said

I took the children to the shop with me to get a few things for our lunch. Never for the main shop but it was nice for them to get to pick what fruit we bought that day, or to help count out how many potatoes or whatever we might have needed to get.

The point of choosing a CM over a nursery, surely, is that they do normal day-to-day things and your child learns from that? You can find the educational activity in almost anything and it's no different to a child learning things from being out and about with the parent. Even sorting socks from the (clean!) washing - matching pairs and no different to matching pairs on cards.

When you meet with CMs then ask what they would do in a typical day/week, or what they might see as acceptable. I don't know of any CMs who would think it appropriate to traipse your child round in a buggy all day every day doing their own errands :)

We sometimes nip to the shop but usually on way back from toddlers etc, it would be almost impossible for a childminder to never run an errand I work 7-7 5 days a week and my bank doesn't open Saturdays so occasionally I might have to pop to the bank but as other posters say we make it fun and educational. If I have to say go to the doctors I ask if the parents mind if they do they can make alternative arrangements for that time, none ever have though.

Not to do the main supermarket shop, but to pop in occasionally for a couple of bits to the local shops, then yes, our cm does. But that's part of why I like a cm - its normal family life, shops, dentists, library etc, as well as play groups and soft play and parks and all that. I think it's of paramount importance that you totally trust your cm to be professional and get the balance of learning/play/indoor/outdoor/errands etc right, so you need to visit a few to get the right one for you.

A trip to the shops is/ can/should be an educational experience. "can you find me the bananas?" "Shall we see if all of the bananas are the same weight?" "How many bananas in that bunch?" And repeat ad nauseam.