In shock after visit to childminders

Any dog can bite. Anyone who says ‘not my dog’ is a moron who should not have dogs. I have a dog, have had dogs all my life of all different temperaments and would never leave any child unsupervised around a dog. I certainly wouldn’t consider a childminder who had dogs as it’s just too much risk.

So you would rather have childcare with a potentially dangerous dog and choking hazards than find a decent one @begaydocrime42

Why report? Have you read the thread. It's dangerous and she should report to protect the other children before an accident happens.

Your a childminder and the small parts lying around wouldn't bother you. Wow.,, just wow. How do these childminders get away with it. Scares me just thinking about it.

I should add I'm a dog lover and we have a dog - my children have been around family dogs from an early age and taught how to behave around dogs. But even so I would not ever have sent my children to a childminder that had a dog around the children. It's not worth the risk IMO.

My daughter was actually bitten by a childminder's dog as a baby and absolutely nothing happened to the CM whatsoever. I, on the other hand, had to find a new childminder to protect my daughter.

Oh gosh, that's dreadful. I sent my DS to a childminder who had a dog, but the dog was kept separate from the children, unless the CM was directly supervising interactions, and absolutely not allowed in the playroom. She used gates/fencing to keep the children and the dog separate. Even the calmest dog in the world can have a moment and lash out, it's totally irresponsible to have a dog in a playroom in a childcare environment.

If a report could easily get her closed down then she should be closed down, don't you think??

Ahh that's okay the if it didn't actually bite the child's hand 🙄 are you for real??

"YOU should know better than to let your baby crawl up to a sleeping/resting dog. Dogs, like humans, will react when being startled awake*"
*
What planet do you live on? It's a childminder obvious the children are going to be crawling and walking around. The dog should not be around the children. End of.

Yeah that's not good but why report to Ofsted? You only saw a few minutes of one day, you don't have the full picture. The report could easily get her closed down, no wonder people are leaving the profession and it's a nightmare to get childcare anymore.

I checked out a few childminders before settling for a nursery. One of the child minders were left alone in the front garden alone, no lock on the gate on a busy road, it totally put me off childminders.

Please report this one to ofstead

Glad you have reported her. Dont drop out of your degree, this is just exceptionally bad.
Could you look at nursery’s instead? I prefer the nursery setting to a childminder. But there will be a lot of good childminders out there.

This is terrible op.

Report the childminder to Ofsted and then look at other options. Don't let it put you off childcare completely.

There are good and bad childminders.
There are good and bad nurseries.
There are also excellent childminders and excellent nurseries. They just take a bit of finding!

I used to be a childminder and would always advise parents to look around as many local options as possible, both nurseries and childminders. They are all so different!

Dogs do not belong in a childcare setting although as childminder’s are in homes they can have dogs but need to clearly demonstrate if/when/how they interact with the children and I wouldn’t consider anywhere unless I was confident a dog was contained separately. Small parts of course are a choking hazard and you can’t physically watch the mouths of multiple crawling children so I too would be concerned about small parts. crafts/small part activities can done at the table using trays so no chance of little bits going on the floor for crawlers to ingest - it’s really not rocket science!

please don’t let this thread put you off childminders or tar all with the same brush. I was a CM for 10 years and if I say so myself a bloody good one and cared for every child as if they were my own and horrified to read your experience. You might have to Visit a few but it’s a bit like wedding dress shopping - when you find ‘the one’, you’ll know.

I am a big fan of my nursery as there are so many professionals in the room. Granted it’s very expensive. I would never personally use a childminder and certainly not one I had any doubts about.

Does your University offer any childcare facilities?

Sorry that was meant to say you get support for childcare if you're studying. Not if you're studying childcare

How awful! Why the hell are some posters hellbent on defending the dog?!?!? The kids’ health and safety should be priority here.

I'm sorry that is absolutely awful! I just wanted to comment in case you didn't know, that you recieve financial support from gov if you're studying for childcare. Last time I checked it was 80% of fees. Apologies if that's already been mentioned or you already know, but it's worth knowing so you can explore your options!

Gosh this is shocking, def did right thing in reporting this whole thing.

Ah .... never the dog's fault but the fault of a 10 month old!

Lord above. So glad you have reported this.

I’m not surprised you feel this way. Tbh i’ve had 2 bad childminders. One of them had a dog with no issues, other one had a cat that badly scratched my son’s face. This is just the tip of lots of other issues.

Take recommendations with a pinch of salt. Sometimes it will be friends rather than actual clients they’ve had before. I’m also glad you’ve reported to ofsted, their inspection process for childminders also isn’t very thorough at all.

We’ve personally had much better experience since changing our son to nursery.

Report! It sounds like there’s an accident waiting to happen imminently.