To get rid of my childminder ASAP after this scary incident?

[BeingHumum]

My DS started with a new childminder a few weeks ago when he started school. There have been a few small incidents which have made me worry. Then I picked him up one day last week to find him playing in a room with a high balcony unattended. The balcony is the type with gaps in railings and at bottom of railings, and had table and chairs on it (climbable!). The door to the room was shut, minder not there, door to balcony open, DS playing with a 5 year old girl. When we left the house I asked him if he'd been on the balcony without the minder; he said yes. I had noticed the balcony before he started but never in a million years thought a registered childminder would open it, let alone leave the room.

When DH and I complained, she said the children are sensible - at 4 and 5!!! She did close the door next time I went but the key is left in it at child accessible height. Also I have seen her leave a baby asleep in a car on the roadside while doing the school run - completely out of her view. Both of these are grounds for complaint to Ofsted.

This is a deal breaker for me, I now have serious doubts about her awareness of safety and lax attitude to safety. The problem is she is the ONLY minder in the village. I am looking into getting a part time nanny, which will cost more but let me sleep at night, but could leave me with problems if she leaves. The minder will be there for the next few years. She is well meaning, just very dizzy and old school (50s), probably thinks modern parents are too cautious. AIBU to not give her another chance? What would you do?

Looks to me as though some posters on here feel:

1. the balcony issue is ok but the car issue is not.

1. the car issue is ok but the balcony issue is not.

1. the balcony issue and the car issue are both not ok.

I'm with number 3. Both are not good in my view. So BeingHumum I feel YANBU to be looking at alternative childcare arrangements.

You see that to me reads that there are steps down to a garden area from the balcony area. Which the children would presumably be supervised when using and that they don't have free access to the balcony are which I think is sensible (unless you are only looking after older children).
Otherwise it would say "children have access to the reception room, bathroom, toilet, bedrooms and balcony area".

nannynick you appear to think people have an issue with a balcony, of itself, when it's the fact that there are tables and chairs on balcony that kids can climb up (and fall over balcony from) that's the hazard.

I wouldn't dream of that being safe, at home, abroad or in a restaurant, with young kids around. How a childminder can think it's safe is beyond me.

Nothing like climbing a tree.

exactly perfumedlife - why not go the whole hog and prop a step ladder up against it (I have actually seen this at a friends house with young kids).

I would never leave two young children alone by a balcony. It's way too risky.

And just because OFSTED decrees something is satisfactory doesn't absolve parents of the need to make important judgement calls on their kids wellfare. God save us from the nanny state.

Also, let's take that hypothetical case. I might allow my own child to climb said tree, based on my own assessment of risk - the height of the tree, the skills and innate clumsiness of my child, my own personal feelings about risk versus reward...

But if I were looking after my sister's child or a friend's child, I would always, always, be more conservative in my judgement.

And if I were a professional, being paid to care for a child in a business arrangement, I would put the other parent's assessment above my own.

Thanks to all, I have reported to Ofsted today, and arranged flexible working until the nanny starts. onepieceofcremeegg I know it seems like I already knew the obvious answer, but believe it or not the other parents of children at the minder barely raised an eyebrow when I told them what had happened, so I started to doubt by own judgement a little. Either they are not concerned about their children, or don't have any other choice, not sure which. Poor kids :(

Hope you get alternative childcare sorted very quickly. I have experience of having to move a child (albeit in very different circumstances) and I recall it being very very stressful, for lots of reasons.