AIBU to expect childminder to have more children?

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

Apologies as the title may sound a little rude, I’ve been looking for a childminder for my daughter. We have found one who is lovely, the only thing is she will only have one baby (DD) then 3 other children who are between 1.5-3, now I like her a lot but I’m worried about a small group of children and none are her age.

Thoughts please?

[sandybanana]

They have to adhere to Ofsted ratios I'm afraid.
That's why there are few children.

[GreatestShowUnicorn]

I am a childminder and babies don't generally care much about their own age group. They do however live watching the big kids.

[myself2020]

No - one reason we didn’t go with a nursery is that we wanted ours to be with kids of different ages - older and younger. at this agr they learn next to nothing from kids of the same age, but loads from older and younger ones.

[MyOtherProfile]

Wow. If someone looked back through my posts they would find inconsistencies. I change small details about my dc, DH, job, location and everything. This isn't to lie or confuse but to keep anonymity. The detail changes don't affect the gist of what I'm saying.

I think it's obvious why OP would have done the same. Mind you, I don't think she would be easily recognisable even now.

[Beautiful3]

Yes childminders normally only has a few children because of ratios. If you want your child to have lots of similar aged others, to play with then a nursery would be better.

[Disfordarkchocolate]

It didn't bother me.

[Willow2017]

The age of the child whether 6 months or 8mths is irrelevant. Op said in her first post thst her dd would be under 1 and the only baby there. Doesn't matter if its a boy or girl.
No need to go searching previous posts and being sarcastic at all.

It doesn't matter op no cm will be trawling mn to see if anyone is concerned about their baby. Unless it was very specific info how in earth would they know it was about them out of the thousands of parents who use cms?
Next time name change to save hassles.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

An under one year old doesn't mix with other under one year olds. They are barely aware the other one is there.

[looselegs]

I'm a childminder and care for children aged from 1- 10 years old.
The babies absolutely love the older children! They will actively seek them out and place themselves right in the centre of what they're doing! In return, the older children are amazingly tolerant of them and always respond to them positively, and are very patient and caring towards them.

[SD1978]

So put her in a nursery then. As has been pointed out multiple times- no childminder will have more than one baby due to ratios. If you want her in a room full of babies, then use a nursery. Given that children have coped for years being 'solo babies' within their own house, and no babies play together but play side by side at best, I seriously doubt there is any benefit to ha omg your baby with another baby. They aren't going to be bonding over their bottles.

[JemimaPuddleCat]

No problem.

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

@JemimaPuddleCat it’s very clear you have done that to be nasty! Thanks for your comments anyway

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

@Chocmallows I have posted above that I acknowledge everybody’s comments & I have a different view on the CM route.

I am sick of people posting innocent threads for other PP to rip them apart & be nasty for no reason. Isn’t this site meant to be fit people to offer support/advice.

Anyway, thank you all again I’ll reiterate what I said previously that I now have a different view & your comments are much appreciated x

[JemimaPuddleCat]

Well, when you're talking about child development (I think you are, your post content doesn't tally with the title), having all the information is kind of handy to those offering a response

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

@JemimaPuddleCat and you had no idea why there would be an inconsistency? So you felt necessary to make a sarcastic comment instead? There was no need!

[Chocmallows]

OP, you're really angry at JemimaPC, but you are just highlighting her posts rather than hearing the advice from others.

[Fucket]

I’ve used childminder, nurseries and been a sahp. The eldest went to nursery when 1 and spent most of the time at home with every childhood Illness going. Great for her immune system, a right pain in the arse at the time.

When I went back to work when youngest was 18 months I looked at nurseries again. I realised though that she’d been here, there and everywhere with her siblings and me her whole life, that being stuck in a room with children her own age, leading a regimented and not very stimulating (imo) life st nursery was not for her. I picked a childminder and really wish I’d done that for my other two. Random days out to the beach, Woods, even going with my childminder to her dentist appointments (which she asked me first) was all learning and new.

It’s true that once mobile little ones will copy and learn from older children. They love the opportunity to try and be big kids too.

[JemimaPuddleCat]

You didn't mention the age of your DC at the start of the thread, so I had a quick look to see if you'd mentioned it elsewhere. I noticed the inconsistency.

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

@JemimaPuddleCat can I ask why you have done that?

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

@HoppingPavlova I apologise, I shouldn’t have reacted! Apologies again

[HoppingPavlova]

No need to be snippy, people are genuinely trying to assist!

[JemimaPuddleCat]

How is it outing? If you think you're the only person with a baby that age using a childminder, how would you expect your baby to have someone the same age AT the childminder??

[HoppingPavlova]

Sorry, got confused as couldn’t keep up - see this is your first. Irrespective the above general rules apply.

Babies and toddlers learn so much more developmentally from older peers than they learn from peers their own age or parents.

[LifeAndSoulOfThe]

@hoppingpavlova read the thread Properly

[HoppingPavlova]

Now very confused. Not your first yet you seem to be clueless in regards to child development.

Babies don’t need to be surrounded by other babies, totally unnecessary. Toddlers don’t need to be surrounded by other toddlers. Young children do need to start to interact with peers to learn how to behave socially and navigate social situations at an age appropriate level before being let loose on schools.