childminders on MN when someone is paying them to look after their dc

[shinola]

am looking for a childminder so has a look athe childminders and staffroom bit of mumsntet

and see loads of messages from childminder, in work hours on line, in time they are be paid to work by us hard working mums, moaning about us hard working mums.

how dare they? I mean, if you are going to moan, do it in your own time

I don't have time to go on mumnset when I'm with ds, how do they find the time? what happens to the kis they look after? and t add insult to injury they are using their paid time to moan about people who are paying them

but not even that, I can't believe any reputable childminder or nanny can be on mumsnet when they are supposed to be looking after kids

money for old rope

carrie, she sounds great!

(hi wellie, are you having your morning cuppa- I am!!)

childminding can be a very solitary job, if a minder is on here for a few minutes for company doesn't mean she isn't doing a good job, means she's human

havnt read the whole thread but atm my 2 boys and my mindee are eating their dinner quite happily and quietly so I am on MN Cos I ate my dinner quicker than them !

if you are so concerned why dont you stay at home with your "much longed for child". how dare you critise these professionals (well mine is) you know nothing about them. you get good and bad in all proffessions (yours is one such)

look after your own child maybe practice your spelling for a doctor its terrible shinola if thats who you are.

oh and good luck finding childcare think you may need it!

I'm at work atm. In fact I'm almost always at work when I post on here. Should I grass myself up to my boss? We're all allowed a break.

isnt it rather like being on the phone? you maybe looking after someone elses kids, but you are allowed to answer your own phone whilst you do so.

Actually Shinola I am at work atm. My children (own 2.1y and minded LO 2.5y) are both upstairs asleep having their much needed afternoon nap. After all, with all the activities we childminders do mostly in the mornings, they need a rest.
Childminders are well practiced at multi tasking with children and know how to arrange activities to keep children entertained. This stops them from becoming bored and demanding .
Sounds like you need some lessons in time management .
PS. Its not like we can knock of at 12-1300 for lunch or 20 mins AM and PM. We grab our breaks when possible and like any other working parent we can spend that time doing what we like providing the children are cared for.

Good luck finding childcare, just glad it won't be me having to put up with you. Mind you I could always have a moan about you on here!

theres a lot of vitriol on here and I do think the original post was valid - she said she was unhappy at the amount of time some people were spending on here, and that they were on moaning about the parents of the mindees, when they were being paid by said parents.

I'd be miffed about that.

go back and read the original post, and what she said about having no problem with short and constructive posting.

I must say I'd be concerned about spending loads of time on here when in charge of dd as if I don't keep one eye on her god knows what will happen.

maybe its an age thing - older ones can go off and play on their own.

but anyway I think she has a point and this vitriol isn't doing the CM cause any good, unlike some of the other lovely posts...

Yes, I don't understand all this venom. She's making a valid point. She's made it in strong language, but it's still valid for all that. Why not just answer the point?

As I said a few posts ago, my children have to be watched all the time. Not because I say so or because I'm a weird obsessive, but because they're little and they climb and they have no sense of danger. It takes seconds for them to get into trouble. How do you know the OP's child isn't like that?

If the OP is mistaken about how much free time there is when childminding, then that's easy to explain to her. But criticising her spelling is silly and petty, and jeering about being glad not to be looking after her children is just plain nasty.

I would rather the CM was on Mumsnet than watching Jeremy Kyle.

The difference is that a CM home is usually child proofed in the areas where they will be playing. OFSTED inspect the premises to ensure they have adequate safeguards in place. Mine is like fort knox! Stairgates to kitchen, stairways up and down stairs, nowhere to climb except on dining chairs next to computer desk. Also, as I pointed out earlier, childminders are far more used to dealing with several toddlers at a time and, with all due respect, most mindees pay more attention when told not to do it by their CM, than if the parent said the same thing. Therefore they tend to be better behaved generally for the CM. They also do not demand a CM undivided attention, as this is just not possible all the time, so children have to learn to play independently for some of the time.
The ops point is not valid because all working personel require some break time and can spend this time as they wish, as self employed it is down to the CM discretion.

That makes a lot of sense to me, tori. Hope the OP is reading too.

Don't know about your children, wellie, but stairgates were no barrier so my son beyond the age of about 14 months as soon as he could hook his toes over the top of the them. Ditto cots, from 11 months, car seats from about 20 months, cupboards with childproof locks on from about 18 months, anything climbable from about 11 months, socket covers from about 2.3 yrs (yes we even tried those), 6 ft garden gates with lock at the top from 2.2 yrs, etc... Yes, all ticked off in his baby 007 training course.

How he even made to 5, let alone the relatively unscarred young man of 14 that he is now, is beyond me.

why shouldnt my cm go on mn when my ds is there?im on here when my dc are here.

are cms allowed to go to the tiolet whilst your child is in their care?is that ok?

Sounds familiar, duchesse. [terror]

But I'm guessing from this thread that other children are different....

Oh, I take mine with me to the loo or I don't go. My bladder must be the size of a pumpkin by now.

what you want is a nanny not a childminder. im a nanny - and im an angel - i never pee while at work (hence leaving the kids) i just hold it all in, if i have a period i just let my tampax over flow, i never drink or eat (after all i wouldnt want to stop giving the kids my full attention for 2 mins, plus less food and drink means i have to pee and poo less...winner) i never text while at work, especially not to moan that im having a hard day, i just bottle it all up inside alone. when the kids are napping i dont even dream of picking up a magazine - no way! instead i spend nap time scrubbing the inside of thier pottys with my toothbrush, after all i am scum and have no purpose of need in life other then to become slaves to you and your children.

Your employers allow you to have your own toothbrush?

When I was a secondary school teacher, neither I nor any of my colleagues had time to go to the loo from one of the day to the other. I know people who ended up with kidney ad bladder infections. That is one advantage of working from home...

Wellie- mine usually followed me to the loo, so didn't need to take them with me. And I see from my sisters' children that other children are indeed not like mine. One of my sisters can leave her 4 and 6 yr olds unattended for an hour without worrying!

Ohh, and 2 out of my 3 did not nap after the age of 18 months. The 3rd one gave me a glimpse into other people's lives by napping until she was 4. Still a good sleeper now (at 10) while the others (12 & 14) are done after 8 hours. My 14 yr old usually gets up of his own accord at about 6:00-6:30.

It would probably have been in contravention of some Human Rights legislation to employ someone else to look after my 3.

By weejie on Mon 11-Feb-08 16:40:42
theres a lot of vitriol on here and I do think the original post was valid - she said she was unhappy at the amount of time some people were spending on here, and that they were on moaning about the parents of the mindees, when they were being paid by said parents.

I'd be miffed about that.

The reason many childminders moan on here about parents or other aspects of the job is becasue we have no one else to moan to. If we discuss it with local RL childminders then we caould cause all sorts of confidentiality issues. By talking about problems on here then no one knows who we are, what our mindees or their aprents are called, and another CM is likely to have been in the same situation at some point

I agree saltire, cm do need to vent frustration without breeching confidentiality.
As I have already said, children are far more aware of boundries in childcare settings because they are enforced consistently and therefore children do not climb over the stairgates or go into areas in which they are banned from going. If they do there are consequences and they are deterred from doing it again. Its about the respect from the children which CM tend to have.
This is not a dig at parents/ lack of discipline. My own dd quite often won't do as I tell her but will do exactly as told when my colleague says do it. Its the different unknown authority figure IYSWIM.

wow I'm new (REAllY REALLY! LOL)
what an interesting and lively debate.
i gonna add my tuppenny worth if thats ok
i am a childminder, although not currently minding as i have gone to uni, i was minding full time for 8 years. i have also worked briefly in a day nursery. am also a mum of 2 having used chidcare for my children, pre-school for my son my daughter is now with a childminder.
i think that there are good and bad childcare whether they are day nursery, pre- school, childminder whatever. the definition of good depeends on each persons/ families ideals.
as a childminder i would never have sat on the internet when the children were awake, unless i was doing things for the children and they were involved with me, i.e. looking for colouring etc they want or an answer to a question i did not know.
however when the children were asleep i did use the internet. ( personally if i was minding i feel i couldnt devote the time to the children if i was doing other things. ) if they were playing without me joining in then i would be observing the children and jottin this down to help me with keeping their development records etc.
i know there are many childminders out there who would use the internet and I am not conedeming this- we are all different and have our own way of doing things.
i also would never herald one form of childcare as better than another- just because there are more people working in a nursery doesn't mean the children are receiving more attention- they have higher staff to children ratios. also when working in nursery the staff would often be stood chatting about what they had got up to the night before- this often not suitable for young ears! i know not all nurseries are like this either and i am sure there are very good ones to.
so i guess my point is, to the lady who started this. be very careful when looking for childcare and make sure you are very happy with what you see- make several visits before deciding- i know i wouldnt have objected to this when i was minding. i used to tell parents to knock if they were passing- they would then get true feeling for how things wokred in my home. the same is true when i did this when searching for my own childcare- any setting objecting to me turning up unannounced- were crossed straight off my list
we have so many different childcare options because we have so many different families with different views and different ideas, none more right than the other and we should respect this.
Soap box exited

welliemum on Mon 11-Feb-08 07:37:25
"My (little) children are like duchesse's: if you can't see them, you can guarantee they're doing something destructive or dangerous or both."

But why would this exclude being on Mumsnet? If the computer is in the same room and you are a quick reader and good at touch typing....why wouldn't you see the children?

I know I used to say that I never got anything done when I was a SAHM (have tried both this and CMs in my day). But a quick look at my CV doesn't bear this out- I was writing articles throughout their early years and not only on the days they went to CMs. (but we also did lots of fun things)

I don't think the reason is that my dc's were exceptionally well behaved, rather that I had tuned to a fine art the knowledge of exactly how long it would take them to prise open the safety gate/get to the top of the stairs/climb on to the table. I was prepared to work in 2 minute snatches. And I could do computer based searches and sing nursery rhymes at the same time.

Typing on Mumsnet and supervising dc's was no harder than cooking dinner and supervising dc's- which is surely something most Mums have to do? Multi-tasking.

Compared to all the multitasks I have been called on to do as a SAHM - shopping for food with several children in tow, changing baby's nappy while supervising toddler, cooking, washing up, hoovering, helping older child with homework while supervising toddler, looking after one vomiting child and one healthy toddler - all of which I (and other SAHMS) have managed to get through with no professional training, I wouldn't see reading a post on Mumsnet as being particularly impossible to combine with childcare.

And I think there is a lot of truth in the earlier statement that most children behave better with their CMs. And IME CMs are very good at judging situations involving children's safety.