To think childminders don’t really offer a more homely and individual experience?

[Eatingmybiscuits]

Just musing over childcare options and this comes up a lot on the debate - that a childminder is more individual to the child’s needs and can offer a home based approach.

But when I think about it in practice, the childminders I know don’t, because they can’t. So for example they attend a little music group we go to in the morning, it’s really aimed at ages 18 months to two and a half but there are children ranging from 9 months to 4. The older ones are bored and the little ones can’t really engage.

Then if a child is feeling under the weather they can’t really just take it easy as the minder has to tend to other children and take them out.

I am not saying there aren’t advantages to this sort of childcare but AIBU to say this isn’t one of them?

How many nurseries have you spent time in watching the apprentice feeding 4 babies in a row, the girls gossiping about boyfriends or the staff doing daily diaries including food and sleep at 10 am? The worker in the nappy room doing a conveyor belt nappy time? The staff doing learning journals in the corner while children get on? The don't answer the door until we're all back in our rooms?
I've seen more over my time assessing than I'm happy with.
There are good, bad and fantastic in all types of setting.

BINGO.

The perfect saint of a childminder vs the nasty nursery with young girls.

I do think it's more homey, because of the mixed ages, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for kids to sometimes have to be patient at a thing for older or younger kids. In fact I think overall it's good.

I don't know that I'd necessarily say it's more individualized, but it is almost always less institutional.

I'm 4 times outstanding, an assessor, a buddy, quality assured and lead practitioner in my borough.
I've given up my Saturday to tell children a parent had died, sat with mums at hospital with their sick children, raised EHCPs, gone to homes at night to help sleep train and to sit while mums got ven birth. Had professional visits to my home in my time to learn physio, tube feeding and more.
I'm portage trained, do signing, I'm ecat and elkan trained and more......but now apparently I'm a liar too.
Today 2 parents have driven 3 hours to attend my conminders funeral the child is now 32, others took days off to attend to because we do such a bad job. ....

I've not seen you refer to the disadvantages of nursery care, either.

If you start of a thread by saying that childminders aren't all that, how do you expect them to respond?

I was a childminder for a decade .

yes care is more individualised .
if we had children going to a farm we might use that as themed activities , the activities are age related so how a 12 month old would play with an activity would be different to a 3 year old .
we attended a drama group when I had a couple of preschool for a term . I never had the right group that would enjoy that again .
As for under the weather days yes - we have cancelled a group because children are all struggling with colds and done home based activities.

As I said there are good bad and brilliant in all settings my point being that nurseries are easier to hide bad practice when it happens. But as your real aim is just childminders are awful you won't read that bit.

When DD was one, she enjoyed going out to baby classes and toddler groups, but found them very tiring. I thought that spending whole days in a nursery wouldn’t suit her. The childminder often took DD and the other little ones out to groups, then they went back to her house, which was a lovely calm, home-from-home. It’s true that the childminder did school runs and often looked after a couple of older kids after school, but I don’t think this was an issue.

I also do not think children should be engaged with the whole time. It is fine for children to play without a staff member engaging with them all the time.

Have you ever heard of uninterrupted play.

Children need the opportunity to play, unrushed, unguided, and free of external interruption whether that is solo independent play or play with a group of children.
During play, children develop fine and gross motor skills, executive functioning skills, emotional regulation, and so much more.
Play helps children to become self-reliant while learning about the world around them and coming up with creative solutions to problems. It also helps children communicate and learn how to solve conflict.

My childminder very much uses the Scandinavian approach to childcare. She stands back and watches them learn, never hovers over them or trys to interrupt them unless invited.

I think there is great childminders and great nurseries. I'm a teacher and a mum of 3 and personally find a childminder the best fit for us.

I'm presuming this is one or two individual childminders tho if you've seen them on school run and at soft play etc? You can't honestly believe that's the majority of cm. Most of us are quietly getting on with it. Your dramatic wording makes it sound much worse than it is too. I've literally never seen anyone 'dragging' kids on a school run. Most of the time it's just a nice short walk (with some fresh air, and picking up their older friends who they're very excited to see. It also gets them used to the school playground for when they go to school. Better getting out and about than in the same 4 walls surely. There may be times when a school run looks stressful if there's a child having a meltdown or whatever but that could happen to anyone. I have seen cm ignoring the children in soft play etc but again this is the minority of cm. Most of us sit in with the children or watch from afar while grabbing a cuppa, but you won't notice these. It's also good to give children a chance to play freely but as long as you're WATCHING them.

I think with most things... you notice poor examples more than good ones! Like I notice the parents (and what I think is a childminder just due to the number of children) dangerously parking outside the school... loads are parking safely. Which probably includes childminders as well, or they are walking.

Which is why you need to keep an open mind when chosing childcare... it might be the nursery is better locally, or there could be a fantastic childminder with space. Or ot could be your schools wrap around is more appropriate than the childminder when at school. You just need to look at whats available locally.

DD was 8 so she was just annoyed, she knew I was doing an hours drive that day so assumed I’d left late, it ended up taking me 3. The CM said her husband had ‘said something about crashes on the motorway’ and that was it. She was annoyed and not concerned. I did say I would be there before 4, I am shocked CM didn’t ring tbh.
She was very focused on the kids all going home by 4 on a Friday though.

I know this is just one example, but there’s a childminder at a playgroup I go to who has minimal interaction with the children in her care. I find it quite upsetting as she just stands around and chats, totally ignoring children who are often crying or looking for a bit of help to do an activity.

A really good childminder is the best form of formal childcare for under 3’s - a nursery is just the bland middle ground that many parents have to use because they haven’t got any back up for when the c/m is on holiday.
i don’t get the hatred on here for childminders ( and that’s not too strong a word from what I read on here sometimes ) the childminders I have met over the years were ex teachers, nurses, and police officers. Of course I only saw snippets of their day, but the children always looked happy enough.

Horses for courses. I just think you choose what suits you. There are lovely nurseries and bad ones same as childminders. Personally didn't want my child being dragged out to playgroups. They did the odd trip out at nursery but it was big enough that dc had nice variety in one place.

My suspicion is childminders will often feed slightly more wholesome food rather than the mass catering the bigger nursery groups manage but it's not a big deal.

I love our childminder. We wanted a home environment, and she keeps below the ratios to make sure she can care for the children in a loving way. I am so happy my kids have someone who holds them and gives them lots of cuddles. We started with my daughter at 1, and she's now taken on my son too.

It's been an absolute excellent step for us. My 3 year old does a school nursery in the morning and my minder does wrap around my working days, and has the baby. My daughter adores the our childminders daughters too - she loves the big girls.

Absolutely best decision ever. She's only term time but I would make the sacrifice of scrambling for holiday cover every time to have that quality of care.

Lots of parents promise their child an early pick up then come on time (even on the child's birthday) it is distressing to watch and annoying as we care for the children and hate for them to be upset plus dealing with the behaviour that results from the child's emotions ..none of which needs to happen if the parent just leaves early pick up as a last minute suprise messaging the cm half an hour before.
Your cm is only human and anybody after a long typically 44 to 55 hour week expecting to actually finish at 4 on a Friday being left waiting not knowing what's going on is going to be a bit peed you say she didn't call you but in that case why didn't you call her so she could get out activities to do with her....I'd be getting her doing some cooking, making playdo or jewellery if I had an 8 year old one to one for 2 hours

I used a nursery for DS1 and then, due to circumstances, a childminder for DS2. I far preferred the nursery because I felt happier knowing where DS 1 would be all day whereas, with the childminder, DS 2 seemed to spend most of his time in a car doing school runs.

The childminder was absolutely lovely, but I just felt a bit uneasy.

It’s weird stuff like this Jannier.

Why not just acknowledge that it’s unprofessional and say you’d never do it? Why try to make our it’s acceptable? It’s not.

@Eatingmybiscuits you seem to want to really prove a point and the whole bingo thing is really strange. That poster acknowledged there are good and bad about each type of setting. You see to be encouraging the 'bingo' repsindsd for cms though...

Just do what you want to do, stop worrying about why other people like other things, surely?

I used a childminder - my dc became like part of her family. They'd do different activities at home as well as going out to parks and groups

I don’t particularly want to prove a point: there are brilliant things about home based childcare and brilliant childminders.

But it does have downsides and that’s something that’s rarely acknowledged by some MN childminders. If anyone dares say a nursery works better for them it’s straight to the ‘underage girls’ comment (ageism is fine this way round) and it’s funny how all MN childminders and all parents who use a childminder are adamant that children ignored in group settings would never happen but the rest of us see it a lot (to the point where some groups by me won’t allow childminders in at all!)

Op: you do seem to have a real grudge against c/m’s.

There’s great childminders & not so great ones. Just like nurseries or any other profession for that matter.
nothing is ever 100% perfect.