To wonder if there is a different attitude towards childminders compared to nurseries?

[wellthatwaseasy]

I’m exploring different career paths and one possibility is childminding. When I mentioned this to friends I was really surprised because they seemed to think that most people used childminders because they didn’t want to / couldn’t afford to pay for nursery.

I was wondering if this was a widespread view or just my friends being a bit odd (in fairness they aren’t normally. So I’m wondering if this is a generally accepted viewpoint I’ve just not come across before!)

I would choose a cm for a young one ( under 2 1/2 or so) as first choice. It is more of a home from home and as per a pp less germs and thus hopefully less scrabbling around for support when little one ill.

A good nursery would be my preference over a child minder.

We chose a nursery because we both have jobs where it is difficult to have time off (eg if a childminder is ill or on holiday). I do think a cm os a cosier setting though.

I agree that people do regard childminders more negatively and I confess to having probably thought the same in the past. I didn’t realise until recently how (rightly) regulated childminding is, especially compared to nannies. Registering as a childminder is actually a lengthy, laborious process involving an interview by an Ofsted inspector spending several hours checking knowledge of safeguarding, understanding of how children learn etc as well as suitability of premises and then inspections (not sure how frequently).
If I needed 4 or 5 days a week childcare I think my choice would be to use both. I wouldn’t want to use a childminder full time in case she was suddenly ill and I was left in the lurch, but I don’t think people realise how much time the children in nurseries spend waiting for their needs to be met. Nurseries generally use temporary staff unbelievably regularly. These workers obviously need a clean DBS but many have no additional training or experience. I recently in a very well regarded expensive nursery and found it depressing in parts despite some lovely capable full time staff and a beautiful setting. It still felt like an institution and I would not want to send a young child there more than 3 days a week as I think it would stunt their language development.
Obviously there are good and bad nurseries and childminders, but I feel silly for not realising when my own children were small that a good childminder would have been a better choice than many nurseries.

This is unnecessarily rude. Everyone is sharing an opinion. Yours isn't more valid.

Absolutely no need to be rude to someone who disagrees with you!

Rude? No Not at all. You not liking a post does not render it rude
You’re indignation is palpable