Childminders at soft play

[Hollygolightly89]

I visited a soft play with my 3 year old yesterday morning. There was a group of childminders about 3 or 4 of them and they each had a couple of children. They mostly sat in the baby part of the soft play chatting in a group with their backs turned to the children the whole time and also constantly on their phones, even when the children were eating they were on their phones. Most of the children they had went off into the soft play alone and most of them looked under 2. I was quite shocked by this because if I was paying for a childminder I wouldn’t expect them to be on their phones and my child let loose in the soft play. At various points the children were crying for various reasons and they acted like it was a massive chore to go and get them. I aslo heard them speaking negatively about the children like “oh guess who’s crying again”.

Ok, I’m guessing we’re all different. To me having a lot of human interaction/small talk with strangers/customers I don’t care about is hell on earth. Much rather spend time and nurture the most important people to me.

And yet you make numerous basic mistakes in your spelling.

I wouldn’t normally point this out but if you’re going to sneer, then it warrants drawing attention to.

Huh? Where am I sneering? And where are my spelling mistakes btw?

Good job you weren't in the caring profession then if you wouldnt care about your clients

Alot is two words.

But I don’t care about the spelling mistakes. Being dismissive about people’s qualifications is just unpleasant.

If anyone has studied childcare in recent years it will be drilled into them that children need freedom to learn through exploration and child led learning; conflict resolution and negotiation is learned through interactions with peers; self care skills and independence promotes self esteem; self regulation of emotions is vital for emotional and social development; imaginative play where the child leads the play is crucial to development etc etc. To summarise, the child develops better when adults take a supportive role and are there for security and comfort but do not try to dominate or lead the play. By being more 'hands off' an adult may be strategically supporting the child to develop socially. The adult who hovers and swoops in to resolve every little issue is the one stifling the child's development. It's something to bear in mind when you see adults 'ignoring' children, you don't really know what is going on by one little snapshot.

Not true in all cases. I had a professional NHS career before I had my first child. I did not return to work because I became very interested in Child Development whilst my child was young so registered as a Childminder. Ironically that was after meeting Childminders at the local toddler group I took my child to.
I went on to take a level 3 qualification in Early Years Care and Education whilst childminding. I was a childminder for 21 years then worked in private day murseries for 2 years before studying for Teaching Assistant qualifications. I was a TA for several years after that. It can be a good career if you are interested enough and don't mind all the regulations and Ofsted involvement.

The families I worked for gave me glowing references and I got great satisfaction seeing the children growing into happy, confident and well rounded individuals.

This. Parents can be and often are the absolute worst. Oblivious to their 3 year old bodyslamming your 15 month old with a shopping trolley in the play cafe and then walking over in the aftermath muttering ‘what happened?’ as you carry your screaming child away to safety and their three year old zones in on a fresh target.

Yanbu. I recently was at a play group with my baby and was shocked it was basically all childminders there and they were complaining about the children! It never occurred to me they'd take the kids to playgroup and I don't know how I feel about that? Made me think twice about leaving my little one with a childminder over nursery. Fully support going out and about with the kids but just gave off a lazy cba vibe.

A male nursery worker has just been charged with rape and abuse. And some people still think nurseries are the safest option.

I talked to them sometimes when their charges hurt themselves or someone else so I def know they were childminders even though I wouldn't call them that because they did not mind the children. I winded up watching their children as well because I just couldn't not care about the safety of toddlers.

If you’re a childminder, presumably, at some point you’ve chosen to take a course in childcare because you’re interested in child development and feel that you’d have the flair and aptitude to be able to support this.

I do think that it’s the kind of job where the more you put into it the more rewarding it can be when you are genuinely interested to see how the children in your care thrive and develop from the strategies that you implement.

Unfortunately, there are too many examples of childminders demonstrating a lack of interest in their charges.

And a toddler was murdered by a childminder. Extreme sort of cases make bad generalisations.

A woman has just illustrated lack of rationale and critical thinking. And some people still think everyone should have a vote.

This is missing the point of the thread though, the OP was on about child minders who are being PAID on their phones not watching their charges, not parents. These child minders are supposed to be "at work".

In the OP it says they weren't even watching them properly when the children were eating.

I witnessed similar at many nurseries I used to work in. I temped for an agency so worked in many and only liked one nursery out of 15, the rest were bordering neglect, and yes I reported them to ofsted before anyone asks. I used to nanny, and most Nannies were great.

I am a fellow childminder and I wouldn’t be doing this but I can actually tell u that quite a few childminders have an app you hand to add on infomation about the child like nappies food intake milk everything is now documented so when do they get a chance to do it and they don’t have breaks to be able to fill in paper work on the computer and tapping on the phone is easy to upload it and some perents are keen to keep in touch via message so please be mindful before u judge it’s not nice to judge a book by its cover so they say and also some children may cry a lot and sometimes have to be left to being themselves out of the situations themselves and if they don’t they will get worse so be more mindful again don’t judge u don’t no what is going on mabye if u are that bothered ask them

Used to see things like this & worse with the childminders in my area when DS was small, I was absolutely disgusted by the things I seen, totally put me off using paid childcare. The ones in my area are all full as well and have long waiting lists.

I’ve witnessed this before too a group of them used to go to the same place I did each week: I’ve seen kids bang their heads and the childminders just not give a F *ck

Pay peanuts you get......

parents & family and step parents are main perpetrators of CSA. Applying yiur logic Shall we ban parents and step parents?

Where is your stat for that? Most perps are yes known to the child hence why they have access to them and a nursery/childminder is the perfect setting for that.

Link please?

Exactly, the hunter gatherer model is similar to maternal/paternal grandmother’s and aunts assisting with childcare rather than complete strangers who’s main motive is to
be remunerated. Only in that environment can a child make more than one primary attachment.