This is the height of lazy childcare and I’m so sick of it

[WizardLizard86]

Just back from a church playgroup and at various points it absolutely reeked with small kids needing their nappies changed. I’m not talking babies, I mean toddlers who at some points are actually waddling uncomfortably with full stinky nappies. The minders seem to just do a nappy change en masse before they leave.

Their ‘carers’ are mainly a big group of childminders (no I’m not slagging them all off just these ones!) who just sit having a chat while their charges free roam and they either don’t check or pretend not to notice. An occasional few are parents who are actually sitting right next to their child but still don’t get up to anything about it for ages.

There’s two changing facilities and a box of spare nappies of all sizes and wipes etc so it’s not that. The changing rooms are just off the hall so no one needs to go anywhere else to sort it, and they’re empty most of the time.

I’m a nanny there with toddler twins and triple checked their nappies loudly to make a point but it doesn’t change anything. (We’re not there anymore and they are napping so I’m not slacking off)

It’s so unpleasant for others not to mention gross and uncomfortable for the child, I feel like they’re should be a sign up or something but it just seems such a basic point of childcare it shouldn’t need to be stated.

is it common at other playgroups? I don’t know what the answer is I just wanted a vent. Puts me right off my coffee and hobnob I tell you.

And those children are so starved of attention by when you play with your child and make engaging noises they huddle round. It’s sad

Is their not a playgroup leader who could."remind" the carers that nappies need changing ? It's not only unpleasant for everyone else present , keeping babies in dirty nappies is unhygienic and likely to cause a nasty nappy rash

And you've worked this out just by being in their presence for an hour or so??

You clearly don’t know much about the nanny industry. Why on earth would I be self employed? What is baffling about parents not requiring Ofsted registration when I have an up to date DBS, paediatric first aid, 15 years of references and a level 3 in childcare qualification? It’s just surplus to requirements, I have no need for it.

I must admit the group of childminders at the local stay and play made it unbearable.

they were like a group of adult mean girls who ignored their children and sat chatting.

they were so clique it was horrible.

Lazy parenting seems very prevalent. I work in a library with a cafe in the corner of the big hall. A group of mums regularly sit in the cafe chatting or on their phones while their children just rampage round the library unsupervised. Often these are quite young (3-4 year olds) with no sense of danger; some are older and know exactly what they are doing. They climb all over the furniture, stand on chairs and tables and throw books and other items around. It's intimidating for elderly customers who are worried about children crashing into them when they are running around. We are employed to be librarians not childminders. Just waiting for an accident to happen.

Please don't tar all childminders with the same brush! I get so sick of these posts, making out that all minders are bad and it really gets me down. Business is difficult for many of us at the moment and posts like this don't help.
I've been a childminder for over 25 years. I go to 3 different groups each week- a craft group, Rhyme Time and a Stay and Play. I don't follow the children around- they need to have that independence to help their confidence grow- but my eyes are on them all the time; I know exactly where they are and what they're doing. And, yes, I chat to other people ( although I'm never on my phone) because childminding can be quite isolating and lonely and it's good to have adult conversation!

However, if one of the children has a dirty nappy, yes, it's a bloody hassle to change them. We are not allowed to leave the minded children with anyone else ( so whoever said to leave them with another minder or the group volunteer- nope-we can't) so we have to take all the children to the changing area....which is usually in a accessible toilet....so you have a toddler that needs changing....a 3 year old playing with the toilet whilst you're changing the toddler, and a 9 month old baby who you really can't put on the toilet floor.....but what else can you do with them? I'm not sticking up for minders who leave little ones in dirty nappies but most of us have one that will happily sit in it all day so maybe its the lesser of two evils, especially if it's not long till the end of the session....
Ofsted would not be interested in a one off complaint about a child left in a dirty nappy.They can only just get round to inspecting every 6 years!
And I've worked in nurseries.....they ain't all that!

Parents are also unable to access tax free childcare or funding if the nanny isn't Ofsted registered either.

I've seen it too. To be honest I also saw one laugh at / make a fool of a wee boy who was crying. I wouldn't use a childminder as you can't really know who the good ones are. Seems too unregulated.

Fair enough- I’ve worked in lots of different areas though. In the posher areas where I mostly used to work they didn’t really have playgroups, or the parents I worked for would prefer to pay out for specific classes or MyGym or whatever so we didn’t really do church run groups . In another area it was mostly Nannies with max one or two charges with them. When I had my own, there weren’t any childminder groups or Nannies, mostly just grandparents and parents taking their kids to the local church toddler group. Didn’t notice it there. This is the first time I’ve regularly gone to the same playgroup in a childminder-heavy area and it’s the same culprits every week at more than one local stay and play/playgroup.

I genuinely didn’t know it wasn’t ok for a childminder to nip to a changing area whilst another childminder had eyes on her older charges- but yeah now I’ve thought about and ratio aspects etc, it didn’t occur to me this would apply in a public toddler group with other DBS-cleared adults around.

Yes it must be a pain in the arse to take everyone into the loo. And I’m absolutely not tarring all childminders with the same brush.

No it doesn't. She just has a realistic take on the utter pointlessness of reporting nappies not being changed immediately at a church play group.

.

I work part time and take my toddler to children’s centres in the week - also attended by a lot of childminders. I’ve seen the good the bad and the ugly. Quite interesting watching the different child minding styles and I always wonder if the parents have any idea

Most of the parents I’ve worked for don’t qualify for that as their earnings are too high. These parents also use a nursery as I only work for them 2.5 days a week, so I assume they just use up their tax free childcare on that. But as I said, if they paid, I’d do the registration. I’m just not prepared to pay to go through the hassle myself.

An acquaintance of mine at the time would say to us, yeah I know she’s had a poo but she’s not done yet, I’m sure she’s going to go again so she’d make her and us wait while for her toddler to do another poo and in the meantime it just stenches!

How can they utilise something they don’t qualify for?

fully agree!

I really don’t know what you’re on about. It’s not up to me how people use the tax free childcare scheme if they qualify for it.

How awful for the parents who think they’re leaving their young child to be well cared for and looked after!

Some people just don’t care. A child about 6/7 pooed themself at soft play a few weeks ago, not in nappies and it was coming out the top of his pants. He was following me and my daughter round trying to play with us. I sought out his parents and had a quiet word that he’d had an accident so they went to get him… and made him eat the lunch they had ordered while he sat in his own poo. Absolutely grim