To remove my children from childminder because she reported a parent to ofsted?

[threelittlespeckledfrogs]

I am a regular but have changed my name as I am aware I may be flamed for this.

I have three children, a five year old and two year old twins. They go to the childminder's at seven and she takes my daughter to school and picks her up and looks after the twins all day. I had always thought she was a lovely woman and my kids seem to like her.

In light of the recent publicity over the law on looking after friends' children, we were having a conversation about it. I said that I thought the law was outragious and couldn't see what difference it made. I also said that I couldn't understand what kind of busybody would shop someone to ofsted for looking after a friend's child. She then said that she had shopped someone for doing exactly that.

I asked her why and she said that it was unfair that people should be looking after children without having registered.

What made me more than anything though was that she said that the woman she shopped had to stop caring for her friend's child, and that she then took on this child as a mindee.

So not only has she forced a mother to pay for childcare when she was previously able to have her child looked after by a friend, but she has also gained financially from it as she is minding the child.

I am really angry about this and I have seen her in a totally different light now.

I don't want someone like this looking after my children, so I have given notice and the twins will be going to a nursery and my daughter will have to go to before and after school club.

But I am tempted to tell all the parents of her mindees what she is like.

IBU?

Without all the facts, I think, OP, YABU.

Was the mother paying her firend? Was her firend dirving this child around? Did the firend have fire guards, etc, and first aid training?

If you are in anyway unhappy with the care your chilren are reciving, then ofcourse you should move them, but are you totally confident of all the staff who will be caring for your chilren?

The childrminder mentioned int eh OP hadn't done any thing wrong, and in fact she think she is protecting a child/ children from an illegal childminder.

Myabe Ofsted checks should just be scrapped, if peopel feel so strongly they are not neccesary.

Ok it's been long enough now with no reply from Op, can I call shit stirring jumping on the bandwagon troll now?

Haven't read the whole thread, but.........

YABU.

None of this affects the care she gives your children, which is what you pay her for.

I wouldn't put my kids through the trauma of setling in somewhere else, without a better reason than that.

Soupdragon the reason most people side with the lawbreaker, isbecause they know this is a bad, bad law.

Regardless of whether you think the law is nuts or not - it is against the law to look after a child for more than 2 hours a day for reward.
End of.
The law may change or be clarified, but right now that's how it is.

When will people realise that the law is there to protect children and to make sure that they are receiving the best care and education possible, and not there to just piss people off?

It's not just about every person being a potential paedophile! It's about someone being responsible for your child in a safe, inspected environment and having up to date first aid training and relevant childcare qualifications.

I work bloody hard as a childminder - 50 hours a week plus approx. 10 unpaid hours a week on top of that on paperwork. Plus the weekends and evenings I give up to training to make sure I am the best childminder that I can be.

So yes, I wouldn't hesitate to report an unregistered person. Why some of you think the childminder reported this person because she was being vindictive is beyond me. But then so is leaving a child with an unregistered person in the first place. Good on her I say.

I used to pay my friend to look after my DCs. When I first went back to work with DD 13 years ago, there was no help with childcare. I needed somebody who could take DD from 9 weeks old as you only got 18 weeks mat leave then. I finnished work 6 weeks before her due date and she was 3 weeks late.

I payed her £40 a week. She was not a qualified child minder but she had 3 DCs of her own and I knew she would love and care for my DD. Not long after she looked after her DN as well, She bought a double buggy to take them out in, went around car boots to buy toys, baby seats and things which she paid for herself. She gave them breakfast, lunch and tea. Took them to playgroups, played games and sang songs with them. She also looked after 2 other DNs during the school holidays.

She had a few visits from SS following complaints that she was an unregistered child minder (made by her exH). This put us in the position that we had to write letters to SS saying that no money was being paid. The biggest problem with this was the fact that my friend wasnt paying tax on what I paid her, but after what she paid out she wasnt making much.

I think we as parents shoud have the choice to choose what childcare arrangements we make without interference from the government.

After all we can choose to home educate our DCs with absolutly no training, so why so many rules for pre-schoolers who learn by playing?

"so why so many rules for pre-schoolers who learn by playing?"

If you look in depth at the EYFS this is exactly what it is - supporting holistic learning through play.
The whole rules and targets nonsense are yet another myth created by the Daily Mail.
Yes there are early learning goals but these are a guide of what the "average child" may be doing at the end of receptopn year, not a stipulation. The underlying message of EYFS is that every child is unique.

"the law is there to protect children and to make sure that they are receiving the best care and education possible"

It's up to me to decide who gives my DC's the best care possible, not the state.

You are right HerBeatitude, it should be your choice. Personally I'd go for the qualified, inspected option every time.

I think TeamCATW the reason that people get miffed is because there are thousands of kids up and down the country who dont use CMs or nurserys who cope just fine in safe but uninspected environments. THEIR OWN HOMES. They should be allowed to decide if their friend has a safe and loving environment suitable for their DC.

I think a person who is illegally child minding and posing as a registered childminder is different and definatly wrong.

"yes but I dont want a childminder who will develop my child thanks, I am happy with him playing with my friends and neighbours who have done perfectly good jobs with their own children, and I believe I do a perfectly good job of developing him myself"

I completely agree. The children in my care are allowed to do exactly that.
For example, today I had a 22mth old and 14mth old all day. We went to storytime at the library, then the park. After lunch and naps they played with playdough, then played on the school field for an hour at school pickup. The rest of the day they pottered around my playroom playing with cars and trains etc. We don't sit them at desks and give them lessons!

Well the difference is, that the state doesn't stop you choosing your preference. Whereas for thousands of parents, it does. And it shouldn't. That's all.

"and what if you cant afford the professional route???

you cant use your friends, neighbours, wider community, you cant have an arrangement that says I will take your kids to school, if you pick mine up

what if the childminder for your 2 kids costs more than you earn, what then

for a government that declares they want us to work, they are making it almost impossible for us to do so"

Again, I agree and this is why the law needs to be looked at and clarified.

However, one set of parents with me both work full time and have 80% of their childcare paid for by tax credits.

For me, my problem is with the unregistered childminders who have 5 or 6 kids and work full time - I agree that if you want someone to help for a couple of hours a day then fine.
But unfortunately at the moment what that person was doing was illegal

"yes but if my neighbour/friend is happy to do that for free, why should I pay you to do it, there is nothing there that wouldnt happen with my friends/neighbour"

Because I am regulated, insured, paediatric first aid trained....etc etc etc

But anyway, I've said my bit now. Interesting discussion though.

Of course I'm not mrsjammi.

I'm a parent to 3 children myself!

At no point did I say childminders are better than parents.
I'm saying the law states you cannot be unregistered! And if you read back, I'm saying the law needs revising to clarify that if you want to swap childcare without money then fine.

strikes me the biggest mistake the CM in this sorry story made was mentioning all this to the OP. Sorry if that's been said before. I think the OP is completely BU by the way, she doesn't know the whole story. I know that the hoops that CMs have to jump through are ludicrous, if I was a CM I'd be livid if someone was CMing on my patch without those hoops.

Disclaimer: I have a life and haven't read the whole thread.