to think that if you are a paid childminder, you should spend your days actually looking after the children....

[NewAgain]

....and not running around town, doing your shopping, meeting mates for coffee and taking your own children to after school activities?
I know a few childminders in my area, who I see regularly around town and on the school run.

Their minded children seem to spend half the day strapped into triple buggies and whinging whilst chilminder goes about her business around town.

Now whilst this is surely completely normal things for people to do with their own children, I would be pretty p!ssed off if I was paying somebody else to do this with my child.

AIBU to wonder if the parents of these children realise that these people are being paid about 4 times over to just drag several children around with them on their normal daily routine?

New Again, why are ALL childminders being tarred with the same brush?
One snapshot moment of one childminders day does not make up the whole day!
To assume that all childminders are the same and this is all we do all day is ignorant and nasty. You must be very bored.

Childminders are providing a home from home enviroment, and not a formal learning enviroment...which is a GOOD thing..!!

I@ve never used paid for childcare because I didn;t return to work,. but if I HAD done I'd have wanted any of my DDs to do exactly what we would have done had I have stayed at home...and that involves going to the supermarket, going to toddler groups, meeting friend and their children for lunch/coffee etc..

So for this morning I have done the school run to drop off DD1, gone to a group with DD2 and DD3, then taken my Mum to the Bus Station, stat in Starbucks and had coffee (DD2 had smoothie, DD3 had her milk), then come home and had lunch...

DD2 is now playing, DD3 is having a nap, later we'll go and collect DD1 from school and make the dinner for the family...

ALL of which are things I'd want the childminder to do if she was looking after my children in my place...

Never used a childminder - was somewhat put off when both of the two CM's I contacted told me that they would put my DC in the creche at their gym for a couple of hours a week as they always did a class.

yikes Nancy how utterly bizarre and unprofessional

Does a CM get the minmium wage - I mean from each parent, not minding loads of kids just to get it. It has always been (IMHO) something of an anomalie that parents will pay cleaners more than they pay childminders.......

Not necessarily true, round my way CM get £5-6ph per kid, plus holiday pay etc

factor in 3 + kids, and the fact they are not paying for their own childcare (a massibeve cost as we all know) , and they do OK

OK its not a hedge fund salary, but its not pittance either.

I think its a tough job however.

I used to think they were cheapest option, they I worked out that Nursery up my road was £10 cheaper a day, so go figure!

A cm gets an average £3-£4 an hour depending on area....well below the minimum wage!!

I see the OP has not come back to the argument she started?

Oh I am on the mumsnet site as I have today off

I think the op wants us CM's to have the children at home and not move from watching her little beloved.

Get real 'New Again'

porcamiseria!!

We have ratios if we have our own children so you saying we can have 3+ kids doesn't necessarily run right.

I can have 2 full time as i have a daughter under the 5 age.

I think that pay depends on where you live, as with most wages, here in Dorset average is 3.75/4.00 per hour.

And yes good wage if you have 3 under 5's full time.

Not so good if you have 1/2 children under 5 yourself, so only have space for one under 5, and yes I know you are not paying out for your own childcare.

But out of that £4.00 per hour, there are a lot of expenses, so it can be a pittance.

( I hasten to add, I am one of the CM's who do make a good living, so not saying you cant)

fair enough, i really dont want to CM bash! at all! It just bugs me that some people seem to want to present them as hard working, underpaid saints. Its a job at the end of the day, a paid job.

BUT I still think its worth factoring in that a CM in your scenario is saving anything from £700 to £1000+ if they have a little un thats all. costs they soend if they did any other job

I am in the capital so rates are obv higher

When you think of it, a CM with two under 5 children of her own, is in a way paying for Childcare.

A Cm can earn from 3 under 5's, if two of her spaces are taken by her own children, she can't earn from those spaces, so is in effect paying for her own spaces.

thanks Shoshe.

Porcam......
CM's are hard working and underpaid!!! A job we are paid for yes...but half of that time is unpaid as a lot of cms {like myself} offer 7am-10pm care 7 days aweek!!..when the OP said about doign stuff in their own time..when?

The things that a cm does do benefit the child, read the replies from the mums who are happy with what their cm does.!! that is the whole point of talking to your cm and im sure if you were not happy with letting your child out for fresh air your cm may oblige.!

why are you working unpaid? makes no sense to me why youd do that..?

porcamiseria, child minding is a hard job, in the way it is not just looking after children, their is ALOT of paperwork involved now looking after mindees, risk assessments, observations, contracts, daily planing, tasks that follow EYFS learning etc... and that is only for the children.

you then have the operational side of it, and then you have to show EYFS side of it also!

They are hard working and more so that many NWM jobs, and this job is not a 9-5!

I see , so its the additonal paperwork /admin once work in done. I see. hmm. this is an education

I do about 10-20 hours a week, on paperwork, preplanning, resource buying, cleaning equipment and toys, washing sheets bibs, etc.

All this is done ON TOP of the paid hours with the children.

Those 10 - 20 hours are not paid for.

A few years ago, ofsted brought in formal learning into childminding, in the way of EYFS which is now compulsory, if you do not follow these/this paperwork aspect of it, then you registration will be provoked!

Going to the shop is not a easy task for a childminder, they have to do a risk assessment on doing this, from the 1st step outside to the 1st step inside the store, and what dangers and precautions they are going to make sure they make, so the child does not come to any harm, this is done for all indoor and out door activities, play groups, bus rides, coffee shops etc.... everything done has to have a risk assessment!

Tiz very hard work.

You may learn something Porcamiseria!!

On the whole I see nothing wrong with CMs carrying on with things that need doing, however I'm sure there are some who do little else than have these children wondering around and shopping most of the time. As long as it's not all the time no problem for me....

The whole point of a childminder is to offer a home from home environment,hence doing daily things with the children. If parents dont want this for their children they wouldnt send them to childminders.

If you feel this childminder is just sitting in coffee shops all day and not caring for the children, dont come on here and moan, do something about it ring ofsted.

wandering, not wondering although maybe they are wondering!!!

Hi Newagain

Before I went back to work I had one blissful morning a week when I went to the gym and DD had a fab time in the creche across the corridor. There were two ladies who when chatting to them at "drop off" time I established were childminders. They would drop their charges off at the creche, bugger off into the gym for an hour and then have lunch at the cafe, THREE TIMES A WEEK!! Grrr.

Would be preeety pissed off if they were my kids!!

One reason people choose to become cms is because it fits in with their own lives(they can do school run for own dc and a bit of shopping etc). This is reflected in the salary,which is often below minimum wage. Decent cms also take the children in their care to the park/playgroups etc, even though their own children may be at school at this time. It is all about balance.
If a parent wants the person caring for their dc to do child based activities only, perhaps they would be better off getting a nanny and paying the associated costs. I think cms have a hell of a lot of responsibility and this is not reflected in what they earn!

..forgot to also say..

My soon to be SIL is a childminder and is amazing at it and 100% dedicated to the kids..a few of them stay over regularly. Like some of the other posters have said she does so many activities with them, inside and outside and is happy for her home to be a soft play palace!

Best thing was when she did an Easter Day for the kids last year and made my wee brother (the lad-about-town kind of guy, likes everyone to think he's a bit cool) dress up as a bunny!

But it does seem wrong for the ladies at my gym to have 3 mornings off whilst being paid to mind kids when they don't.

I know several childminders who actually pay for their charges to attend a pre school,primarily to help them develop social skills prior to school and because at a certain age many children are 'ready' for outside stimuli,even with the best will in the world you cannot be everything to a young child and pre school/creches/playgroups etc really can fill this gap.

Id have no problems with dc attending a creche whilst the C.M was at the gym,after all isnt that what a sahm might do?

If you want 100% dedication then either find a beyond merit c.m or employ a nanny but you may still find your dc will need outside stimuli.