Childminder employing a helper

[Rosenotinyorkshire]

Hello. I use a childminder two days a week. DD is there with one fulltime baby. Very pleased with CM in most ways. She informed me when I picked up on Monday that she is going to employ a helper so she can expand her business. Im not sure if I feel comfortable with this or not. Obviously helper will be subjected to the usual checks but I have never heard of this situation before. Can anyone be kind enough to give me their experiences or thoughts. Many thanks!

As long as she follows all the rules of hiring an assistant then it's not that unusual at all (my dh was my assistant for a bit). It just depends on how you personally feel about it. Any concerns you have should be raised with your CM and I'm sure she'd be happy to discuss this with you. I had a couple of people concerned about me expanding but when I talked them through it, they were actually very pleased and they loved it when we had 6 toddlers all mixing together :) Think there main concerns were how I would get on with working with my husband!!

Thanks looneytune. It isnt her husband. It is one of her daughters friends mum. Asked her today. Im slightly worried as we have some mutual friends in common who all seem to think the partnership is going to end badly owing to personality clashes. See how it pans out I guess. I admire you for working with your husband though!

LOL at admiring me for that, there are some husband and wife teams out there who work great together but I'm afraid I sacked mine!!! He had no idea what hard work it was and left me to do most of it which wasn't fair on the children. My business was more important so I told him to go! My next assistant will NOT be my DH!!

My DH started working with me last year and I have to say (once we got over the initial hiccups) it works great. The children get a lot more 1:1 time and we can split older and younger children for activities. Children who are awake can be taken to the park, while the other children sleep.

Thanks HSMM. I can see the benefits but am more concerned with the potential for clashes (see earlier post).

Those would be our early 'hiccups' . There will almost certainly be some settling in time for the two adults and from then on it will either work really well, or will go belly up. Without knowing either of them, I can't give you any advice.

I was contrasting Looney's example of 'sacking' her DH (hoping that I am her example of a team that works well ).

Yes, you were one of my examples HSMM

It can be quite a lonely job being a cm, I would have loved someone to help change nappies, tidy up, give me time to concentrate on activities, learning journeys, just to wash up occasionaly would be nice.
I can't see the negative side of having an assistant to be honest unless they don't get on and then as long as they are professional you are unlikely to find that out.
I would also be very clear if I had an assistant that they must not talk about the children or families outside of the job, gossip I suppose is what would concern me the most.
But look on it as a positive to start with and hopefully it should work well, be interseted to know how she can afford to pay a minimum wage though if she only has 2 mindees at the moment, perhaps she has been flooded with enquiries.

Agree with most of the above and would rather run naked through the village than work with my DH, a bit like you looney, he thinks I have it easy while he has to go out and drink coffee all day do a proper job.

Assistants can be brill, but obviously you chose your CM for your DD, you will be well within your rights to meet her, find out what she will be doing and ensure she abides by all the polices etc. (esp confidentiality).