Childminders Club: A question about your cleaning............

[HellyBelly]

Me again

Please help save my marriage!!!

DH and I had a massive row this weekend and it's all about stress in our lives. Loads of different things going on and we've been reducing what we can to make things more bearable.

Still......big problem is the amount of time I spend cleaning. I've told him it's all part of the job and things have to be kept very clean but yes, it's taking up a lot of time in the evenings and dh thinks I'm mad. My mum also stayed recently and said I was doing more than needed and also thinks I'm mad.

What I want is a rough idea of how much time all you guys spend doing this to see whether or not I'm doing more than I have to. I really want to do this job but it really is causing a lot of problems at home (either I'm stressed and get annoyed when he's vegging on sofa watching tv and I'm working like mad or he helps and gets fed up, also, we don't see each other much these days)

In my house.......

Mindees are all gone by 6.30pm
Get ds ready for bed
Ds milk and bed
Washing Up
Tidy Toys
Hoovering all downstairs
Cleaning the floors (bit of a waste as the second mindee and mum arrive, the floor becomes dirty from the wet outside - our mat is rubbish, need a new one!)

Usually done by around 8pm as long as dh is helping in some way. Then it's time to make/eat dinner.

Sunday's - spend about 4 hours cleaning entire house but save it til the afternoon/evening so doesn't get yucky again iyswim.

This is probably the same for all of you but I want to settle this arguement with my dh!!!

Thanks

I think the way I do it, it does all average out to how you do it.

Weekdays: wash up breakfast things after dropping ds1 off at nursery and give kitchen a wipe. Then play with ds2 till time to get ds1. After lunch dss nap and I tidy up - sweep floors, put washing in machine, clean one bathroom. When dss wake, feed them, cook dinner wash up everything after dh has eaten - around 8.30.

Weekdays everything varies as we are out most of the time, but do try to clean bathrooms at least, wash clothes and give all the floors a wipe - we have laminate downstairs and in bedrooms. HTH.

With your job though I would imagine you have to constantly keep everything spick anfd span.

Yes, it's the spick and span bit that bothers dh! It's the level of the cleaning that bothers him. Obviously I always used to clean but now, it start after 6.30pm rather than bits during the day (as don't feel I can do it in the day as paid to childmind and some parents wouldn't like it!)

Thanks

Oh yeah, and I'm out tonight (not a frequent thing!) and need to leave at 7.25pm so dh is going to be very very p'd off as he'll have to do what I usually do (won't have time when I get back or in the morning before mindee arrives)

If it's causing so much friction could you concentrate during the week on just the rooms where the mindees stay?

Message withdrawn

here i go - sounding like a cow but..... you have a job.
he has a job.
if your both finished at 6.30 why isn't your dh helping to tidy up.

obviously you tidy up childmonding things like toys and dishes from during the day.

but i dont see why he cant hoover up or make tea or wash evening dishes or wipe kitchen sides or clean toilet or clean sink.

ask him what he thinks is the alternative. your job depends on your house being tidy

think of it as a shop. your customer walks in ( the mum and kid) and sees a shithole. would you buy whats on offer ( your childminding service)?

I'm getting a cleaner I can't cope

Get some e cloths lol My cleaning has been halved, no joking, since I discovered them. Windows are now easy and a pleasure to keep clean!
I looked at getting a cleaner but at £9/hr thought against it. The whole CRB checking thing is a pain too as cleaners need to be safe to be around the children.
I am sure that I spend far too much time cleaning but I do have 4 children of my own and a dog. I tend to do it as I go along rather than in concentrated blocks. I clean the shower when I am in it having one, and I clean the bathroom when my ds is in the bath. The floors are laminate or lino so get swept often and e clothed often too but in patches not all at once. It is relentless though isn't it.

Thanks to our 10 month old baby getting us up at 5.30am every day I do it all in the morning.

I unload dishwasher (loaded in the evening)
Hoover the entire downstairs laminate flooring
Mop the entire downstairs
Bleach mindees toilet and put a load of washing on.

I also do a big 'cook off' once a week where I do all the mindees/DD's/DP's food for the week and freeze it so the night before I just defrost! Whilst I'm doing this DP cleans the fridge, highchairs, toys. Polish during nap times...pay a window cleaner and gardener though!

At least at 6pm we are finished...apart from attempting to get a real fire lit of course (makes us feel relaxed) which takes forever.

Well folks, I am the most rubbish childminder in the history of mankind. I aspire to have a sparkling house but fail miserably. It is a well-known fact amongst my minding parents that they know if I have a new prospective parent to impress, or an inspection (we get checked every 6 weeks or so by network co-ordinator) because I will have dusted and there won't be any buggies or car seats dumped in the hall. I usually tell the prospective parents that they'll never see it looking so good, until the next "impression" needs to be made!

I clean/tidy up the kitchen after messy activities/meals during my working day. I put toys away when mindees have gone home (or get them to help before they leave).

Our downstairs bathroom gets done once a week (at the weekend) with an occasional quick wipe if it needs it during week.

I vacuum downstairs every weekday morning (but only because we've got long-haired cats).

I do worry about how untidy and cluttered the place is, because I don't think it looks too good when trying to impress parents. However, many parents have told me (once we know each other really well) that one of the reasons they chose me is because I don't have a pristine, showhouse-type house, and they know that their children will be able to play without worrying about the mess!! I think they're complimenting me.

I loathe housework, and do the absolute minimum because I've got more important things to do (like mumsnetting), and I don't have any vacancies for minded children (and I'm not cheap!!) so I can't be that bad!!

Oh thank goodness ThePrisoner I was beginning to think that maybe childminding wasnt gonna be for me

At the moment i have a type of rota system going in regards to housework i too loathe it!! I doubt very much other than the extra occassional wipe down of surfaces that i will do extra when i start childminding. mind you i only intend to mind 1 full time and 1/2 part time children so shouldnt be too bad.

I do my bathrooms/ and hoover downstairs twice a week other than that every other room and hoovering upstairs only once a week.

One of my aims is to make sure my family life is effected as little as possible by me childminding. Afterall it is one of the main reasons i decided to childmind ....so i could have more family time.

But like i said i will only be minding a few children i know some of you have a good number everyday and i dear say they make a good mess

ThePrisoner - SNAP - you could be me talking! Everything you say rings true. I really must clean the kitchen floor! I'm a great believer (just as well really!) in that you can keep things TOO clean and not build up any immunity. My mindees are a healthy, tough lot, and so am I !

HellyBelly- wot Custardo said.
i'm watching this with interest as I have recently started minding full time. Dh STILL thinks that I should do it in the daytime, which for me isn't really an option as I don't feel it's part of my childminding job. what I would do while minding is: wash dishes, cook dinner, hang out washing, tidy toys/craft activities, sweep floors. I only do these in ten minute bursts, and encourage the older children to help.

Message withdrawn

Ladbrokegrove - one of the things that annoys me is when people assume that because childminders work from home, we sit around all day doing nothing so therefore have plenty of time to do our own personal housework!!

You tell your dh that if he wants to come round to my house and see if he could fit in a spot of ironing and a blitz of the bathroom whilst caring for three children under the age of 15 months, then he is more than welcome.

I work full time, from 7.30am till 6.30pm. I don't get proper coffee breaks, and I certainly don't get a lunch hour. I look after children aged up to 11 years on a daily basis, and I love doing it. My housework, as with all working mummies, is done in the evening or at the weekend (if I do it at all!!)

Ladbroke - how many children do you mind?

Just thought you may like a male viewpoint.

Taking the list of things you do HellyBelly, perhaps it could be made less time consuming:

6.30pm - DH Get's ds ready for bed
6.45pm - DH Give's Ds milk and puts Ds to bed
(good time for DH to spend bonding with his son. And also helps him destress from his day - reading a bedtime story to a child can be very relaxing!)
DH finishes by 7.15pm (depending on how many stories he does!)

6.30pm - You do the Washing Up
6.50pm - Tidy Toys (which haven't already been put away by mindies. Mindies should be encouraged to tidy away their own toys.
7pm - Hoovering all downstairs
Would probably restrict this to purely rooms used by mindies. A quick run around should be sufficient.
7.10pm - Cleaning the floors (bit of a waste as the second mindee and mum arrive, the floor becomes dirty from the wet outside - our mat is rubbish, need a new one!)
Perhaps trying to stop mud being taken around the house would be better, then only entrance floor to clean. Perhaps adopt a - remove shoes at entrance - policy. Or if they won't do that, handover only in the entrance!
7.15pm - You finish.

In essence, try to envole DH more in things that he might like - doub't he likes cleaning, but expect he would like to put his son to bed.
That then gives you the time to do the final tidying/cleaning.

ThePrisoner- yr quite right about coffe breaks etc. I mind one baby (7 weeks! gulp) and I've got my own 1 and three year old. But to be honest I wouldn't do too much cleaning if I only had my own children, because I don't think it's too much fun for anyone- hence the ten min blitzes. Dd (nearly 4) will make her own bed, tidy toys while I hoover etc. I don't make her do anything but I do encourage her to do little jobs, as cleaning is just a part of life. I do however agree with you about mess hopefully meaning that the kids are (hopefully) creatively engaged.

I'm not having a cleaner - she has pulled out - because I won't pay cash in hand

What am I going to do?

ladbrokegrove - 7 weeks! Eeeek!

katymac

I'd kill for a 7 weeks old.....well maybe not kill (but almost)

Message withdrawn

I was on Birth to Three course today and we were discussing how important it was to support the whole family not just the child.

However I do wonder how we will all have time to do this as well.

It's lovely to be able to help isn't it? You often feel you should do more.

Message withdrawn

Very envious of Torquay and baby

Thanks for all your comments guys. My reply is quite long as I want to respond to as many of your comments as possible

saadia - unfortunately, the mindees use every room in the house except our bedroom but my main cleaning is the downstairs.

custardo - that's what's causing the arguements - normally I'm the sort of person who would never want to hurt people's feelings, get into a row etc. but when it comes to dh not doing stuff, I boil up inside and then explode at him as I can't believe he wouldn't want to help me (even though he knows I also have websites to build once I've done all my chores ). He gets really fed up with the Sunday afternoon thorough clean I do - we'll be out and I'll say we have to get back soon so I'm not cleaning til midnight etc!! I can see why this would be annoying but trying to explain that if he helps by doing a room or something, it makes it a lot less time spent cleaning!! I like your comment about the shop! That's sort of how I explain it - we need the money, the business so we need to impress. He agrees but just hates the whole thing taking over our lives!!

goosey - e cloths??? where???

artyjoe - I'm really not a morning person I can get up early and work on websites, my accounts, chat on mumsnet etc. but nothing too physical I'm trying out the bursts of cleaning at the moment! As for the food, that's what I want to do but we don't have a big enough freezer! Do you make lots of different meals at once then? How many hours do you spend? (for when we get our big freezer for the garage!) As for finishing at 6pm, my last mindee doesn't leave until 6.30pm which is why that's when I start the cleaning. Have actually washed up some dishes after cooking over the last couple of days to make less work when mindee goes home. This really helps!

Theprisoner - I'm so pleased you put what you did because I'm wondering whether the level of cleaning I'm doing is really necessary. Problem is that it seems more and more is expected of childminders these days (impression I get from some longer standing childminders) and on the course it's all hygiene, hygiene, hygiene!! I personally agree about the imunity thing so (after inspection, which is due soon [shaking in boots]) I'm going to rethink how I do things!

nannynick - thanks for that, I'll show hubby! In fairness he does help when asked, it's just that I'd like him not to need to be asked and not to pull faces/sigh (not always but sometimes) when I want help!

Dh and I are having a thorough chat about all this at the weekend and will hopefully agree on some things! In his defense, he's got a really pressurised new job which is probably more of the problem. Also, he's just fed up in general about everything and feels at his time of life (he's 15 yrs old than me!) he should be starting to relax a bit more.

Anyway, fingers crossed we'll sort it all out! Thanks for all your comments, I'm going to print them off for dh to see