Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Flip

Original poster

is this right?

22 replies

windywoos · 03/11/2011 14:08

DD had an 'accident' at the cm's yesterday. It was mopped up with a towel and we were given a bag with her tights, shoes and the towel to wash, which apparently there are cm rules about. Feeling disgruntled that we're being asked to do cm's laundry...

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

ChippingInAutumnLover · 03/11/2011 14:14

Really? How very odd? I would have just put them all in the machine when it happened and put them on an airer/radiator and let you decide whether you wanted to take them home damp or leave them with me and there's no way I'd give you my towel to wash.

I'm not a CM though...

squinker45 · 03/11/2011 14:16

Well if that's in her rules then fair enough, surely? I wouldn't mind this personally. I don't think there are any specific rules on this but I could be wrong.

squinker45 · 03/11/2011 14:17

Oh I wouldn't actually do this (give you the towel that is) either, and I am a cm

Original poster

windywoos · 03/11/2011 14:22

We were really . To us it seems really odd to be asked to wash her towel when we pay through the nose for the childcare and it happened on her watch, so to speak. Bizarre.

OP posts:

moogster1a · 03/11/2011 14:31

As a CM i would have given you the dirty clothes but probably not the towel. But, thinking about it, I guess she doesn't want to put a wee / poo filled towel in with her wash so would have to do it seperately. Makes sense for you to do it whilst you're washing the clothes anyway.
i certainly wouldn't have put the mindees clothes in my washing machine. I'm afraid cleaning the clothes is outside of my remit. i have more than enough of my own to do!!
TBH as a parent it wouldn't really bother me one way or the other.

squinker45 · 03/11/2011 14:37

Yes I think wee/poo incidents are to be cleaned up by the cm (and anything used to clean them up) but wouldn't wash the childs clothes, partly because i am always dying things and shrinking things by accident. No problem to me to put wee/poo in the wash tho as all the dcs nappies go in there every other day anyway.
People are funny though, it takes all sorts

looneytune · 03/11/2011 14:55

I'm a CM and bag up the dirty clothes (rinse anything with poo first if I can) and give to the parents but would never ask them to wash anything of mine and I don't believe there's a 'rule'.

Flisspaps · 03/11/2011 15:10

I'm a CM - if there's time to do so before a child goes home, then I put any of their dirty clothes through a quick wash, rather than leaving them to fester until pick up time. They might be sent home wet (no tumble dryer) but certainly not dirty if I can help it. I wouldn't dream of sending any of my laundry home with a child, not even a towel used to clean them up!

There is no such rule. Would she send babies home with the bibs they'd worn that day that needed washing? Ridiculous.

MUM2BLESS · 03/11/2011 18:29

I am a c.m. I would put the towel in my washing machine, to wash with my own washing. Clothes etc in little ones bag.

Original poster

windywoos · 03/11/2011 20:05

Yes, there are different ways to look at this and I totally see moogster's point. But the thing about 'new rules' makes me as I think she's making that bit up. Or is just really inexperienced. It's not the first time we've been told things about 'new rules' which we've been about. I guess we just have a clash of perspectives.

OP posts:

eastnorth · 03/11/2011 22:13

Is it really that hard for you to wash the towel. The childminder and you seem a bit petty.

Original poster

windywoos · 03/11/2011 22:40

No, towel washed and drying as I type. Not petty I hope, just surprised to find it in the bag as it's not something I've come across with other cm's and I didn't do pick up so got DH's version of the conversation about it.

OP posts:

redglow · 03/11/2011 22:45

I think I would forget to return it she may not give it to you again.

gardenpixies32 · 04/11/2011 12:18

I don't think it is a big deal to stick the towel in the machine with the wet clothes but to spend time annoyed about it and to post a thread about it seems very silly.

I have so much to do in the day that I would not have washed the clothes. I would have bagged them up for the parent to wash.

RitaMorgan · 04/11/2011 17:52

Does it really matter? You sound really resentful of the childminder.

leeloo1 · 04/11/2011 20:36

"Would she send babies home with the bibs they'd worn that day that needed washing? Ridiculous."

Is it ridiculous? If I have babies with cloth bibs then I bag them up and send them home at the end of the day. Likewise wet clothes etc - its a huge waste of resources to put a wash on just because a child had an accident and we're childminders, not laundrettes. Having said that if I forgot to send something home then I'd wash it with my next load if they weren't back the next day.

But - I wouldn't send my own washing home with the child either, so I do think the towel thing is a bit odd.

purplepidjin · 04/11/2011 20:56

I'm not a CM, I'm from a care background. Infection control requires separate coloured cloths for different areas - kitchen, general, bathroom and sluice (bodily fluids) - which are disposed of after use. So to me using a towel which is then washed on a domestic cycle and reused to dry a person or dishes is pretty

I assume it's different rules though...

pollywollyhadadollycalledmolly · 07/11/2011 11:01

As a cm I would have given you the dirty clothes but not my towel. Nut if that is the way your cm wishes to do things then that's up to her.

I wouldn't wash the dirty clothes for several reasons, I have enough of my own washing to do and I know if someone washed my dds clothes I'd need to re wash them as she can only use special washing powder as she has Deere excema.

And no purplepidjin we don't have to do all that. How else could we wash towels other than a domestic cycle? We are on domestic premises as we are a home from home child care environment.

LadyHarrietDeSpook · 07/11/2011 12:15

Surely cleaning up wee and poo goes with the territory when you're running a business looking after small children?! And some of this might get on 'your stuff.' How bizarre to have sent that towel home with you!

LadyHarrietDeSpook · 07/11/2011 12:16

But it MAY not have been deliberate...she may have just stuffed it all in the bag inadvertently.

minderjinx · 07/11/2011 19:11

That's what I thought of first too - that she probably just bundled the towel in with the rest by mistake, but the reference to some sort of rules is mystifying.

Maybe the CM was a little peeved at the child's "accident", and making some sort of point by insisting the towel should be laundered. But yes, clearing up young children's accidents does generally "go with the territory". But without knowing more detail (which I'm not sure I actually want!) I might be imagining we are talking about a two or three year old not quite managing to make it to the toilet, when for all I know it may have been a seven year old weeing on the sofa, or a poorly child who shouldn't have been at the CM's in the first place having an attack of diarrhoea. A lot of us have also had parents who keep their toddlers in nappies at home but want them potty trained on our time and our carpets. Who knows? I'm not suggesting any of these scenarios are true, just that we don't have all the facts and so it is hard to imagine why the CM might have been making a big thing of this.

But it also sounds like Windywoos has a lot of resentment towards the CM anyway(....paying through the nose etc) so may be looking for her to put a foot wrong. I think the real question may whether she really wants to use this CM at all and not whether she has to wash her towel.

Original poster

windywoos · 07/11/2011 22:00

Sorry to have set off a bit of a storm in a teacup. Yes, I do have other underlying issues with this CM but we are not in a position to be able to change cms where we live at the moment. There a are lots of things going on chez windywoos just now and Thursday's incident was odd and I just needed to throw it out there, probably to distract me from other things.
Minderjinx, DD is almost 5 and it is really odd for her to have an accident and it sounded pretty full on. I think she was playing and left it too late. But still, odd for her. Not sure where exactly it happened, TBH, but I can imagine as cms you get as inwardly exasperated with these incidents as mums do.

Anyway, towel is laundered and ready to be returned this week. Job done.

OP posts:

Flip