My daughter has a fabulous, energetic and loving childminder but this afternoon on the bus between Wimbledon and Kingston I sat behind a childminder/au pair and a young child (I think a boy - probably 2ish). For the whole journey the childminder sat with her headphones in and sent text messages or spoke to someone in what appeared to be an Eastern European language. There was no contact with the child other than to say - 'I told you not to do that'. The child was so well behaved and just sat quietly, turning round to smile at me every now and again. The childminder was obviously having to be somewhere at a certain time and our bus was held up because of roadworks - so she plonked the child into the buggy facing away from her and moved to sit across the aisle so she could see what was happening. Suddenly she rang the bell - and, although not at a stop, the driver opened the door - she pulled the buggy angrily and got off the bus. I really think a bus ride is when she could have had a wonderful conversation with the child about the things we were passing.