CM Club - A WWYD - I've just seen another childminders husband do the school run?

[Booh]

And before you say it, no he is not her assistant!

This isn't the first time, I saw him yesterday too, but he was driving them to the school. More often than not he has two little ones in a double buggy (neither child are his) and two school aged children (one is his)

WWYD? I'm reluctant to report it to Ofsted as the childminder in question will know its me (small village) and I've already been at the end of a retaliation Ofsted complaint!

AAAAGGGGHHHHHH - Makes me so cross!!

Thought it was just me.

What a coincidence

I for one am sick of Ofsted and being told how to run my childminding business. My husband is my registered assistant and has his first aid certificate but this does not make him any more capable of looking after children than if he didn't. As someone else has said, when a parent chooses a childminder they choose the whole family. My husband is perfectly capable of collecting my own children, their friends and my friends children from school so why wouldn't he be able to collect my childminded children up for me to look after at home?
Quite often it makes sense not to drag 3 under 5's out when they may be doing something interesting at home/ be asleep or just enjoying chilling out.
I think it's childminders like you that put other childminders off going to playgroups for fear of being judged.
Get on with minding your own mindees and being a perfect childminder. Unless you observe children actually being harmed then don't worry about it!

'yet lots of you are prepared to not stick to the rules.'

That is a completely untrue, sweeping generalization! Who do you think you are? Your original post complained that the cm's husband was doing the occasional school run and escalated to him having sole charge so cm could go to Tescos!!! Oh please, your last post is convenient.

I am a cm, my husband is not my assistant but I do have permission from parents to leave the children with him in an emergency (trip to a & e or such, not dentist or hairdresser), which thankfully has never been necessary. In the past I did have a parent who refused this permission and I respect that.

I have never left the children with dh, but I am positive all of my parents wouldn't mind. I have back up cm for emergencies but realistically, they are full to bursting, so dh may be a better option. Need to update permissions

I'm surprised that any childminder has places to start on Monday.

I'm also surprised that in a small village with school aged children the identity of someone who regularly takes children to school has been some sort of 'secret'.

OP, you sound like quite a newly registered childminder - is that right?

A parent's perspective on this, as it's not dissimilar to what happened with a CM we used once.

I only found out that the CM's husband had been picking DS up from nursery when one of the teachers rang me to say that DS seemed very upset when the husband came and didn't want to go with him, to the extent that the school rang the CM to ask her to come instead. I suspect this was because every time I dropped DS off I would explain who was coming to pick him up (because sometimes it was CM, sometimes me, sometimes grandparents), and he was confused when what I said would happen didn't. I had no child protection concerns about the husband.

When I phoned CM to find out what was going on, she explained that her DH was her assistant and helped particularly on pick ups.

The key thing that led me to conclude that there was a breach of trust, and so we saw out the remainder of the month only then moved, was that she hadn't told me about this arrangement at all. I visited the house and met her husband, but he wasn't introduced as her occasional assistant just her DH (in the same vein as her DSs and DNs who were also there). She had a wall of certificates, CRB etc which she proudly showed off, not one related to her husband. And at no point did she ask if I objected to DH being in sole charge of DS. Nothing.

I know she now advertises to prospective parents that her husband performs this role, which I have non problem with as parents can make their decision on whether this set up is right for them. My objection was that I wasn't given this choice. I suspect the other parents might feel the same in the circumstances the OP sets out.

There's a huge difference between a rule-break which is not best practice but doesn't harm the DCs at all (such as an alternative sane and sober adult doing the school run), one which the parents might not like but probably wouldn't hurt the children (extensive sole care by a non-registered (CRB-checked) adult) -and one which is actually dangerous (leaving DC unsupervised).

I'd ignore the first, tell the parents about the second and tell OFSTED / social services about the third. You seem to be a but less nuanced in your response OP.

i think someones pants might be on fire.....

Yeah, I don't buy it either. Too convenient.

Everyone living in the house must be police checked. Having said that I don't agree that it's ok for the husband to pick up surely when you see a childminder you just interview with the mother. However if when you see the mum and she says my husband is also registered and will pick up that's fine it's between you nobody else needs to get involved.

IMO if you use a CM it's about give and take. we have a wonderful CM, but the arrangement is a lot less formal and less flexible on bth sides than a nursery (and we've used nurseries in the past). For example, when I needed a CM, I wanted her but she couldnt do the school rrun on one of the days I really needed her to. So she suggested she ask her DH (who was in the process of registering as her assistant) to do it. So that' what happens. Flexibility works both ways, she has in the past texted me to ask if she can leave my DD with her DH while she does the school pick up, on the times where I haven't replied she hasn't (reception not good here), when I do reply it's always fine with me. I always pick up on time or early, buton the odd time DH picks up, he's always 10/15 mins late, she knws about that and is fine with it.
Both sides 'get away' with a lot more than we would if it was a formal nursery arangement and it suits us both. While I was happy with nursery, I can't ever imagine going back to it.

'She had a wall of certificates, CRB etc which she proudly showed off, not one related to her husband'

I sure it's statutory that everyone over the age of 16, who lives or is a frequent visitor to the house must have a CRB?

My husband has, but I dont display it, it is in my Profile File for anyone who wishes to see it.