How clean/tidy do you expect a CM's house to be?

[LuckyLopez]

At first meeting if in the evening?

At first meeting if during minding hours?

At drop off each morning?

At pick up each evening?

What mess or dirt is acceptable and what would you judge as terrible?

Thank you for any opinions

Play area should be clean. Children may be covered in mud during and at the end of the day. Toys may be splattered everywhere, but usually tidied away at the end of the day.

Is that any help?

Terrible = baby mat and toys dirty or lots of broken toys ???

I'm more focussed on cleanliness than tidiness.

White socks a bit grey at the end of the day?

Sometimes food not swept up after evening meal yet at pick up?

Toys always very clean and floor space is clear and bit hazardous. Carpet vacuumed and high chairs and table are very clean.

Not sure. My CM flat is immaculate. Loads better than mine.
I guess Id expect no trailing wires, no trip hazards, baby gates in appropriate places.
I guess floor should be clean for the crawlers.
Toys- definately not broken. Bit of dirt would be ok. I think most people who work with children give the plastic stuff a periodic soak in soapy water dont they? Id expect it to look like that had happened i guess.
As i say, the standard of everything is much better at CM home than mine. I am a skank.

Clean and tidy first thing in the morning.

In the evening, in the process of being cleaned and tidied would be fine.

During minding/at pickup - not too tidy or would look like no fun was being had. Mess from a current activity would be fine but not from 2-3 hours ago. If kitchen messy but not being used, no problem unless mess means food smeared on floor and being traipsed everywhere.

It's a home too so would expect better than my own (housework hater) but not sterile.

Very, if I'm honest. My cms is always clean and tidy when I am there, don't see mid day obviously.

Wouldn't be too fussed about socks, unless it reflected on the cleanliness of the floor. Meal stuff ok as long as not messing up play area. For an evening visit I would make sure meal stuff was cleared and I had changed into clean clothes if necessary.

Thank you.

My house is clean, I have a cleaner on a Wednesday and I do it all again at the weekend. I have one little one who always comes it white socks and I'm a bit embarrassed that they are grubby when she goes home. I am getting a new sitting room carpet in the new year and the rest is laminate already. It's hoovered daily. The other thing is sometimes I don't get chance to sweep under the dinner table before parents come to pick up- just wondered how gross they thought I was! In general it's very clean and tidy though- I promise!

If the tinies are anything like mine, it's not always practical to sweep up under the table etc while they are around. Too interested in picking up the sweepings!

It's more that as soon as dinner is done im doing final nappies, get bags together, finishing up diaries. Parents arrive anywhere from 5.30pm onwards (dinner is ready at 5pm) and if I start sweeping I might be mid clean when a parent knocks- would they think I'm ignoring the children if I'm cleaning up? It's a fine line isn't it?!

socks never stay clean!My floor is cleaned daily,but socks have a invisible muck magnet that we can't see.....
I tidy up as I go along, and clean up any dropped food as I have a LO who is a hoover......but sweep up properly after all the children have gone.
Broken toys are thrown away,others get chucked in the dishwasher or washing machine.During working hours my home isn't spotless-whose is?-but tidy-ish and cleaned after hours.

Can you put little one in slippers to avoid the white socks being mucky?

Safe and clean but not always tidy!! Especially at end of the day, the toys may be pushed to the side so that the floor is free of obstacles but they aren't necessarily put away!!

The first family in get to see a clean and tidy house. Subsequent families get to see the house how it is. I clean every night, it's spotless now and I try to clean up as I go along during the day, ie, move dishes off the table, pick up stray food from the floor, Hoover any mud that's been brought in to the hallway, but sometimes I just don't get time.
About 15-20 mins before parents are due, we have a massive tidy of toys, everything goes away and depending how quickly that happens, the children get to watch tv until parents arrive (this doubles as entertainment for children who aren't being picked up/my own children, so I can speak to parents). This means the house is generally tidy when parents come in, but possibly that parents owner how long they have been watching tv for. I'm always honest about why its on and for the length of time they have been watching. But it is easier to get the children to help with tidying up rather than me having to do it all once they've gone home.

"It's a home too so would expect better than my own (housework hater) but not sterile."

grenedeer That's how I feel, but I do question myself on it. After all DS is in my house the majority of the time and I don't feel that it isn't good enough. So why would it not be good enough in someone else's house?

maybe on some level I do know my house isn't good enough

I don't expect much at the end of the day!

White socks will always be grubby. Our current CM asks that they all wear slippers, which probably hides a multitude of very normal sins by the end of a long day on wooden floors.

In the morning I'd expect it to be reasonably tidy, but that would depend if the kids were in the family part of the house or whether they had their own play room. By the evening, I suppose I'd be surprised if dinner stuff was still all over the table and there was loads of food on the floor, but that's more because I sort of assumed that the CM would be encouraging the children to help them tidy up a bit or something like that (as in, taking plates out to the kitchen etc)

But I certainly don't have high standards of a house where maybe half a dozen children have been playing all day!

We go out every day so I can blame the state of socks on the village hall or soft play. Some days I have trouble even finding the socks.

My CM house is seriously filthy, messy, noisy (but also cosy & happy) I keep my house pretty neat & tidy - I asked my daughter (she's not little, she's 10) if she noticed the mess at CM house & if she minded. (As it kind of freaks me out!)

She said she doesn't mind, they can play lots of games and not worry about making a mess, and eating us fun and nobody gets told off (unless they are unkind)

When I collect her she is happy and full of stories about her time there - I couldn't ask for more.