change to school pick up times, would mean waiting around. what would u do?

[tara4now]

i look after a few children and a couple of them are starting swimming lessons with school. it means that they wouldnt arrive back at school until 3.45pm one day a week. i pick all the other mindees up at 3.15pm( the normal school time). it would mean waiting around for half an hour with other, smaller mindees until the children at swimming arrive back at school. ive said i wouldnt be able to do this, as it would mean waiting around in the cold with 4 other children. am i being reasonable or am i being really mean?

It won't always be cold... that's only really an issue for the next few months.

Is there anywhere you can go very near by to help prevent boredom, such as a park? Even if cold weather the children could wrap up warmly and run around the park for 20 minutes (assuming say 5 mins journey to/from school).

School itself may have facilities you could use for 1/2 hour, such as a library. Will depend on the school of course - but may be worth asking. There are also likely to be other parents in a similar situation... with say one child in reception and another child in older class who goes swimming. So you may find that there are other adults with children who also need something to do for the 1/2 hour.

i wouldnt want to wait around with 4 young children in the cold either..

also would the parents of the 4 other children be happy to be paying you to stand in the cold / rain etc? or would they rather be paying for their children to be happily playing in a nice warm home?

If its the latter (which it prob is) then you are quite right to say no!

reasonable- but i can see this from both parents sides too,

is it only for 6 weeks or is it longer??

maybe you could help organise a rota with the mindees parents to collect the children from school and drop them to you?(if they are near enough)

but i don't think i would be particuarly happy if my toddler was sat in a pram outside in the cold waiting for 30 minutes more(especially at that time)

good luck....tricky problem

Is there really nowhere at shcool or nearby to wait inside - local library perhaps. I have had to do this for my 2 who finish at different times and will do for another 3 years !

the mindees parents wouldnt be able to drop the mindees off from school. thats the reason i look after them, because all the parents work. i did say to one of the parents, that i didnt really want to waste the time i had with the other mindees waiting around. we walk home from school, which takes around 15 minutes. i really wont feel happy making the children wait about for half an hour and then walk home. it would mean loosing about 45 minutes of their time instead of the usual 15 IYSWIM. im not sure how many weeks its for yet. they get the official letter tomorrow.

Are any of the older children siblings of the younger children? Because if they are, by not collecting them after swimming, could you lose the children to another minder?

stick to your guns

if they put their childs name down for swimming its their prob not yours

if you pick kids up at 3.15pm then its 3.15pm and thats it

your the childminder not a private nanny

I assume swimming is only once a week, do you have any CM friends who also pick up and could you arrange between the 2 of you, that one of you keeps the little ones while the other one goes for the older swimmers? It is a pain with things like this. On one day a week I go to school for 3.15 then off somewhere else for 3.35 then back to school for 4.15 to pick up my daughter from netball club, it is a pain but its only 1 day a week. Good luck with everything

I think you are being reasonable, you have all your mindees to consider. I wouldnt be happy in paying you to look after my child who is standing in a school playground for half and hour during the winter.

My childminder doesn't pick kids up from after school clubs either. They have to get dropped there by someone else or they don't go. The only time this was different was when most kids picked up at 3pm, the preschool finshes at 3.15, so they went there, and my kids came out of school at 3.45, so by the time the preschoolers were sorted and walked back to theschool (5 mins) and on the way home, it was 5 mins of waiting

I agree.

I think the parents need to make the arrangements on getting their children back to your house after swimming.

Presumably this is a voluntary activity that they have signed up to.

thankyou for all the replies. i'll see what happens when they get the letters tomorrow. thankyou again!

Assuming the swimmers are over 8's, you could remind their parents that cm's can only look after them if it doesn't affect the care of under 8's. If there is somewhere to wait and use time constuctively that's not so bad, but standing outside school in any weather could be seen as not appropriate? I would ask them to arrange for a friends parent to drop them at your house and charge from when they arrive, I think.

With our school those who have swimming at the end of the day can be collected from the swimming pool as they finish at 3 pm & school pickup is from 3.20.
However that was when we had an infant & Junior schools on separate sites & I was able to do Infant pickup at 3, pool at 3.10 (allowing for changing time) & Juniors at 3.20 to 3.25 and that was all walking between sites at a fast pace. The two schools have now merged on to one site so have reception at 3.10, Infants at 3.15 & Juniors at 3.20, although have no swimmers at present, expect to after half term when the year 3's do a swop around of classes swimming, I don't know what I will do then as will not be able to pick up from pool as I will need to be collecting Reception, Infants & other Juniors and they don't get back from the swimming pool until 3.35 to 3.40 & I do not want to be hanging around any longer than I do already. Fortunately the route they walk back from the swimming pool is nearly the same as I use. So I might see if I can meet them part of the way & collect that way, otherwise the mum is going to have to arrange something different for that day.

is there no where in swimming baths to sit with a cold drink/watch the children swimming etc while you wait?..or does the school drop them back at school??, is there no where to wait near school in that case?
id say no too though as you have your under 8's to think about and like someone said if parent have arranged lessons then its their prob

Message withdrawn

I have had this where it would have been an hours difference, I couldn't do it but approached the school head for options to work around it like use the school library while I waited and she offered to drop the older mindee off at my house on her way home! It may be worth looking at this option, depends how friendly the head and teachers are tho!!

My mindees do after school clubs but the school is literally behind my house. We can walk home, have around 20min at home then walk back. When I move it will not be possible, so I'm rethinking my afterschool policy.

I don't do after school clubs with my children either - I don't think it is fair to have them hanging around if its very cold or wet. We do sometimes play in the playground after school but that is weather dependent and I wouldn't like to have to stay there IYSWIM