childminding advice please...................help!!!!!

[fifilou]

Hi!

Ive been working for a wonderful family for the past 7 years in london, and they have told me they want me to stay for many years to come (children are now 6 and 4.) I'm thinknig of moving back to the midlands with my husband, but I'm in two minds.

i've thought about childminding as a career when we move, but am unsure of the costs, income and general daily life!

I love being a professional nanny, and i get paid a higher bracket salary for what I do. the family are great but I'm getting so bored in the days when the children are at chool despite doing a degree, and all of my jobs i still have so much time on my hands. I want to have my own baby soon though, and although the family have said this would be fine for me to bring my own child to work, I can see so many problems arising!

Also my husband and i miss our friends back home, and our family.

Advice anyone?

I have no idea as I am currently registering but thought I would bump for you so the professionals can help!

I loved childminding i really did, there were so many plus points such as being my own boss, staying with my ds, being able to do spur of the moment things, the training. To many to mention but a big downer was a lack of respect from the parents and the wages. Yes you can earn big money but when i became a single parent i just found out that this was not possible to keep the mortgage etc.

I would look in to how much a minder can charge in your area and how much you would need to do for your house and a realistic example of how much you would take home after expenses. Not just 'oh i can have 3 children under 5 and 150.00 per week per child' because it doesnt always work like that.

Check out the demand from other minders in your area, see if they are as full as they want, if they are looking. I quite often had 3 children as that was what i wanted but did have 4 often. See how many minders there are in your area.

It is fantastic to be able to do this job and should i have more children in the future and have a partner who can afford the majority of the bills etc i would do it again as i did love it and was very sad when i had to give it up but i am out of the office and working with kids again and i am so happy.

I was a nanny for nearly 10 years in London then I registered as a CM when my ds was 3 as I struggled to find a decent nanny job where I could him with me.

I earn a bit more than the average nanny wage and apparently I'm "cheap"!!

There seems to be quite a demand for CMs where I am in West London as there are more nannies than cms and for families with one child it's more economical to use a CM. Although, having said that, 2 of my families have more than one child but the older ones are at school and they just need someone to look after the little ones.

I love being a cm, I get to choose when I work and what things we do in our week. There are loads of "positives" and the only negative is all the paperwork, although, if you're organised (which I'm not very!) then even that shouldn't be too big a neg!!

jellyjelly- I don't find the lack of respect from parents is any greater now I'm a CM to when I was a nanny!

By lack of respect i mean late payments, you can take child when child has d&v, general abuse of the policies which we have all had.

All the parents liked me and thought i was good at the job but the assertivness was hard because they didnt see it as a career. I think we tend to be more generous than a nursery can be. !!!!

I find I'm getting quite good at the assertiveness (sometimes!). Much more than my last couple of years of nannying and definately more confident about the job I do.

One Mum said tonight there's no way she could have managed the day I've had today (not sure if this was a compliment or not!) and then promptly apologised for forgetting to go to the cash machine and getting the extra money she owes me!!

thanks everyone! lots of thinknig to do!