May I ask Parents, Do many of you actually know what a childminder does?

[Shoshable]

As from many conversations, it seems that there is so many different opinions. Not getting at anyone, but it would be helpful to know what the general census is

Oh tp that was just what I needed! DP has just handed me the nurofen - god I needed it!! Did this get put in chat? If so please link it for me someone!

here Kay

TP Brilliant

Thanks shosha, it was sweet to read the answers, and also interesting but where are the parents we all come across that think cms.....

• are pushovers
• love looking after their kids 2 hours + after pick up when they are meant to be going out for their birthday dinner
• can put off bills and bank charges magically when not paid on time
• don't do much / have a 'cushy' job
• are babysitters

I could rant on but I won't!

Isnt being called 'A BABYSITTER' so DAMN INSULTING

Hang around the shops, talk on mobiles, go for a coffee?

BIG

Yep, we hang around the shops buying our free-range, organic breakfasts of course!

We are talking on our mobiles because we are ringing parents to check it's OK to take mindees into the shop (because we may have forgotten to do a risk assessment beforehand).

We only drink coffee (it will obviously be cold to ensure that we don't scald any mindees) when we are mentally planning our next educational activity and wondering whether differential calculus would be too much for the 2 year old. We will obviously be multi-tasking at the same time, and sterilising our toilet roll inserts and egg boxes in the microwave, and peeling and thinly-slicing our organic grapes for our mid-morning snacks (after checking Permission Forms to ensure no-one has any allergies or ethical issues).

TP, please please write a complete day in the life of TP,

PMSLing

TP you have the exact tone of irony suitable for putting our case forward to Ofsted to make them see just how damn hard it is sometimes to just play because of all the paperwork and risk assessment and general worry!

My FIL says 'how's the babysitting going' and if he wasn't 75 I'd bop him one! I smile sweetly and say 'the childminding is going great thanks, had a training course last week, got one booked for next month, had Ofsted round last month and a letter of compliment yesterday' even if the bit past 'thanks' isn't quite true! Some people, more mature generation especially, don't seem to think it's a 'proper' job.....