Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Original poster

If a mindee ruined your cot and it was unusable, what would you do?

186 replies

QueenEagle · 25/08/2007 12:06

2.5 year old ds is put in a travel cot for his afternoon nap. The other day he pulled off his pull up full of poo and covered the cot in it, getting it in the mesh and on the fabric. Minder says it is impossible to clean therefore unusable.

She wants me to replace it and says she has no insurance to cover such a loss.

Am I liable??????

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
Aitch · 26/08/2007 22:58

my face is green but i'm not envious of your DH, gess.

Tinker · 26/08/2007 23:13

Oh, I've had my mouth puked into as well

NannyL · 26/08/2007 23:37

I too have had a 18 month old projectile vomit into my mouth

its all part of the job! IMO

Aitch · 26/08/2007 23:41
belgo · 27/08/2007 09:50

Aitch - it went into my eye as well and that's very painful[gross]

Aitch · 27/08/2007 13:01

Stop!

Original poster
QueenEagle · 27/08/2007 21:10

Blimey, this seems to have got a bit out of control on this thread!

Ok, I have had the cot out in the garden, scrubbed it with abio washing powder and a scrubbing brush and it has comes up a treat. Now, I am wondering why on earth it was beyond her to do this herself? It took me 15 minutes tops.

ds4 has weed all over her carpet before on at least 2 occasions - she has not asked me to replace that. He has also broken a couple of cars too, although I have offered to pay for the broken items, she has always refused.

Maybe she is just a bit funny about poo. Come to think of it, she has always been a bit funny about poo related things. I can remember her asking that SN ds3 be put in pull ups, I refused and talked about strategies to avoid him having to be put in them and she worked with me quite successfully.

Anyway the cot is clean and I shall take it back tomorrow and give it back to her. (She had originally given it to dh to take to the tip and asked for a replacement with no attempt to even try to clean it herself).

OP posts:
Katymac · 27/08/2007 21:14

Psst - think she might be in the wrong job if she doesn't 'do' poo

Mind you I know a minder who doesn't 'do' sick.......I think it's very odd (not being frightened of sick.....but childminding if you are)

Original poster
QueenEagle · 27/08/2007 21:49

I CAN understand it in a way - I was a foster carer for 11 years and I really really hated other kids' poo!! I didn't mind if they were not potty trained fully as you kind of expect it but I really hated kids who were 7 and 8 and smeared/hid poo in their romms. But then again a lot of the kids I had did have severe emotional problems which is why I guess I am a bit more laid back about poo than most people.

Anyway, am I right in thinking she should accept the cot back now I have scrubbed it clean?

OP posts:
NannyL · 27/08/2007 23:45

yes

it is now clean and therefore perctly usable...

No reason at all why she should not accept it.

The fact that you had to do is a bit contentiouse but its already been debated to death on here!

(IMO as a childminder its her job, but hey that issue has now moved to the past)

nappyaddict · 28/08/2007 00:21

how can a childminder not do sick??

how come she wanted your ds3 to be in pull ups?

KerryMumbledore · 28/08/2007 00:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
QueenEagle · 28/08/2007 07:18

She wanted ds in pull ups as he would not tell her when he needed to go to the toilet - he would just do it. He is mild SN and often will not talk or communicate with anyone and has a particular problem with toileting. imo she could have been a bit more alert to the signs of him needing to go. I think we are past this phase now hopefully....

Ok, am leaving in a min to go to CM's....deep breath!

OP posts:
FlossALump · 28/08/2007 08:35

Anything can be done with gloves on. I know because I have cleaned up the most foulest of adult bodily fluids (lots worse than poo/vomit) and not vomited yet. NHS doesn't just 'chuck' stuff out that becomes soiled. It gets given a bloody good clean.

morningpaper · 28/08/2007 08:41

I would be more worried about her leaving my 2.5 year old AWAKE in a travel cot in a room by herself for 30 minutes TBH

belgo · 28/08/2007 08:42

she should just buy a proper cot that's easy to clean and a lot more comfortable then those travel cots.

Shoshable · 28/08/2007 08:52

Belgo not every CM has room to leave a cot up all the time, Im lucky I have and do have proper Cots (Ikea £29.00) but most have to put cots up in their bedrooms and take them down when finished with.

NannyL · 28/08/2007 09:27

morning paper why are you concerned about a tired 2 year old beng left alone in a (travel) cot?

My little 23 month old is often chatting for up to 45 mins before he falls asleep (other times he is out like a light for 2 hours!)

but he is safe so up thre he stays... if i kept checking on him he would never fall asleep

FlossALump · 28/08/2007 10:07

Oh, and BTW, my son may perhaps be developmentally slow but at 2.7/2.8 he has taken great delight in smearing poo in as many places as he can find. Never done it before mind.

birthdaycake · 28/08/2007 10:26

CMs are 'independent contractors' who supply their own equipment to use in the course of their duties and it is her own responsibility to maintain it. She should have appropriate insurance but as this is a reasonably inexpensive item she'll most likely find that it costs less than her excess and so she'll just have to pay for it.

Children do take their nappies off sometimes and smear, it's just one of those things. If she was so worried about it then she should have monitored him more closely.
If you still really like her and want to remain on good terms for the benefit of your children then you could be really generous and offer to go 50/50 on a new one but make sure you take the old one and sell it on ebay to make up your loss. Otherwise, provide your own cot for him to use and take it with you when you stop using her. However, I wonder if she had the latter arrangement with someone else and put your son in their cot, hence the panic.

UCM · 28/08/2007 10:30

Good luck, be strong QE.

FioFio · 28/08/2007 10:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

S88AHG · 28/08/2007 11:16

Hope it went ok for you this morning, you did the right thing I would be more than pleased, as a CM, if you had done it for me,

nappyaddict · 28/08/2007 12:48

let us know how you got on

i don't like pull ups. they feel just like nappies, so how is the child going to know that they can't wee in it when for 2/3 years all they have ever known is to wee in a nappy?

as a cm you have to expect accidents with potty trainers and that some aren't always going to tell you they need the toilet. although tbh, my ds is a bit slow on the talking side of things and until he can tell me he wants to go to the toilet i won't even contemplate potty training. don't really think it can be done effectively otherwise. if they aren't going to tell you, it becomes parent training where you are just taking them to the toilet all the time just incase.

so i can sort of see where you were both coming from on that one.

Scotia · 28/08/2007 13:05

NannyL, my ds wasn't safe to leave in a travel cot at 2 - he would just climb out of it, and gave us many a fright when he appeared in my mum's living room. He could just as easily have wandered out the front door without us noticing. Of course, we learned from that and kept the outside door locked when he was in bed, but really it was safer to have him in a bed without sides so he didn't hurt himself whe he got out.

The first time he got out of his proper cot was when he was 8 months - I hadn't thought to put it down to its lowest level because my girls weren't escapologists like him. Even after lowering it, it didn't take him many months to work out how to jump over the sides!

Anyway, I don't think the cm in this case was right to ask the op to replace her cot. Hopefully she will have accepted it back without complaint and they can get back to normal.