CM Club- How much maternity leave did you take?

[sunnyshine]

hello just wondering how much maternity leave any of you took. i have 1 3 year old dd currently have 1 yr old mindee and will be expecting in feb ish! want to hold onto to mindee but am thinking about how much time i will need ? what did you do?

Hi there. I'm not pg but trying and have been looking into getting an assistant etc and toying with lots of idea's so not to ruin the business I've built. I've no idea what I'm going to do but bumping this as interest in the responses

just looked into an assistant and realised i would only be getting £ 3.50 ph as i will have 2 under 5 myself so would be £2.50 out of pocket per hour!! i want to keep my mindee and hope the mum is understanding and agrees!! just wondering what other mums or CM thought was reasonable

Bumping this but also want to ask if you mind me starting a similar thread but in the title asking for parents views? I was going to do this yesterday but never got round to it. I can always post a link on here so you can follow it? BTW, with the assistant I wasn't expecting much money at all, it was about keeping my exsisting business.

thats fine ! thanks

here it is

both of you should contact local college as i have done, they give you assistants -free as theyre all doing their training to become carers/midwifes/nursery teachers etc and are begging for some hands on experience!..you cant leave them alone with chldren though, but would certainly help having extra pair of hands!

Great idea

I registered as a childminder while pg (actually started to register before and had to cancel but that is a long story), so I started m first mindee when ds was just turned 4months.

That college student assistant sounds like a great idea!

I'd love to have 4 months off as I think that I'd feel much more ready for it, however, I think that would be too long if I want the business back after plus don't think I could afford that much time off

might be a good idea to start putting a bit aside now while youre earnings are good, to help when you're off?

Already am PinkChick

clever girl

I took 3 mths off and my mindees went to other childminders in the group. The parents met them while I was still minding and the mindees already knew them, but once I had given birth I couldn't stay away from them and always visited them at the other minders nearly everyday! (missed my family). They all happily came back the day I started again.

how did you tell the parents this is what you wanted to do? i want to voice it in the right way but without pressuring them to say they will stay and not really want to! i really want to continue with my current under 5's thanks. i want to take 2 months i think and a friend has agreed to have mindee as long as her space isnt filed by then. do i write it down for them as well. i do not know my dates yet but think i am reasonably far along.

mumlove - that's fab!! That's what I want to be able to do in an ideal world.....other childminders who I see regularly having them and me seeing them often because they are my extended family and also, ds would miss them SOOOOOO much!

OK I am trying to remember as this was nearly 7 yrs ago. Once I had told the parents after 3mths gone, I started to do my homework and got a list of all the childminders the mindees knew and asked them if they would like to help me out for 3mths, some said they didn't want to but others were happy to help and let me know over the rest of my pregnancy what days they had spaces. I kept the parents informed of everything I was doing verbally.
I went on maternity leave 2 weeks before my due date so we all had a change over day.

Another question (hope you don't mind sunnyshine)....what did you do about anti natal appointments? Just something mentioned on the other thread.