Pros and cons of co-childminders

[Eviewin]

I'm starting the process of trying to find a childminder for under 1 ds. In my area, quite a few childminders work with another childminder, which means they can have more children. They also tend to have better ofsteds than the soloists here.

What do you think are the pros and cons of ds being with more than one childminder and more children?

Pros
*If one is off sick there is more chance of you still having cover (but this isn't assured)
*more consistent care - as there is a constant check plus if one is a bit off colour the other steps up a bit
*childminder slightly saner

Cons
Lots of children
Less able to bend the terms of the contract (eg wrt sickness etc)

Do you know I'm not sure why I co-mind - I'll have a think & get back to you

Childminder saner... can definitely see that, hadn't occurred to me!!

I don't think adult conversation can be rated highly enough

Pros- smallies won't necessarily have to be taken on school runs..eg if its raining as one minder can stay at home (numbers dependant) while the other does the school run.

One can cook dinner and the other could still be interacting with the children

Two different activities could be happening at once..for different age groups.

4 eyes rather than 2 when out and about

Just a few more ideas
Jenna xx

And having seen a thread on 'when do I go to the toilet?', I guess that situation gets resolved!

Any thoughts on what the downsides are in practice of having more children around, even though adult:child ratios are the same?

We have 9 under 5's & as long as there is enough room it's not a problem

Mind you 9 4 yos or 9 under 2 would be hard - we have a nice mix-which works