In shock after visit to childminders

[luw7797]

Just posting this cause I need a rant really but I just can’t believe what happened when my partner and I visited a childminders this morning! My DD is 10 months and we have decided to send her to a childminders two days a week as I’m doing a degree. We went for a look around at one that my friends little girl attends this morning. The lady seemed nice but she had a dog which actually tried to BITE my child. The dog was in the playroom with all the children and so I assumed it would be fine to let DD crawl up to it, she didn’t hit it or anything just put her hand out towards it and it snapped and had her hand in its mouth. The skin isn’t broken but there are marks, I can’t be 100% sure whether they are from the dog but I’m going to call the gp when DD wakes up from her nap. The dog then went on to growl at the other children so clearly it must do this all day long. I just can’t believe this woman keeps the dog around the children when it clearly doesn’t like it and one day it’s going to really hurt a child! She didn’t do anything when the dog went for DD, she just said oh did she fall on the dog and I said no the dog snapped at her and she didn’t say anything.

There were also about a million choking hazards floating round the place! Tiny little parts of toys here there and everywhere. You’d think a childcare setting that takes on children as young as 6 months would be careful to remove choking hazards surely?

I just can’t believe it, it’s really shaken me and made me question whether childcare is the right route to go or if I should drop out of my degree until DD is older. This was the first childminder weve visited so hopefully the next one is very different.

If the dog tried to bite your baby it would have made a nasty wound. Not saying the set up was great or that a dog is a great addition to a room full of small kids but it didn't bite or try to bite your baby. It put your baby's hand in it's mouth. It took my dog (as it does all puppies) a long time to learn how to put my hand in his mouth without hurting me and even now when we play rough games he can sometimes mis-judge and hurt me. He can eat a frozen chicken wing with no bother at all (and he's a small cute fluffy dog not a rottweiler) so I am confident that if he decided to bite down hard he could take my finger off.

Id be telling your friend about it too. She really doesn't sound good

This is why I find it disturbing that people use websites showing local childminders, and they use them at short notice with no checks. Your child is surely your most precious thing, why take a chance.

They will have first aid, DBS checks and Ofsted inspections. Don't see what difference it makes if they're found on websites or not?

Hi Op,

Was this a town in the Midlands? It sounds so similar to the childminder I withdrew from earlier this year.
My child went to the childminder for a couple of hours after school, and twice came home with belongings that had been chewed by the childminders dog. He had tore DC's backpack up one day. Childminder completely belittled me about it. A couple of times when picking DC up, the dog would bound up at the gate barking and snarling. I moved by DC within a couple of weeks, I wasn't going to take the risk.

Don't place your DC there, keep looking.

Definitely report to ofsted, especially about the growling.

You don’t need to ring or see the gp.

The dog didn’t bite your DD but it sounded like a warning.

The fact that the childminder didn’t remove the dog straight away or even act concerned is very telling and she is not someone you could trust.

My childminder was so shit but she was the cheapest around and was really local.
My DD never came to physical harm but not finding a different childminder is something I still regret.

She also had a dog and it never crossed my mind that she would leave it unattended around the kids.

I don’t leave my own dog around other kids.

Well I'm a mum of three and the small parts absolutely would bother me. It only takes a second. That's actually shocking from a childminder!

@luw7797 I preferred nursery for mine when they were too little to tell me what was going on. I didn't have great experiences with childminders when they were too old for nursery, up until my very last one, who was amazing.

One was a nasty piece of work, another a fantasist and liar. DC3 still tells us things that happened (she had a child the same age and DC3 always was the one who was chastised, often unfairly) - and they're 20!!

Don't give up on your career opportunity because of one rotten egg though.

Report! It sounds like there’s an accident waiting to happen imminently.

I’m not surprised you feel this way. Tbh i’ve had 2 bad childminders. One of them had a dog with no issues, other one had a cat that badly scratched my son’s face. This is just the tip of lots of other issues.

Take recommendations with a pinch of salt. Sometimes it will be friends rather than actual clients they’ve had before. I’m also glad you’ve reported to ofsted, their inspection process for childminders also isn’t very thorough at all.

We’ve personally had much better experience since changing our son to nursery.

Ah .... never the dog's fault but the fault of a 10 month old!

Lord above. So glad you have reported this.

Gosh this is shocking, def did right thing in reporting this whole thing.

I'm sorry that is absolutely awful! I just wanted to comment in case you didn't know, that you recieve financial support from gov if you're studying for childcare. Last time I checked it was 80% of fees. Apologies if that's already been mentioned or you already know, but it's worth knowing so you can explore your options!

How awful! Why the hell are some posters hellbent on defending the dog?!?!? The kids’ health and safety should be priority here.

Sorry that was meant to say you get support for childcare if you're studying. Not if you're studying childcare

Does your University offer any childcare facilities?

I am a big fan of my nursery as there are so many professionals in the room. Granted it’s very expensive. I would never personally use a childminder and certainly not one I had any doubts about.

Dogs do not belong in a childcare setting although as childminder’s are in homes they can have dogs but need to clearly demonstrate if/when/how they interact with the children and I wouldn’t consider anywhere unless I was confident a dog was contained separately. Small parts of course are a choking hazard and you can’t physically watch the mouths of multiple crawling children so I too would be concerned about small parts. crafts/small part activities can done at the table using trays so no chance of little bits going on the floor for crawlers to ingest - it’s really not rocket science!

please don’t let this thread put you off childminders or tar all with the same brush. I was a CM for 10 years and if I say so myself a bloody good one and cared for every child as if they were my own and horrified to read your experience. You might have to Visit a few but it’s a bit like wedding dress shopping - when you find ‘the one’, you’ll know.

This is terrible op.

Report the childminder to Ofsted and then look at other options. Don't let it put you off childcare completely.

There are good and bad childminders.
There are good and bad nurseries.
There are also excellent childminders and excellent nurseries. They just take a bit of finding!

I used to be a childminder and would always advise parents to look around as many local options as possible, both nurseries and childminders. They are all so different!

Glad you have reported her. Dont drop out of your degree, this is just exceptionally bad.
Could you look at nursery’s instead? I prefer the nursery setting to a childminder. But there will be a lot of good childminders out there.

I checked out a few childminders before settling for a nursery. One of the child minders were left alone in the front garden alone, no lock on the gate on a busy road, it totally put me off childminders.

Please report this one to ofstead

Yeah that's not good but why report to Ofsted? You only saw a few minutes of one day, you don't have the full picture. The report could easily get her closed down, no wonder people are leaving the profession and it's a nightmare to get childcare anymore.

Ahh that's okay the if it didn't actually bite the child's hand 🙄 are you for real??

"YOU should know better than to let your baby crawl up to a sleeping/resting dog. Dogs, like humans, will react when being startled awake*"
*
What planet do you live on? It's a childminder obvious the children are going to be crawling and walking around. The dog should not be around the children. End of.

If a report could easily get her closed down then she should be closed down, don't you think??

Oh gosh, that's dreadful. I sent my DS to a childminder who had a dog, but the dog was kept separate from the children, unless the CM was directly supervising interactions, and absolutely not allowed in the playroom. She used gates/fencing to keep the children and the dog separate. Even the calmest dog in the world can have a moment and lash out, it's totally irresponsible to have a dog in a playroom in a childcare environment.

My daughter was actually bitten by a childminder's dog as a baby and absolutely nothing happened to the CM whatsoever. I, on the other hand, had to find a new childminder to protect my daughter.