South African Child Minder Needed

[nadiazaayman]

Hi, my husband and I are both South African. Our first child will be born in early April. I am looking for a Childminder who is afrikaans speaking with south african culture to look after our son (preferably with other south african kids) for a few hours during the week - only from September 2009 - he should then be 6 months. I live in Mortimer, Berkshire (RG7) and work in Basingstoke (RG24).

ek het in basingstoke gebly vir a jaar of twee maar nou is ek in woking. nie afrikaans sprekend nie - ek is eintlik a rooinek en moet baie hard dink om so te tik!

good luck with you search! there are SA childminders out there.

Here's another Saffa - English, maar praat die taal. Am in SW London though, and full - hope you find someone soon

Nog 'n Saffa - Fluent in Both unless you willing to travel to Oxfordshire

jislaaikit, jong, maar daar is klomp sulke mense!

sorry for being silly on your post, OP!

good luck with your search - have you called your local authority for a list of CMs?
also try advertising on NETMUMS. really good for this kind of thing.

If I were to post on here saying that my husband and I are both white british and I wanted to find a white britsh childminder to look after my kids in a british way (preferably with other british kids) I think I would be shot down in flames and quite rightly so.

Agree with you becj

We are not even allowed to put 'experienced' on our job ads any more, as it is ageist.

and anyway, childminders have to 'respect diversity' and celebrate all religions and cultures equally. if a childminder only accepted children from one particular ethnic/religious group they would be very unproffesional

If you read the OP she didn't say south african childminder she said a childminder who could speak afrikaans and I translated the with south african culture as knowing abour the south african culture. What is the problem with looking for a childminder who speaks what will probably be the childs first language?

i have to admit that that crossed my mind too. it is not an inclusive attitude - and certainly not a way to have the child integrated into a country that the parent or parents have not grown up in.

i worked with a south african man who was very unhappy here. he had no english friends and played for a south african football team. if he had joined in with a local team, he would no doubt have had a better chance to make friends here and possibly be happier. he has since moved back to SA.

i did not mean my replies to give any offence to anyone. i hope none was taken.

sorry I have just re-read the title but I still don't see the problem with it.

Sorry but I'm another one who thought the same!

ermm she hasn't said what race she is - she's just said Afrikaans speaking - no mention of black/white/blue with purple spots.

i think that it would have been better worded had OP stated that she was looking for a CM who could speak Afrikaans.

fair point FAQ re colour, but even if you omit the word white from my first post it is still unreasonable imo

She did say what race, the first words are: 'Hi, my husband and I are both South African...'

I wouldn't have such a problem with this if we didn't have to be so careful what we say!! Plus yes, Ofsted wouldn't like a childminder who mainly took South African children as the childminder should be seen to be open for EVERYONE.

Having said all that. I'm in Shinfield so not far from Mortimer and although I don't know any South African childminders personally, I have been on courses with one or 2 recently so there must be some local. You could ring the Family Information Service and ask?

no she didn't say what race "South African" is not a race - are they black (like my DH's BIL), are they white - like one of the boarding staff were at my boarding school, or are they mixed race like that family at DS1's school........

Right sorry, fuzzy head from terrible cold so apologies for that BUT I don't actually see what colour has to do with it anyway

when the child is due to start school will you look for a school that meets that criteria as well? - think you need to get real nadia - or live in sa

I care for SA children (an oddly high proportion of my clients are from SA or Zim - not sure why they just are....) so I have an excellent understanding of SA culture but I couldn't speak Afrikaans except for hello goodbye etc and certainly can't write a word! And I am totally 100% white british - so I wonder if the OP would be better asking for a CM who is sympathetic to their culture and who would be prepared to get in resources in afrikaans to help the new child in their bilingualism?

Part of SA culture that I have come across is that generally people are very up front and direct in their talking - its not meant as rude and isn't meant to cause offense - its just the way all my clients from SA talk too - direct and to the point - no messing about with political correctness!!!

OP - don't dismiss us "english" CMs just because you assume we can't be syumpathetic to your culture - we can and many of us already do!

Well said

Maybe she just thought that most childminders based in England wouldn't speak Afrikaans.

becj53 I am still not sure why you think it's so offensive to look for a CM who speaks Afrikaans and knows about south african culture.

If the op is looking for a childminder who speaks afrikaans then she is either white or mixed race. Black south Africans are not Afrikaans-speaking they speak one of a number of other languages indiginous to South Africa.

The one part of Afrikaans culture I imagine the op might be keen to have her children exposed to is that the Afrikaaners are usually deeply religious.

What I would say to the op though is that it would surely be very important for her baby to be raised as bilingual, as Afrikaans is not a widely spoken language anywhere else in the world other than South Africa.

I do think the op is contentious because...

One of the things that South Africa is renouned for is apartheid. And while the country's laws on apartheid have changed, the views of a lot of the white inhabitants certainly have not. So rightly or wrongly, a probably white south African making stipulations about the culture of someone she wishes to employ is contentious.