what do i do??

[neglectfulchildminder]

i'm a regular mner but have name changed because i'm scared your all going to shout me down and tell me how crappy i am.

this morning i couldnt find the front door key when mindees parent arrived so i let them in through the utility romm door, which always stays locked. 2yo mondee then watched me lock the 2 doors, about 15 minuites later i was feeding 7mo mindee and heard 2yo go in to the kitchen, he likes playing in the kitchen so i didnt think anything of it. then it all went quiet i started calling his name, then i went out to the kitchen, the utility door was open as was the door to the road and mindee was in the front garden, walking towards the main road calling for his daddy, who had dropped him off.
i cant bear to think abou what could have happand if i had been 2 seconds later.

do i need to inform ofsted of this and how do i begin to tell his parents? i'm an emotional wreck as it is, this isnt helping!

Shoot yourself now .

Honestly, don't worry, nothing bad has happened. Just let it be a lesson to you!

Not sure if Ofsted need informing but yes definietely needs logging as an incident.

Don't beat yourself up with what might have beens though, hope the parents are understanding. Have a think about how you can show them it won't happen again and then write it as a procedure/policy.

Go and put cbeebies on and have a cup of tea and a cuddle up for 30 mins, doctors orders!

dont be so harsh in yourself

just think about to learn from it and insure i doesnt happen again.

agree cup of tea /chocolate are necessary and moments like this!

ohh you poor thing, I'm sat cringing as I read your post, thank god nothing happened, log it as an incident, explain what happened to parents and make sure it never happens again, which goes without saying, do a policy and review your risk assessments for keys, entry / exit safety.
Have a sit down, get yourself together have you got a fellow minder friend who could pop in for a bit for some moral support? or just to make you a cuppa. I would definately tell parents, it's going to be hard but these things have a habbit of getting round someone may have seen the LO so parents would definately prefer it from you rather than somewhere else.
Best wishes.

I hope you have been able to calm down and just be grateful that nothing bad happened.

I tried to imagine how I would feel if, when I pick up DD1 from the CM later on, she (the CM) told me this had happened.

I think, initially, I would wonder why she was bothering to tell me when nothing had actually happened, but I can see why you should. I would think it very brave and honest of her to tell me and this would underline why I trust her with my DD.

As a parent using a CM I would not inform OFSTED of this but would hope that you remember to put keys out of reach in future.

Once the child had made it into the garden, what safeguards do you have to prevent him reaching the pavement?

I hope the rest of your day goes well - we are all, at the end of the day, simply human and you are lucky that this happened so you can learn from it so nothing worse will happen. You are clearly very good at looking after other people's children because of your reaction to 'nothing happening'.

no need to tell OFSTED because nothing happened.

hope you're feeling better. i would tell the parents, but it is up to you if you do or not, i reckon.

all of us CMs have had one or other thing happen to us: one mindee got knocked on the chin by a swing while i was standing RIGHT next to him. another opened the front door and toddled off down the pathway to the pavement. another mindee came to me and told me my son (then 2) was holding a "well sharp knife".

happens to the best of us

i hope you're feeling better by now.

thanks for all the advice and at number4 that would all give me a heart attack!

i'm not going to ring ofsted, although they are coming for an inspetion on thursday or friday.

feeling alot better now both mindees slept untill dad came and picked them up, i told him but made light of the situation

me: the little monster managed to unlock and open the door today.
dad: oh not again he did that yesterday i found him standing in the middle of the busy road. i spent all afternoon fittign bolt locks to the top of the door.

well i recon i'll be doing the same!
no mindees this afternoon so i can breathe again now

just doing a risk assessment now on keys in locks and opening the door ect.

Aw, glad it went okay!

I was going to say this earlier, but sometimes things just have to happen before you even consider them a problem!