CM and DCS sleeping arrangements

[Greatfun]

DS (16 months) is due to start at a CM for 3 days a week soon. One thing thats bothering me is the sleep arrangements. DS sleeps once or twice a day normally at about the same times. When I asked about nappnig she said the children sleep whenever and normally on the sofa. She said she had a travel cot but seemed a bit reluctant to use this. Do you think I ma being unreasonable to expect her to be catering a little more for young childrens sleeps. I understand she is in and out all day doing trips out and school/nursery runs but I still think she should be able to factor in an hour or so for DS to have a sleep. I am really worried how DS will cope if he doesn't get enough sleep or am I just being but PFB?

Blondeshavemorefun
I think thats a bit of a generalisation, surely it depends on how you organise yourself and your activities as how much attention anyone gets! I used to care for 2 under 5's + b4 and after school triplets who were only just 5 + sibling aged 7. I can honestly say that the two under 5's did not get little or no 1-1 attention when the other children were with us. It depends on how you organise yourself / activities.

Registering bedrooms: what about those childminders, like myself, who have grown up adult children living at home, I think it would be highly inappropriate to register their bedrooms for mindees napping requirements! Just because we are childminders, it seems to be assumed by some that we would want to register our own 'adult space' bedrooms? I for one, certainly do not want to worry about whether I have left a headache pill (for example) make up or whatever lying around for a child to get hold of.

I am actually registered for the whole house but soon decided that we needed a space that didn't resemble the business so do not use upstairs at all!

Greatfun: I am a childminder and all my 2 year old mindees sleep on little cot mattresses with their own bedding, in a draught free area on the floor of the carpeted playroom. My 12 month olds sleep in travel cots in the playroom. Occasionally one of mindees may have preferred to sleep on sofa for one reason or another and in this case I have always remained in the room.

Generally speaking, your childminder should provide somewhere for your child to sleep, not necessarily a bedroom (of course, if you prefer a bedroom, then you would need to find a childminder who is able to provide this) but certainly a comfortable area (travel cot, mattress) to sleep in. My mindees only sleep in buggies if we are out and about and they happen to fall asleep.

I wonder why she is a bit reluctant to use the travel cot, I suppose it depends where she stores it and if she has to get it out each time. For those of us who don't use a bedroom, would have thought thats what we all have to do.

I would have a chat with your childminder.

as a CM i would never let a child sleep on a sofa for safety reasons it would always be in a travel cot or a snoozemat on floor level for a older child the CM should take into consideration your views and requests in order to have a positive working relationship with you.

I am a cm and have been recently graded good in all areas and all of my mindees sleep on the sofa with nap blankets and cushions.
The inspector thought I had a good routine going and complemented me on it.

However I am lucky because I dont have any school runs to accommadate and have got the children into the routine of a long nap just after lunch.

All the parents are fine with this and it ensures the children have one long interrupted sleep in the day.

It is difficult to have children sleeping at seperate times as one can wake the other up.

However I stay in the room as long as they are asleep and get my paperwork done.

16 months is a normal age to cuddle up to sleep on the sofa imo..

btw though, my sofa is very large and noone could really fall off this and I stress again that I always stay in the room while they are all asleep.

And I dont have any under ones now.

Mine all sleep in cots or on beds in a downstairs bedroom (which I am lucky to have), but they do sometimes fall asleep in the car, in the buggy, on the settee, or just on the floor. I didn't have one of the bedrooms registered for a while, because it had all the child un-friendly things in it, like the ironing board, etc.