im skeptical :S

[cligan]

its probably one of thoes things.

swine flu breaks out everyone gets vaccined

jennifer garner wears red everyone else does

you see thos nanny tapes.......

and never look a childminder in the same way.

i dont want to paint them all in the same colour, in a way i want my mind to be changed.

i love my child and i get rather fearful for anything happening to her in that way. i have also personaly gone through some bad trauma of my own to do with abuse and i just want other peoples opinion about how they feel about other people looking after their child?

and please dont take offence because i just want experiences and advice xxx

I don't understand the question?

Life is full of risks, it is how we manage them that helps us get through life

Registered childminders are inspected, have paediatric first aid training, enhanced criminal records checks and have to keep numerous records just to be able to operate. You as parent should choose childcare based on how you feel about the childminder when you visit, plus by checking all the above is in place (you can ask to see certificates, last report etc) ask for referances and above all, go with your feeling on how comfortable you are with childcarer.

We cannot wrap our children in cotton wool for all their lives, if we did so how are they ever going to learn about assessing risks and making balenced decisions? We can just as parents, show them how we make judgements using all the information we can have to hand.

hope this helps

Sorry, it's the Jennifer Garner bit I don't understand...

well, it was just an example. celebs wearing fasion n people copying and agreeing with

ok here it is in black and white, i have seen vids where there are nannys and childminder who have abused the children they are paid to look after

and i just want to be put at a bit of ease as i have never had anyone other than family to look after my child and unfortunalty i only have these videos i have seen and my own mother who had become a childminder who had not exaclty been a good mother to me yet still was able to look after children so i dont have much choice but to be skeptical, i just want someone to tell me that its not all bad to mabye have someone to look after your child

and i dont intend on wrapping her in cotton wool, i tell enough people not to do that to her already! its nore to do with this issue of my child wellbeing and saftey, and as you can read there, i havnt got much to go by to say that it is safe, only by seeing what i have seen, i dont want to seem ignorant to the whole thing, i just want someone to mabye tell me mabye a site where you can get reviews too?

more*

Well, there are bad apples in every walk of life. This is the exception rather than the norm. You will find this at every stage of your child's development. I accept it is a hard decision to use childcare but for the most part we are who we say we are and there are certain standards in place which will regulate this.

Are you at the stage where you have to put your baby into childcare?

Where have you seen videos of childminders abusing kids?? Not saying there are not good/bad ones (just like in every profession you could think of?) But I have never heard of such videos? expose programmes o childcare generally and ones with secret videoing of nannys/ care assistants and nurserys? News reports of CMs and others who have committed crimes but videos?

As I have said you need to make decisions based on the checks you can make and the information you get when you visit. All childminders and other registered childcare are inspected and reports are available to view online (OFSTED in England CSSIW wales, Care commision in Scotland)

You can ask around to see if folk know the childcarer you are thinking of using and as I said, ask for referances, past and present parents.

well, it was more for future reference but i felt the need for preperation for it, and i wanted to know wether i could find a place to find someone who i could trust almost as much as i could a relative.

like where other mums or dads have put trust into them and have found them really good and caring and not just in it for a couple of quid of neglect n internet surfing :S

im sure the really qualified chilminders are very good and like what they do, i just wanted someone to inspire change into me

i thought about being a stay at home mum till she went to school but i think me and my partner are in quite a financial crisis and need the extra money, to cover costs for our living and a childminder for our girl.

i guessing you are a childminder yourself, obviously someone who wanted your services wouldnt really be scared but i mean have you ever had had anyone say to you that they are worried about these sorts of things?

dobby2001, i came across some awful stuff on youtube to do with this, and it has just shocked me very much so. i know you could say oh youtube, whats that to go by, but these are the real deal, most are shown within news reports as well.

and yes, i will have to do alot more reserch into this, i wanted to see what other peoples thoughts were on this subject before i made a decision in the first place.

but i am now considering it, as long as i research it correctly and i know what to look for it is reassuring for me as a skeptic on this matter

Cligan I am a mum who used a childminder - 2 in fact and have now become a childminder myself. I have also worked in child protection and vunerable adults services so beleive me I know an awful lot about the concerns from all differant angles

It IS scary leaving your child with another person - stranger or family member or friend. If you think about it you will know more about the childcarer than you would about your friends/relatives (well when was the last time you had reports and police checks on them ) plus with the childcarer you have a say in how they get cared for - non of that awkward thing i remember with family where they think your way of doing things is silly so they do what they think is right.

Finding the right childcare is a bit of a leap of faith - but hopefully you will find somebody you feel comfy with, who acknowledges your anxiety and who works with you to settle your daughter into childcare.

theres some helpful advice here on choosing childminders choosing a childminder

Or if you dont feel comfortable using one person then think about nurseries?

best of luck whatever you decide

Oh bless you, you sound so anxious about putting your child into childcare

The vast majority of CM, playgroups and nursery staff are caring kind professionals who have the child's best interests at the heart of their practice and abhor any kind of abuse towards the children in their care

Of course there are villains in all walks of life

Not sure what jennifer garner has to do with this...

I have not heard of any videos so can't comment on that

Nowadays it would be very hard to neglect a minded child - there are rigorous procedures and a framework for learning that must be adhered to ( not like in the olden days when folks sent their children to 'baby farms' which were frankly frightful)

presumably your comment about surfing is where you see Cms posting here in the daytime?

Oh I think just about every parent is worried that they're putting their child to a 'bad apple', it's human nature to worry about these things so don't worry about feeling anxious. Don't forget that some parents do decide to be SAHMs and a big part of it will be because they don't want someone else looking after their LO.

With your mum being a CM I can only assume that was some years ago? It's all changed now and whilst anyone can still sign up you have to do various courses and training which would put off a lot of people who aren't suitable, the process is long and a bit of a pain in the a*se tbh.

I don't think there will really be any websites that you can get reviews of childminders except for looking at the Ofsted website and reading the inspection reports for each childminder. Once you actually meet a childminder for the 'interview' you can ask for references and I expect they'd be able to sort something out if they hadn't already got something.

With all childcare you have to take a small leap of faith but you can go and see a load of CMs, Nurserys etc before choosing the one that made you feel the most at ease.

I hope you find someone that can give you enough reassurance to go ahead and go back to work, good luck.