Opinion sought on older CM

[HugoandSam]

Hello all, I am a mature (like a cheese) mum, creaking her way towards 50. In my past I have raised 4 children, am a qualified nursery teacher and I spent 15 years doing respite care for special needs children. I was a childminder all the years I had my children young. I am now a PA and trainer for a company. But I find office life endlessly dull and miss working with children. I do not want to go back to nursery school as began to hate the endless paperwork, and have been seriously considering going back to childminding. Based on the comments I've had from SS so far can I ask - would you employ an older CM? And I am especially keen to do special needs childminding, but my SS say there is very little demand, is this true?

Whats wrong with us oldies? I am pushing, rather too fast I may add, 50 and have worked to full capacity for 15 years with SN children and may others so. Big cheer for us oldies!!

Do look into it very carefully as there is just as much paperwork involved as running a pre-school; you will need to be Ofsted registered,follow the EYFS curriculim etc.

I think your age would be an advantage (I would say that as I am older than you - and actively involved in running a pre-school, as a volunteer, people seem to like the 'mature' element ! )

My daughter has SN and goes to a mature childminder (48) after school 2 days a week. I deliberately chose someone with SN experience and maturity. Most CMs weren't an option for DD2.

I believe there's a ton of paperwork these days even for CMs but if you can cope with that then go for it.

My DS's CM when he was a baby was a grandmother probably in her 50s. She was absolutely lovely. She had to give up because her gc was seriously ill, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to anyone.

When I worked, my DS's CM was a woman in her late forties / early fifties, with three grown up kids. I met a couple of them, and they were lovely young adults, polite, friendly and very family oriented, and proof to me that the CM in question was right for the job.

I'm a clappedout 'mature'cm myself but also have a fab cm for my own ds for school runs who I've used for the past 14 yrs for my older children too. She is fantastic with the children and her chilled out attitude suits my ds far better than the get up and go 'lets do as much as we can in the hour before school' cms I know personally.

Like tigersmum I too am approaching 50 faster than is comfortable. I have been told by some new parents that one of the reasons they were happy for me to look after their child was because I was older, and had more experience. I'm also not going to be going off on Maternity leave!

My two DDs are 22 and 13. When they are here they love helping out with anything that needs doing; and the little ones love them.

The only thing I find is that I get more attached to my mindees as I get older. One of mine left today and I have been very upset. Saying goodbye to some of them is definitely the worst part of the job. I dread the day I finally give up. My 13 year old says I won't be able to, but that's because she just loves having all the children here- the more the better as far as she is concerned. They are just an extended family for her; the more so because have no other family of our own to speak of.

HugoandSam - you sound great!

Where are you? Do you fancy having my 2 boys 3 days a week?!

My childminder is 62!

Lots of more mature ladies childmind.

lots of ladies on this forum
www.childmindingforum.co.uk