CM Club: Quieter than ive ever been in 4 years 8-(

[PinkChick]

Am advertising everywhere, online, in shops, schools, on facebook through friends, parents etc etc etc...the last 3 enquiries ive had have all gone belly up before contracts where signed (didnt check tax credits = no help with costs, gone to someone cheaper-even tho im not expensive, dad made redundant on day of bringing contracts back)..am so so stressed, things are awful here, its causing so many problems ..we go away in 3 weeks..with what!?..have been point blank disregarded for any weeekend jobs ive been applying for and just been on phone to DWP to see if theres anything i can do, got meeting friday...havent really got a question just feel so crap at the minute as everything seems to be going wrong even before it starts ..then got the court case in June ..sorry..just feeling sorry for myself here..need to snap out of it.x

Hi there.
Things have been really quiet for me too!
Last January I was inundated with phone calls. This year hardly anything. Have been advertising loads like you. The day after I placed loads of adverts I had a phone call [last fri], had a visit Saturday and got the job..1 day a week for 2kids. This wasn't through the advertising I had just done! Then yesterday a call from a friend asking about childcare for her friend.
Its sods law - all the work will come at once. I hope you find something soon. I know exactly what your going through. There just haven't been many jobs for everyone so consequently no work for us.
Chin up

OH NO POOR YOU XXX
keep your chin up hopefully it will sort itself out.
have you tried the surestart centre? i go to a few groups there and got to know the staff and they in turn forward my number to new parents ollking for childcare.

or get in touch with a health centre where baby clinics are

Just had a look to see what area you are in, but sadly I don't live near chocolate rivers or marshmallows.

Liking the kitchen though (its a bit like mine

Sounds like you are doing all you can re advertising, do you know many minders near you I quite often pass stuff around and vice versa, have you joined a network, you can also put an advert in your local sure start, I also sent posters to larger employers like Orange, Hospitals, supermarkets etc with a letter asking to put in their staff room.

Have you made enquiries with your local council to see if there are any schemes they are running which require the services of a childminder for eg, here they a running a pilot scheme for 10 hours free childcare for certain families per week who have 2 year olds where they place the children with childminders and another scheme for teen parents. For both these schemes you get paid directly by the council.

well, it was dead for me so i decided to work as a assistant to another minder and sods law i got SIX calls for workh this week

Really quiet here as well, far too many grandmas, and friends looking after any potential mindees.
Its just the way it seems to be, most mums take a year off and then playgroups around here are now taking from 2 years so that only leaves a year for mums to sort out childcare and most mums i know are working part time with help from grandmas and friends.

Very quiet in my area (Gloucester/Bristol)and any enquiries are going to other minders, even they know that I have vacancies, the problem is EVERYONE has a vacancy.
I'm getting by with 30hrs work (total) with two mindees and I do cleaning work in the evenings and admin work at the weekend.
So doing 3 jobs and it's very tiring

Danthe4th, I know what you mean about grandmas, every softplay seems to be full of them and playgroups.
But if you have a willing relative, then I'm sure we would have used them as well if we had the chance.
My own children have three sets of grandparents but they are ALL too ill to ever have them more than a couple of hours

P.S, my grandparents are still with me and up until 5yrs ago, MY gran was the most active and she will be 90yrs old this year!

i'm in berkshire and it's so quiet here. Been cm'ing for 6 yrs never known it so quiet. I've advertised everwhere, live next to a army camp and noone seems to be working these days. I'm having to apply for every job going at the moment. I can't surive till next month.

For you. Have you advertised on childcare.co.uk? I've got 2 mindees from there - 1 parent contacted me and 1 I contacted them.

Oh and I paid £30 to join for a year, but afterwards I saw that on the morton michel childminding forum there's apparently a code for 50% off... I always see these things too late!

I would advise that you make sure you are on the local council list and then advertise with any web based child care list/co. I have never used a CM but not through lack of trying. When DS was born and I had to go back to full time work I wanted a home setting (CM) I tried my local council (no luck) and couldn't find a CM who could take 1 x full timer so I enrolled him in nursery.
Roll forward 5 years DS is due to start school I go through the same exercise again I couldn't find any CMs who had 5 day space out of the 2/3 I had a choice of so I enrolled him in the after school club and got an AP. We start primary school and I suddenly find there is a massive network out there of CM's. Why didn't I know before? Because lots of CM advertise at schools / Toddler group etc none of which I as a full time working Mum could attend.
I did do searches on the internet and did come up with a childcare website which gave a mobile number but no one ever answered it so I gave up after several times. Don't know if that helps but I often read posts of CM's looking for new mindees and think of my own experience that there are new Mums out there who have no idea how to access all you lovely CM's.

Thanks for your tips everyone.
I am on council list and i ring them twice a week as well as them ringing me when they get any through, i got 2 on tuesday but as usual they havent been followed up
I havent tried mailshotting large companies, so i will definatly try that and will send posters out toe local doctors/clinics etc for the mums and dads who dont see my posters at school.

this is all on top of lots of probs at minute, probs with me and dp, uncle and friend dying of cancer, friend today has had miscarraiage ..ofcourse is much much worse for them to be gong through this but everything together to deal with is juts making me feel so worthless and rubbish.

Ive just had call about meeting i had a job centre tomorrow to say i might as well not go as im self employed and would only qualify for stamp being paid on the weeks i work 15 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds or less!!??

Got an interveiw in morning for sat and sun cleaning job.
just feel so low and wonder why its all gone wrong..i needto look at this properly when my heads clear because if i ever get out of this soon, i can never be this way again..i thinhk im going to have to pack cm'ing in and try to get something to fit around dd .x

Gosh youv'e really had a time of it. Have you thought about working in a nursery, not sure how old your DD is but it might be able to fit around you until things pick up. How about Nanny jobs, don't know much about this area, or even out of hours care.

Hope things get better for you soon X

thanks AtWork, was thinking of nannying, not much call for it here tho..teesside..i have spoken to a few local nurseries and they all require level 3 which im only half way thru due to court case (parent = another story!!) taking up too much mind space...ive got everything crossed for tomorrow and then for the little boy who was supposed to start next week's dad getting new job!.x

Oooo not to far from me then

How long you been minding?

been doing this 4 years almost..never been this bad 8-(, just hope it doesnt get any worse ..going for cleaner interview in an hour so wish me luck

got the cleaning job ..wish it was an enquiry i was saying that about tho , but still paying the bills

Pinkchick, have you tried childcare.co.uk? Likwe Leeloo i got two children from there as well. I have been extremely quiet since July last year and at one point I was down to one child twice a week and got to the stage of applying for jobs just before easter. But since then i have signed two babies on and have another due to sign soon. Keep your chin up, it's hard but work will start again for you.

Hi Henni, yeah have been reg with them for couple of months now, sent lots of messages, had a couple of replys but nothing come of them, i check it every day 8-(.x

Suppose you've tried netmums - also let all your local Children's Centre staff know that you have vacancies - mine always get parents asking and they pass numbers of childminders on.

Hi PinkChick, have you ever thought about becoming a carer for the elderly helping them to maintain their independence in their own home? this is what I did while establishing my business 5 years ago and managed to do this to fit in with the one or two children I had at the time. It can pay quite well too. Hope things improve for you quickly

i am also really really quiet, had no calls in months and getting really concerned. never ever been like this in the 12 years i have been minding. have advertised everywhere including places mentioned above, just really dont know what to do

Sorry to upset the applecart but myself and childminding friends have never been busier!

scarfmaker - which area do you live in.
I was really quiet until a week ago and had 5 enquieries in the past week.
Hoping things get better for everyone One was by word of mouth, one was from MN, one from diretGov website, and another from a friend. oh, and another from a business card I had left at a toddler group.
So there's hope.