CMs - need some advice on sleeps

[Cheeks4970]

Hello, my 8 month old daughter has recently started with a CM. I know that she looks after about 4 other children at the same time.

Do most children sleep in the afternoon? I am asking because my CM seems to want to take the children out at the time that my daughter would usually have her afternoon nap and I am concerned that this will mess up her routine etc.

Thoughts/advice? What do you do?

I look after three children during the day:
8m/o - 11:30 to at least 12:30 sleep, and possibly again at 15:30ish if the afternoon sleep was only an hour.

19m/o - 12:15 to at least 13:30, possibly until 14:00

Then my own daughter who's 21m - sleeps any time from 12:30 onwards and normally for at least 2 hours, sometimes 3 but can hold out on going to bed until 4pm some days.

Basically I fit things around my mindees as much as I can but if you're looking after 4 kids then there has to be some give-and-take otherwise you're stuck in the house all day every day.

How often does your LO go to CM and what is the effect of her not sleeping at her normal time? Will she not sleep in a pram on the way or whilst she's doing whatever they're out for?

It's more that she is not sleeping much on the days they go out (than having a later sleep). I feel that she is too young to be missing out and has been grumpy when I pick her up and I then miss out on my time with her because I have to put her to sleep when I get her home (mid afternoon).

I am a CM and if we are out at a childd's normal sleep time (ie at the park), then we just all go for a walk, with the tired child in a pushchair, so they can have their nap and the others can still play. I try to stay at home for sleeps, but it is not always practical if all the children sleep at different times. I would try not to disrupt a child's normal sleep pattern, but sometimes they are having too much fun to sleep and I have to remember that for next time, so it doesn't happen again.

you need to bear in mind that if she minds 4 children of different ages who all sleep at different times, she would be unable to leave the house all day because of naps. I would have thought it's more beneficial for the children to be taken out on trips etc than to stay in all day tbh.

Cheeks - I know what you mean about wanting time with your LO when they come back from CM rather than them being in bed, I had the same issue with my first mindee when he first started, for the first 2 weeks I was still getting used to him and basically he goes to sleep at 12:30 every day even though he shows absolutely no signs of tiredness. My DD has to be on her last legs before I put her in the cot or she'll scream the place down so I was waiting for him to show signs of tiredness, which basically meant he didn't sleep until his mum picked him up at 2:30, then he'd sleep for 2 hours and she'd miss the afternoon with him.

As he was my only mindee at the time, I was able to take everything on board and stick him in bed at 12:30, my newest mindee sleeps at 11:30 but I can't always accommodate this but I make sure that she's in the pram at 11:30 and she falls straight to sleep.

Make sure to let your CM know because she might be able to change something, if she doesn't know your concerns then she definitely won't change what she's doing.

I child mind a lo and have lo of my own and i try to do all our active, art and craft and play in the morning and down for a decent nap in the afternoon. I agree that this is hard to do that if cm 4.

I do think you should raise your concerns as if it is important to you for her to keep her routine (which is completely understandable)then dont let it go unsaid.