Parents!

[nancy10]

I have a large, secure, wrap around garden. But because of it's size and to keep Ofsted happy we fenced off a decent sized part of it for the children I mind to play in. It's child friendly, seperate from our two dogs and there are lots of toys etc. I have kept the trampoline in the main part of garden along with the sand pit (always covered.) At certain times of the day we go into main garden to use these and the rest of the time the smaller garden is used.
My problem is, is every morning when one of my mindees turns up, I open the door to the childs parent, and child is nowhere to be seen. Child is somewhere in the garden, parent walks around trying to catch child, I'm holding the door open waiting and trying to keep back the 2 other children I care for who are wondering what's going on. Eventually I let the other 2 children out, wave mum off who hasn't been able to get her child and get them all single handedly back into the house and into smaller garden. How can I approach the parent? It's been going on for some time now and I am starting to dread the mornings when they come. The 3 children are between 2 and 2 and a half so very little. It's really disruptive.

You speak to the parent and say that, for critical reasons of safety for both his/her child and your other mindees, you must insist that he/she delivers his/her child to your front door and you, not just to your property.

What Bonsoir said. And you might be able to add that if the child runs off, you will close the front door to keep the other children safe and she can ring the bell again when she has the child with her.

Absolutely agree with Bonsoir.

the parent should be handing over the child - ie keeping proper control of them.
Tell them this is safety and for insurance purposes, not just for their child but for all the children in your care.

Is it the bit where the dogs are that the mindee goes into? Does it have a gate that you could stick a padlock on?

I would do as suggested and insist that hands are held to the front door, I'm surprised that at this age the parents arn't doing this anyway but hey ho. If the mindee is going into the doggy bit, say that you have too keep the areas seperate, if not then go for I can't leave the door open senario because of the other childrens safety, if that doesn't work then say can you ring the bell when your ready to come in cos youre doing me hed in

Do you have a sign in sheet or register? Perhaps you could introduce one and tell the parent that the new policy is for H & S reasons and you need them to sign the child in each morning and for this reason the child must be in your home in your charge when they do so.