When to ditch the childminder?

[VivaLeBeaver]

DD is in Yr 6, starting secondary school in Sept. She's sensible and I trust her. We have nice neighbours she can go to both sides if there's a problem, plus I have friends in the village - though can't guarantee who would be in when but there would normally be someone about she could ring/go round to.

DH works from home 2 days a week, I work 3 random shifts a week. If I work a late shift DH gets home at 6-6:30 but I'd be about in the mornings. If I do an early we both go out about 7 but I'd be home in the afetrnoon. Some of my shifts will be at weekends or the days when DH is at home but not all the time.

I think dd will have to catch a bus at 7:30am to go to school and would be home about 4:30pm. So in the morning she'd only have 30mins on her own but would have to leave on time (I could set oven timer to remind her) and lock the front door. Coming home she'd have to let herself in and be on her own for up to 2 hours. But obviously its not every afternoon.

Would it be OK in Sept to say she doesn't need the childminder? She's happy with the idea.

[BackforGood]

When my eldest started secondary, he went to the CM for about the first month. I just think there was so much that was new, and so much to learn, he actually quite liked going back to her and being able to completely relax (one less thing to worry about - losing key, etc.) for the first few weeks. After that he was fine.
When dc2 went, she left CM at end of Yr6
dc3 is only in Yr5, but has kind of accidently left CM already, as she's at afterschool clubs 4 days a week, and I can usually pick her up on the 5th day, but if not, she considers it a tremendous treat to be allowed a key and to let herself in.

I think the mornings would be more difficult for me - I would worry about not shutting the front door properly (ds still doesn this occasionally and he's 15, so that might just be him ) - about sitting down to watch tele for 5 mins and losing track of time - about them not switching things off, etc. Fortunately my dcs could leave at about the same time that dh left to take dc3 to brek club.

[alwayshappytolisten]

I think it depends on the child and whether you trust their level of maturity and sensibility.
My DS is in yr 6 and is an August baby so young for his year, he turns 11 about a week before going to secondary school in September. He is however sensible and mature and very responsible for his age. I'm a single parent and work full time and he used to go to breakfast club and afterschool club. In the last few months we've phased out both as he's felt that he's ready to be left alone. We started with the mornings, I leave for work about half an hour before he leaves for school and he's dressed and ready before I leave and rings me to tell me when he's leaving. Then he started to get bored at afterschool club as all the kids are younger and asked if he could come straight home after school and get on with his homework. We started (with agreement of afterschool club staff) to let him just come home 30 mins before me and once he was totally comfortable with that we increased the time until he was coming straight home after school or any extracurricular clubs. He always rings me to tell me his home and we have strategies in place if anything goes wrong (he can't get his key in the door/there's a power failure etc). I've also set him up on Skype so that he can message me at work and chat to me or ask me something if he needs to. I chat to him on the phone while I'm on the train home. The maximum time he's alone is 2 hours. It's working fine and it's now totally normal to him and he's definitely ready for secondary school.
As I said before, this isn't appropriate for all kids but it's up to each parent to judge when their child is ready or capable.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Thanks. Doesn't sound totally stupid then.

I would definetly make sure she was up, dressed and breakfasted before I left. So only thing to do would be to watch tv until time to leave. With alarm set as a reminder to go!

[putthehamsterbackinitscage]

I'd say same as mumof .... Make sure she gets plenty of practice at locking up for you now, and begin leaving her for short periods.... Maybe even have a trial day when she has to get ready and leave on time for school with no prompting....

I have a y8 who isn't really reliable so i drop him off at a friends when i have to leave early - my y6 DD is more reliable about locking up but can't get out of her put either so we have some serious practice needed before September....

[VivaLeBeaver]

Dh will leave her for an hour and 20mins while he goes circuit training once a week if I'm at work. I've left her for approx the same time while having physio.

This morning dh had to go to work unexpectedly so we left her at 7am and she got herself to school and locked up ok. She's sometimes had to let herself in from school if I've not not left an early shift on time and she's been ok with that.

[Mumofjz]

Do you leave her alone for any length of time at present? If not, I would be inclined to start leaving her for short periods. If you already do so then yes I would probably do as you have suggested, only concern would be the locking up :/