Thinking about childminding

[iloveyankeecandle]

Are there any childminders out there who would be able to give me their opinion on being a childminder?
Got all the relevant qualifications. Just wanted to know about if it's worth it financially. I have a one year old at home with me. What hours do you do? Do you work the school
Holidays?

Bumping this for you, OP. Hopefully there are more people about now who might know more.

@HebeMumsnet thankyou 😀

Hello, I am hoping to become a childminder. Does anyone know of the best online training course organizations so I can qualify? Thank you!

Hello, I am a childminder and am closing after 11 years this summer! I originally planned to do

I work 48 weeks of the year, so yes to school holidays. It is quite difficult to balance activities for all the age groups without going out. We go to lots of museums and galleries bit still can be expensive.

I make about £12-1400 a month after expenses so you won't make a fortune but Ive never had to pay for childcare.

It can be very isolating, so find lots of groups and make friends with other minders. Business is very brisk at the moment but lockdown babies are often posing challenges because they haven't been able to socialise and are quite scared by lots of things generally.

My daughter does find it difficult, sharing her mum and home but on the whole it has been an incredibly positive experience for her. It can be tough sharing your home with families, I am ready to take my home back, but have made some wonderful friends and my first client stills visits (shes my daughter's bestie) and treats the house as home (or her other home as she still refers to it).

You can be registered with Ofsted or an agency, personally if i were not quitting I would transfer to an agency (Rutland to be precise) as I know several people registered with them and the support is brilliant.

@stacymcdonald have a look at pacey and at Rutland. Rutland are an agency but i have heard great things about them.

@Glenthebattleostrich thank you so much. I have a baby so wondered if I have a couple of kids with me it would allow me to earn a bit and avoid childcare costs.

Thats what I did and it has worked really well for 11 years, its just as my daughter is older and my husband now works from home it no longer works for our family.

@Glenthebattleostrich that makes sense.
IM going to do a bit of research of others in the local area and see how much they charge.

Definitely do that. What area are you in? Sorry should have asked before!

There are a few childminder groups on Facebook it could be worth joining and asking in too. I would also definitely recommend getting in touch with Rutland to get some information and advice from them.

Good luck!

Oh my god thank you all so much for your help this has eased my mind.

I was a childminder for 2 years.
Perks: flexible, you work when you want to, easy to book holiday leave as long as you give your parents lots of notice, if you like working with children its fabulous. You can build great bonds with the kids.

Challenges: its exhausting. You don't get a proper break all day. Using the toilet can be tricky 🤣. Your house gets trashed. You spend a lot of time cleaning. Some of the children just won't settle with you and its difficult having that conversation with the parents. Sometimes other kids don't get along with yours.

Tips: get out into the community as much as you can... Find baby/toddler groups, local soft play places, parks etc. Don't offer cooked meals, it's too hard to prep and care for the kids. Doing wraparound was hard, i would focus on just early years if i did it again. Wraparound kids were much harder than toddlers!! Use Tapestry or another online platform to record learning. Don't work long days from 7am-6pm 🤣. Get a big car so you can fit all their seats in. Whatever you do, make sure you have the equipment to get out of the house!!! Keep everything single receipt somewhere safe and be very organised with logging all your spending.

I was term time only and just got teachers kids, so make sure you're charging enough to cover the school holidays if you plan to do that.

Thank you for this good advice I didn’t much of what you told me so that’s really helpful.

@Glenthebattleostrich I live in the West Midlands