Nursery/childminder question...

chivers1977

Hi Mrs Tine
This is such a dilemma. I faced the same problem when I lived in Croydon but worked in Kent. When my son was small I decided to have a CM close to work but this was not great as this meant that he was doing the commute with me and falling asleep in the car at the right time. The CM was wonderful however and at the time felt right for me.

When we moved to Kent, I decided to choose a local nursery. THis is really good for me in that they are friendly and knowing that people will often work in London and travel by train can be flexible if you call in advance to say that you are stuck getting back. They will charge for it but would not report you to SS (as I have sometimes heard!!!). They just didn't like it when people always got the later train and took advantage of them.

IN terms of waiting for me to get back when he has been ill.... luckily we have not had any hopsital jobs but they were quite OK for me to be 45 mins until I got back from work and even used to say, "don;t rush but........." which meant that if I did have something urgent, I would be able to finish it off and then go and collect him for his cold. They would administer calpol having got permission to bring down a temp and apart from that and a cuddle which they also used to provide, there was nothing else really that would be needed. You will find (if you have a good nursery) that you build up such a bond with the nurses that they really will look after your child as if they were one of your own!

THe other thing that I found very useful with child care close to home was for when I was ill. That meant that I was able to take him to nursery and then go home to bed. Sometimes you forget what a nightmare it would be to have sole charge for your child when all you want to do is be ill but you would have to travel all the way to work to drop them off!! Esp as like you most of the time I don't have family too close by to assist.

tooldle

I would suggest speaking to the nursery. Ours opened 6.30am - 6.30pm and full time children could attend for a max of 10 hours within that time frame. This gave some flexibility when traffic was bad, or a meeting went on longer than expected. If it was close to 6.30pm I would always phone. The nursery always had one member of staff available (they had a rota) to deal with late collections. There was a charge but at least we knew that all would be okay until we got there. Like Mrs Tine we didn't hae family around to help. In terms of sickness, the ill child would be put to bed and the parent advised. Many times I saw other ill kids in bed in the late afternoon, when collecting my own child. Not everyone can get there instantly and nurseries understand this. You could be in court, or in the operating theatre, not all jobs allow an instant get away. On one occassion my child needed the hospital, nursery staff took her to casulty immediately and stayed with her until I got there. talking it through with the various providers will help. I myself came across one nursery that shut promptly at 5.30pm, this obviously wasn't the one for us.
I would second the previous poster about choosing a local nursery, just in case you are also ill. This did happen to me, including a hospital stay, having the nursery local was an absolute godsend.

MrsTinks

I hadn't thought about the local in case I was sick... How daft of me not to even have that occur to me! DOH!
I think after a long talk with husband last night we're going to go with a childminder (we also decided on local - because it would mean if I was on site and returned home I wouldn't have to drive to the office to collect baby before returning home... bit easier
I went through every site with childminders I could find this morning and made a list - then cross referenced on the Ofsted site and checked all their reports and whittled my preferences even further and now have a short list of 5 that I have contacted. The one that is not only closest but I also liked the best anyway has already responded saying she'll actually have a space as of Dec as one of her other mums is going on maternity leave so freeing up a space for my little trouble maker YAY! Going to call her later this afternoon and arrange to go and have a look round too At less than a mile away you can't get much closer

Thank you all for your advice and help - an unscalable mountain has become a molehill with the help of you guys yet again

chivers1977

Really pleased that we have helped you come to a decision that you are comfortable with x

Nicki

Another option to consider, if the CMs you are seeing don't pan out, is to employ a nanny who would look after the child in your own home, which would solve the problem both of what happens if child is sick, and any delays in getting home at the end of the day. To help with the cost, you could have a nanny share with another family, or could employ a newly qualified nanny who would be cheaper than a more experienced one, but fresh from her training so hopefully very enthusiastic.

MrsTinks

Nicki - we thought about that but there isn't really anyone else round here we could share with... and the cost of a full time nanny on our own would be prohibitive
If however we both get new jobs with associated payrises then it may well be a possibility in the future

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Glad you came to a decision! I do agree CM's seem a better option than nurseries when you need some flexibility - just try and make sure you get a CM that doesn't have too many kiddies in her care Our CM took on too many about 6mths after DD started with her (up to her limit) and as they were all under a certain age she begun to have a very hard time. We ended up moving back to nursery care - prob why the flexibility part just didn't seem to be there and i needed to be close by even more so (they really weren't flexi in the slightest). As others said though it is all trial and error!

You'll find good care if you do your homework I sadly didn't have much option due to late working hours (work refused to be flexible for me too) - the local CM's didn't really want to take on work into their evenings which was understandable so i was left with just one!

Good luck! x

MrsTinks

Just to update you all

Went to meet my first choice of childminder this morning and she's lovely! Alex seemed very content with her too (but she IS a social baby...) despite being late for her nap and normally she would have been pretty grumpy... we met the other little girl that she has all day at the moment (who will be going to part time 3 days a week) and she seems a very happy little soul - very confident in asking for things, says please and thank you, obviously adored by both CM and her daugther who's registered as an assistant (handy for baby sitting too LOL) and has trained in nurseries and has her quals etc. She has a couple of older kids after school too, usually if it's nice weather they all go for a walk in the park, if it's peeing it down they play games and read indoors etc - house was so clean it made me ashamed of mine lol! Tidy but homely and just a very comfy feeling...
She'll basically feed anything i prefer etc and isn't worried about us being an hour away - it's nothing unusual All in all - really really lovely! So trying to arrange getting hubby to meet her tomorrow if possible - then we'll do a few odd days here and there to let Alex adjust and see how we all get on

galvanizersbaby

Glad it's all falling in to place nicely for you Mrs T

gabyjane

Hi i'm a childminder and am so pleased you have found 'the one'!..i am very flexible and i find that is the difference between minders and some nurserys, i am quite happy to work late at short notice most of the time.
Anyway glad you are happy and hope little one gets on ok..x