Child minding tales- collecting an unknown child

June 18, 2017 Karen 24 comments

Once when I was a child minder and went to collect my youngest son from school, while I was waiting for him to come out of the classroom the head mistress came over to speak to me, ” Mrs. Dennis,” she said, “I need to apologise, as I have done something terrible today.” My first thought was has she killed my child? All she had done was to give my name and telephone number to a new parent who had asked about a child minder who could collect her boys from school, I said to the teacher that it was perfectly alright, but she insisted that she should have asked my permission first.

Anyway the parent phoned me the following day and asked if I was able to collect her two sons from school on Monday afternoon. after she accepted my fee and gave me the vital information I needed we decided we would complete a contract and other paperwork when she collected the children from my house.

On Monday when I went to  get the children from the village school they attended I began to wonder what Dylan and Colin would be like , as other than their names and ages I knew nothing about them.

The school secretary who had seen me waiting in the playground from her office window came out to see me, “Karen, you are taking Dylan and Colin today aren’t you?Dylan is lovely,” she said then she waked away.

I started to think what was wrong with Colin if only Dylan was lovely. Dylan then came out with my son with a big grin on his face

. and did indeed look lovely. I never got to meet Colin at this occasion  as the head mistress came out again and told me that their mother had been trying to contact me to say that as Colin was going to football practice after school

she would fetch him before coming to get Dylan from my house.

Later after signing the contract ( which ideally should be signed before the arrangements start) I finally got to meet Colin who WAS also lovely.

I continued to collect Dylan from school every Monday for about 6 months or so until his family moved again and we lost touch. I have written a post about the activities I planned for the older children.

My son informed me that although he was friends with Colin he was glad that he never came home with us as he didn’t want to spend time with him after school as well as all day so it all worked out for the best.

I would love to hear if other child minders have been in a similar scenario.

As always questions/comments are welcome.

Karen

x

 

 

24 Comments on “Child minding tales- collecting an unknown child

  1. No, but I’m amazed that someone handed over their children to someone they’d never met. That’s not a judgement on you, but when we were looking at child-minders, we met them with the Tubblet. She had to like them and we had to feel they were a good fit for her. (Sorry, I know you’re not supposed to judge other people’s parenting choices so this comment is an epic fail!)

    1. You would be surprised how many parents leave their children with a child minder they have never met, I had another who let her aunt make the arrangements, I didn’t even meet the mum for about 6 weeks, obviously that is not recommended but luckily both times worked well, thanks for your comment

  2. You would be surprised how many parents do happily leave their children with a minder they have never met, it’s not ideal or would I recommend it but on this occasion it worked well, thanks for your input

  3. I’m surprised that anyone could let their children be collected by someone they hadn’t met but I guess they saw school as the recommendation which is great that they could do that. #FamilyFun

  4. I’m always amazed that a parent would allow an unknown person to collect their child without meeting them first? is that not bonkers? I know you are Ofsted registered and everything but I just wouldn’t. As a teacher though, I see this all the time and you obviously have too. Great post. Thank you. #TweensTeensBeyond

    1. It does happen occasionally, I think some parents struggle with finding a child minder who matches their needs, in this occasion I think that the fact that the head mistress gave her approval of me was enough but a parent should ideally arrange to meet several different child minder before settling on one I have also written a post on what to say at the first interview with parents

  5. Like everyone else I am surprised that people were happy to entrust you so readily and that you say in your comments that this is quite a common occurrence. Our children are our most precious commodities after all. Thanks for sharing this with us. #TweensTeensBeyond

  6. This is a really important point Karen. I think that my kids may have seen it as an issue if I was looking after kids from their school. I can see this may be a problem if you have older kids too. Would they see it as an invasion of their privacy? Thanks so much for sharing with us at #TweensTeensBeyond

    1. When my son was at a young age, if he had certain toys that he didn’t want to share with the minded children then I told him to keep them upstairs in his room, If you asked him now he would say that he didn’t like me being a child minder, but I think he benefited from it I have also written a post on how child minding can benefit your own children, thanks for your input

  7. Sounds like the family possibly moved a lot and scenarios like leaving their kids with an unknown was not unusual for them! Not sure I could do it with mine. I’d like to meet them first, school recommendation or not!
    ‪Thank you for linking up to the #familyfunlinky‬

  8. Nice that the school supported your business. My children are nervous around strangers so I would always make sure they were comfortable with someone new first #thatfridaylinky

  9. Ideally you would meet the child minder first but we dont know everyones situation so it isnt fair to comment really. How nice that the school recommended you – they obviously thought highly of you and your business #familyfun

  10. i think if a school recommended a parent who was a registered child minder i’d be happy to use them without meeting them first, but I’m not so sure my kids would’ve gone home with a total stranger regardless of reassurance from their teacher, I don’t think it would be fair on the person looking after my kids #tweenteensbeyond

  11. I’ve hear similar stories Karen and I would most certainly want to have met any childminder let alone my daughter. How very strange – I imagine you have lots of tales to tell #tweensteensbeyond

    1. I certainly have many stories to tell, most I have already written about as I loved my time as a child minder!

  12. Like many of the other comments I couldn’t leave my kids with a stranger BUT I do know that juggling pick ups and drop offs is a nightmare if you don’t have a support network on hand for whatever reason.
    Thanks for sharing with #coolmumclub

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