Childminders

I'd say the advantages of childminding, and of course I am flying a flag for it, is that in effect you can find a childminder that will fill in all your gaps. For lots of professional people who are commuting they really need that because there isn't someone they can drop off early to, say 7 o'clock, most breakfast clubs aren't open at that time or schools or anything like that and there isn't anywhere that is open late enough that isn't going to charge them a fortune or report them to social services if they haven't been picked up on time. I'd say really a childminder provides flexibility, they will almost always become more of a family friend, and if any of my families are in trouble I would try and help them. It wouldn't be about the fees, it would be about trying to help them. Childminders can usually do impromptu minding if the parents need it, or normally just go in there and almost be like a semi-parent, whereas a professional organisation won't do that or any other bits and bobs for you. And they can obviously cater for the individual, from things like spelling tests, and bits of home work, and reading and things like that, if you are putting your child in a nursery they are not going to pick up the homework and do it for you, so depending on the relationship that you have, they can obviously be very flexible for school drop offs and pick ups and if there is a hole in the day because they go to nursery and then they go to a club later on, the childminder can fill that gap, as they are normally working as well so it is just another child they can add in to the mix, so that works very well I think.