When I am drowning in marking sixth form essays, discussing the Marxist view of the family, planning lessons on whether we live in a democracy and creating dynamic resources for my students I have often wondered about child minding. It has been suggested to me on numerous occasions that I should child mind. Cut down the cost of my own childcare and embrace jeans and paint instead of black trousers and lesson plans. It doesn’t sound like a bad suggestion. Surely all it takes is a few puzzles, some colouring books, the odd bit of baking and plenty of cbeebies…
I have loved being at home with Erin these past few months, collecting Dylan from school each day and generally living a less pressurised lifestyle. That was until today!
Today I had a taste of being a childminder and I screwed up – a bit! I had the 12 yr old doing homework which was within my capabilities. Next the 8yr old appeared with two friends, still not too bad I thought. Throw into the mix Erin and cousin Olly (15months) and chaos ensued!
I first heard Erin shouting snip snip whilst I was being distracted by the boys pouring themselves very strong squash! Going to investigate I found Olly in a headlock whilst Erin trimmed his hair – thank goodness they were only plastic scissors!
Sending the boys out to play football before it rained seemed a good plan. However muddy shoes were then marched through the house as they ran around collecting football that kept going over the fence. Snooker in the garage lasted all of five minutes too before they wanted to get scooters and the gocart out.
Whilst I sat down for five minutes with a very strong of coffee I became aware of a new noise. It was a sound that I recognised but couldn’t place. And then suddenly I knew, someone had left the downstairs toilet door open….. and yes, Olly was giving his favourite, sleep time elephant a bath in the toilet. Olly was in up to his elbows, having a good old play hand practically around the U Bend! I retrieved elephant, rinsed and hung on the line, but I am sure I could smell wee!
As my sis in law collected Olly and the boy’s friends went home I reflected that just maybe a houseful of preschoolers and primary school children were not for me. I’ll stick to the ones I know!
2 Responses
Yep, that pretty much sounds like a typical day for me. I’m a childminder and today I had my own 3 boys (ages 1, 4 and 6) plus a 17 month old little girl and her 7 year old sister. It was an interesting and very busy day – lots of paint and play-doh 🙂 I don’t think I managed a toilet break today.
Well I take my hat off to you, no way I could it all the time! My childminder works such long hours to. x