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Cariad
11-10-2012, 10:08 PM
Just wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to remove the age from your childcare.co.uk profile?
It really bother me but it's just yet another piece of personal info out there that I don't seem to have control over and I'm not sure why it needs to be there. It could put potential parents off making the initial contact on some cases. What do you think? How do you feel about it?

Richard
11-10-2012, 10:14 PM
To hide your age go to Email/Privacy Settings once you have logged in.

jadavi
12-10-2012, 06:05 AM
HI Richard
Am I right in thinking this can't be done thru the iPhone app?
Cheers
JA

Richard
12-10-2012, 07:08 AM
You need to login via our website to hide your age.

jep
12-10-2012, 07:30 AM
I always think that my age is putting parents off i'm over 50.I have asked other people about this and they all say not to be silly.So after reading this i have gone and took my age off.The only thing is it has now got "Hidden" on instead. Never mind will be interested to see if it makes any difference lol.

jadavi
14-10-2012, 09:31 AM
Hi I have also removed my age but find 'hidden' an unnecessary comment as it tells the public I have chosen to hide my age and its not their business what I have done. Is there any way this could be left blank instead, Richard, as so many of their details are if they choose to?

thanks Jackie

Muffin
14-10-2012, 09:44 AM
[QUOTE=jadavi;1170644]Hi I have also removed my age but find 'hidden' an unnecessary comment as it tells the public I have chosen to hide my age and its not their business what I have done. Is there any way this could be left blank instead, Richard, as so many of their details are if they choose to?

I removed my age too but don't like seeing 'Hidden' either. I'm not sure it's necessary to show our age or that we have 'hidden' our age it's personal and could lead to someone not replying and missing out on seeing some wonderful childminders :(

Mouse
14-10-2012, 09:50 AM
I removed my age from my profile as I thought it unnecessary, but think 'hidden' looks even worse :panic: I'm now thinking I'll have to go back to having my age on there.

Why is age important Richard, either for us or on a parent's profile? What difference does it make how old anyone is? As a cm looking at parents' profile it would be very wrong of me to take their age into account, so why bother with it? Why not just get rid of it completely...please :D

bunyip
14-10-2012, 10:30 AM
I'm reluctant to crtiticise Richard's website because I'm not a paying customer, and I'm aware that he does a huge amount to support us through this forum, for which I'm very grateful. So I honestly won't be offended if he feels I have no right to speak out, and he maybe has every right to ignore my comments (well, just so long as it's said nicely :) )

Anyway, here goes for my 2d-'orth.

I really do not see the relevance of displaying someone's age in relation to childcare provision. If the sporting parlance is in any way transferrable then, "if you're good enough, you're old enough" (or young enough in some of our cases.) Ofsted reckon we're good enough, so why do parents need to know our age?

Sure, some parents will make judgements based on the age information before they've ever met or found out anything else about a CM. It's called "prejudice". I don't think that being "too young" or "too old" is any more relevant a judgement about my service than whether someone thinks I'm "too male", "too female", "too white", "too black", "too gay", "too straight", and so on.

Rant end. :)

Minstrel
14-10-2012, 02:59 PM
While we are on the subject, I don't see the need for 'marital status' either.

k1rstie
14-10-2012, 03:17 PM
I always read some of the listings (not really sure what they are called), and have a chuckle.


'happily married mummy to the best kid ever, ....bla, bla, bla, really well behaved, bla, bla....'


I would love to see someone write


'frazzled mum, wanting to return to work to excape the naughty brats, wanting to find a childminder who I can treat badly'


Richard, I do love childcare.co.uk, and think that parents will go to your site looking for care, before looking at our Borough site, which is really hard to use, and I always give up my search, so would expect parents to give up to. I have found most of my work through the site, (or can see that parents have looked at childcare.co.uk before looking at my website)


thanks Richard

justgoodfriends
14-10-2012, 03:45 PM
I love it too.. although I do think that more people would sign up if the Gold membership fee was halved!


I always read some of the listings (not really sure what they are called), and have a chuckle.


'happily married mummy to the best kid ever, ....bla, bla, bla, really well behaved, bla, bla....'


I would love to see someone write


'frazzled mum, wanting to return to work to excape the naughty brats, wanting to find a childminder who I can treat badly'


Richard, I do love childcare.co.uk, and think that parents will go to your site looking for care, before looking at our Borough site, which is really hard to use, and I always give up my search, so would expect parents to give up to. I have found most of my work through the site, (or can see that parents have looked at childcare.co.uk before looking at my website)


thanks Richard

scottishlass
14-10-2012, 04:23 PM
I thought it was free to go on childcare.co.uk - didn't realise there was a charge!

mushpea
14-10-2012, 06:42 PM
a parent contacted me the other day plus one of my minder friends as we are near to her age, she didnt contact my other friend as she felt she was 'too young' so for me it worked in my favour but the she was ageist to my friend , to me it should be how many years childcare experiance we have not out age.

Richard
14-10-2012, 07:00 PM
You do not have to show your age or your marital status to other members.

If you hide your age then it shows as 'hidden' and if you do want to state your martial status then it shows as 'rather not say'.

Richard

Cariad
14-10-2012, 09:04 PM
I went ahead and took my age off but now I think it looks like I'm trying to hide something. I think I'll go back and show it again. Like I sid at the very beginning, it doesn't bother me but it does allow us to be judged before any contact is made. And no, I don't pay for my membership so I can't really complain! (I chose not to pay the additional membership as there are so few new parents joining up in my area)

Mouse
14-10-2012, 11:05 PM
You do not have to show your age or your marital status to other members.

If you hide your age then it shows as 'hidden' and if you do want to state your martial status then it shows as 'rather not say'.

Richard

I understand that, but why is it included at all? What is the relevance of age, marital status and how many children someone has when looking for childcare or when looking for work? Neither a cm nor a parent should be swayed by age, marital status or whether or not I am a prolific breeder.
Can't those questions be removed? Given the option of 'hidden' or 'rather not say' is just as bad. It looks horrible. If the questions have to be asked, why not have the option to leave the answers blank?

Thank you, Mouse, 25, married, mother of many...

jadavi
15-10-2012, 06:49 AM
If I was looking for childcare if wanna know if there was a partner as that means two adults will be having contact with Mt child (maybe) and also age wise a young person or older is part of the picture too that I'd need to know but you can tell the age from our profile...grown up children etc. No need to spell out the year...

Mummits
15-10-2012, 07:18 AM
I understand that, but why is it included at all? What is the relevance of age, marital status and how many children someone has when looking for childcare or when looking for work? Neither a cm nor a parent should be swayed by age, marital status or whether or not I am a prolific breeder.
Can't those questions be removed? Given the option of 'hidden' or 'rather not say' is just as bad. It looks horrible. If the questions have to be asked, why not have the option to leave the answers blank?

Thank you, Mouse, 25, married, mother of many...

Well said Mouse. I don't like "hidden" or "rather not say" either, when what I want to say is "irrelevant". Can't these questions just be left blank?

bunyip
15-10-2012, 07:56 AM
I thought it was free to go on childcare.co.uk - didn't realise there was a charge!

AFAIK, you can join for free but you have to be a fee-paying member in order to initiate contact with someone else or leave reviews for them (a whole nother subject.) My guess is that the paying members also get returned higher in the list of search results. I'm guessing this cos I have a free listing that doesn't appear when I search using my own post code.

:)

bunyip
15-10-2012, 08:12 AM
Well said Mouse. I don't like "hidden" or "rather not say" either, when what I want to say is "irrelevant". Can't these questions just be left blank?

I agree with Mummits and Mouse. It's actually encouraging parents to make decisions based on irrelevant information. Which only leads to prejudice. Would it be so readily accepted if the fields were "gender orientation", "skin colour", "social class", etc. ? :p

Too many people equate age with either 'experience', 'lack of experience' or 'over the hill-ness'. And even true measures of experience can't be evaluated in years. Sorry to 'blow my own trumpet' but I include the following merely as an example. I've not yet got a full year's experience as a CM, and I have no natural children of my own. This would pretty much disqualify me in some people's eyes. But I have worked with children in one or other capacity for much of my life; have numerous references from delighted parents; and Ofsted were certainly content on inspection. OTOH some people can be in a job for years and never truly become "experienced" because they have closed minds, set ways, and never learn anything.

Mummits
15-10-2012, 07:31 PM
I never reply to parents whose descriptions of their families make me cringe or whose descriptions of their requirements seem very poorly thought through. Does this make me prejudiced I wonder?

scottishlass
15-10-2012, 09:29 PM
AFAIK, you can join for free but you have to be a fee-paying member in order to initiate contact with someone else or leave reviews for them (a whole nother subject.) My guess is that the paying members also get returned higher in the list of search results. I'm guessing this cos I have a free listing that doesn't appear when I search using my own post code.

:)

Thank you - I did wonder - will be going for the free option too when I get the final go ahead! :)

LittleLegsCM
16-10-2012, 11:16 AM
Equal opportunities & all that ;)
If we have to treat our children equally & not discriminate, surely we should be treated with the same respect before they've even had the chance of meeting us??? Just saying :p

Muffin
16-10-2012, 11:37 AM
Most of my work has come from childcare.co.uk and i think it's great apart from the age thing. I don't think it's likely to be changed though as we've not had an answer apart from 'you can choose not to show your age and it will say hidden'. Some things we can change others can't be or wont be changed no matter what our views are :(