Settling in

[Karen1]

I have a ten month old starting in September - my first ever mindee. The parents are nervous as never left child.and I want to do this right.

They now want to do the settling in period and has made me think about my settling in process. I have just stated there will be a settling In Period, but think I should put a limit on it, or it might get mis used.esp if they are over nervous.

So do you think

3 x1 hour sessions is ok . No charge.
Any other to be charged at half rate.to a max of five sessions.?

Should I do (bearing in mind have seen child twice already for visit and contract meeting).

Session 1- parent here for half hour and then withdraws to kitchen or out of house.

Session 2- parent stays for twenty mins or so and then withdraws out of house

Session three- ten min stay and withdraw out of house


Any ideas or does this sound reasonable.

Tia

[sarah707]

I offer 2 x 1 hour settling in sessions - one over a meal time to check the child will eat with me.

I don't have set times for parents to leave I just encourage them to go so we can get on with playing. I advise them to have something to do / somewhere to go so the time goes quicker for them.

I am sure it will all go well and little one will be fine. Parents might need more support than lo by the sounds of it!!

Hugs x

[Rick]

I have a ten month old starting in September - my first ever mindee. The parents are nervous as never left child.and I want to do this right.

They now want to do the settling in period and has made me think about my settling in process. I have just stated there will be a settling In Period, but think I should put a limit on it, or it might get mis used.esp if they are over nervous.

So do you think

3 x1 hour sessions is ok . No charge.
Any other to be charged at half rate.to a max of five sessions.?

Should I do (bearing in mind have seen child twice already for visit and contract meeting).

Session 1- parent here for half hour and then withdraws to kitchen or out of house.

Session 2- parent stays for twenty mins or so and then withdraws out of house

Session three- ten min stay and withdraw out of house


Any ideas or does this sound reasonable.

Tia

I've done it two ways and both seem to work. Having child and parent here for an hour to an hour and a half to get used to me and my setting, then second session just the child. The other was child and parent here for an hour or so then straight away parent goes away for a couple of hours

[Rick]

And one of my parents was extremely uncertain about leaving her LO but she went from 2x 4 hour days to 3x 8 hour days. So just show the parent how well you care for the child and their anxiety will pass :thumbsup:

[dette]

I usually ask parents to pop to the shops for an hour but tell them if LO is really upset I will ring them to collect sooner.Then second session I prefer to be at a meal time to see if there may be any issues that I need to sort before they start (like LO not liking my cooking ,juice ,beakers etc )then after that we just jump straight in.I tell them if they want more sessions then that's fine but anything over an hour i'll have to charge for.Its never been abused and parents are always happy to know they can do this for as long as they need.They usually start increasing the hours just before theyre due to go back to work.

[westbrom44]

I usually offer 1 x 2 hour settling in session free of charge and if the parent wants more then I charge them.

[Karen1]

thanks for all the replies, so I will offer

2x1 hour settling sessions . first session the parent to stay for a bit and withdraw. the second session the parent to stay less and leave. will reassure them that I have their contact details stored in my phone and will call asap if a problem. may just say go to the kitchen and write down his routine or something if they don't want to leave on the first session! child will probably be worse with them here though!

least I have it clearer in my mind now. it seems every enquiry or step, there is a massive learning curve and new decisions to make and discover. I really am going to enjoy this job, can twait to get started now. as tonight just got second lady (who I saw today) text to say can we make it all formal! yeah:) really pleased.

[Angela234]

Every child settles in differently

My last one 9 mths came for 2x1hr then 1 x 2 hrs I offer 4 hours free
Lo cried whilst parent was here and for half time left this carried on till 2nd week of starting here then suddenly she was fine

Last year lo was 10 mths came for settling in sessions Nan stayed half the time he cried all the time she left the room or house they decided to just start him 1/2 days for 3 weeks as Nan was still around he would still cry for about 1/2 hour for about 6 weeks then suddenly stop and has been fine since

I will in future try not to let parents stay too long.

I have also had babies that haven't needed settling in times, but always try t get parents to do them I gives us chance to get to know the child as well

[Kerry30]

I've only done settling in sessions for 1 child and that was just one morning one week then the next week one morning plus half the afternoon. Most of the children ive had the parents have said no xx will be fine. Plus i get them to fill in an all about me which has a page for daily routine on it which i refer to throughout the day/ first few weeks. I used to be a nanny and got all my jobs cos the children have taken to me at the interview so im kind of used to being thrown in at the deep end...altho aware that with cminding they got to get used to new environment as well.