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View Full Version : Fleeces, Hoodies & T-Shirts.



Jayse74
06-06-2017, 09:34 PM
We have been childminding for years now, but it looks like we need some kind of fleece or t-shirt with our logo, contact details etc. Does anybody recommend a good place to get these made up?

:)

loocyloo
07-06-2017, 06:28 AM
We have been childminding for years now, but it looks like we need some kind of fleece or t-shirt with our logo, contact details etc. Does anybody recommend a good place to get these made up?

:)

I found someone on ebay I think! I had a jacket type fleece with 'childminder' on the back. but I've had it years!
I'm sure if you google personalised clothing lots of places will come up. I would probably go for something that is embroidered on, rather than just printed, as I find tshirts etc with printed logos, after a while the printed bit starts to peel off.

bunyip
07-06-2017, 06:35 AM
These tend to be either high cost or poor quality, and prices vary by quantity required.

One of my clients uses a local independent shop that does school uniforms. She only requires a dozen or so items at a time for her hockey club, ans she finds the big companies or online traders aren't such good value for small orders.

Just being nosey: why the 'need'?

FloraDora
07-06-2017, 04:40 PM
As Bunyip suggests, local cheap school uniform chap provided the best quality, cheap tops for a local get together of all the social groups in our town, willing to order a small amount being important.

I can see that a need often comes as an advertising opportunity. All CM's near me wear the uniform and some say they want to be seen similar to nurseries.

My parents however are not looking for a nursery looking CM and like that I don't wear polo top and sweat top/ fleece uniform and wear ordinary day clothes, like they do at home. Which is a good job because I never wear polo tops ,my boobs just do not show off a polo top well and fleeces are for walking and birdwatching in my life. ( My style is more ethnic based with naturally dyed tunics, floaty scarves, morrocon slippers, cotton jackets and sparkly jewellery that all babies love to grab! Perhaps not the most practical though.)
I am a home childcare through and through.

I get lots of people approach me in the nature centre ( someone went for a walk with their parents to catch me whilst I was out and about - her elderly parents had recommended me, I only saw them walking their dog) and say they like the way I interact with the children.

I think this is the best type of self advertising.

Jayse74
09-06-2017, 09:32 PM
These tend to be either high cost or poor quality, and prices vary by quantity required.

One of my clients uses a local independent shop that does school uniforms. She only requires a dozen or so items at a time for her hockey club, ans she finds the big companies or online traders aren't such good value for small orders.

Just being nosey: why the 'need'?

Because the local pre-school is trying to make us vanish! If they succeed we may have to close.

Jayse74
09-06-2017, 09:41 PM
I can see that a need often comes as an advertising opportunity. All CM's near me wear the uniform and some say they want to be seen similar to nurseries.

I understand and my partner has put this off for years, she says "why should I have to wear a uniform just to be seen?" I feel if we at least get one set done we can at least stand out and be seen a bit when somebody wants to make us vanish.

FloraDora
09-06-2017, 09:41 PM
Because the local pre-school is trying to make us vanish! If they succeed we may have to close.

Compete....or be unique.
Find your unique selling point that the preschool cannot match.

Focus on children's outcomes at your unique setting....this will win discerning parents over more than the uniform.

Think about what parents say to each other when they sing the praises of their childcare...I doubt it is "they wear such lovely polo tops and fleeces". Children's experiences, flexibility, 3-1 ratio, knowing children well, beds to nap in, qualifications and experience of staff, resources geared to individuals, walks out, nature experience.....

loocyloo
10-06-2017, 07:22 AM
Compete....or be unique.
Find your unique selling point that the preschool cannot match.

Focus on children's outcomes at your unique setting....this will win discerning parents over more than the uniform.

Think about what parents say to each other when they sing the praises of their childcare...I doubt it is "they wear such lovely polo tops and fleeces". Children's experiences, flexibility, 3-1 ratio, knowing children well, beds to nap in, qualifications and experience of staff, resources geared to individuals, walks out, nature experience.....

I agree with the above, but when I moved to a new area, I wore my fleece with 'CHILDMINDER' on the back EVERYWHERE! we knew no one in the area we moved to, and I needed to let people know that I was a childminder and available !!!! so a little bit of subtle advertising to get myself noticed. I also had a big umbrella with my logo ( well .... a picture drawn by a 4 yr old many years ago, that I use on my business cards/flyers etc ) and CHILDMINDER printed on the fabric ... also to help me get noticed! I think sometimes you need to get noticed, before someone can ask about/talk about you.

would another option be to have personalised HI VIZ jackets that the children wear when they are with you? maybe one for you as well, so you are seen to be keeping children safe?

Maza
10-06-2017, 08:53 AM
I agree with the above, but when I moved to a new area, I wore my fleece with 'CHILDMINDER' on the back EVERYWHERE! we knew no one in the area we moved to, and I needed to let people know that I was a childminder and available !!!! so a little bit of subtle advertising to get myself noticed. I also had a big umbrella with my logo ( well .... a picture drawn by a 4 yr old many years ago, that I use on my business cards/flyers etc ) and CHILDMINDER printed on the fabric ... also to help me get noticed! I think sometimes you need to get noticed, before someone can ask about/talk about you.

would another option be to have personalised HI VIZ jackets that the children wear when they are with you? maybe one for you as well, so you are seen to be keeping children safe?


I'm sure you guys are all amazing and so don't need to worry, but advertising like this can have the adverse effect too. One local pre-school has them and I saw them in a little playground near us one day. The equipment that the toddlers were using was way too old for them - totally inappropriate and not safe. They weren't being suitably supervised either in my opinion. I made a point of looking at the sweatshirts to read where the adults were from. I saw them at a later date in a brand new supermarket that had just opened up opposite their nursery. They were just being lead through, no interaction etc. The manager of the nursery had her little group and was giving them a really worthwhile experience - pointing things out, encouraging them to notice things etc. so lucky children who got her as their key worker, but the others didn't have a rich experience at all.

I'm so nosey. As soon as I see named tops/high vis vests, I observe the groups even more and form opinions based on what I see. Sometimes unfair opinions maybe as I am only seeing a snapshot.

loocyloo
10-06-2017, 10:42 AM
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I'm sure you guys are all amazing and so don't need to worry, but advertising like this can have the adverse effect too. One local pre-school has them and I saw them in a little playground near us one day. The equipment that the toddlers were using was way too old for them - totally inappropriate and not safe. They weren't being suitably supervised either in my opinion. I made a point of looking at the sweatshirts to read where the adults were from. I saw them at a later date in a brand new supermarket that had just opened up opposite their nursery. They were just being lead through, no interaction etc. The manager of the nursery had her little group and was giving them a really worthwhile experience - pointing things out, encouraging them to notice things etc. so lucky children who got her as their key worker, but the others didn't have a rich experience at all.

I'm so nosey. As soon as I see named tops/high vis vests, I observe the groups even more and form opinions based on what I see. Sometimes unfair opinions maybe as I am only seeing a snapshot.

I agree, which is actually one of the reasons that I don't generally have my minded children in Hi-Viz or wear a 'uniform', not that I'm doing anything ( or not doing anything ! ) I don't want others to see, but I don't want 'my' children to become the focus for other people.

FloraDora
10-06-2017, 11:27 AM
In our local library a few weeks ago a group came in, I couldn't read the logo from where we were( or my eye sight isn't as good as it was) so not sure if nursery or CM plus asst. There were about 8 children, all enthusiatically noisy about their visit, finding books with relish and shouting about which one they wanted...not doing anything wrong, in fact, a delight to see and hear, in my opinion.
I was there with just one child, who was equally noisy, but not making an impact because just one, the mums close to me looked up as everyone did, but they were so negative, clocking the business name straight away and talking loud enough for me to hear. They had their LO's in a buggy, they were choosing the book, in and out swiftly I had overheard earlier because they wanted to go for a coffee.
They thought I was a grandma, they tried to include me in the defamation of character of the adults, but I gave a positive statement about how lovely it was to see the children being enthusiastic about books and what a great job the adults were doing. This floored them into temporary silence around me, but didn't change their opinion, they just sought others of like minded opinion, suggesting groups shouldn't come to the library when others are there!
I am outlining this because this shouldn't have been a negative situation, the adults were outstanding in my opinion in the way they interacted, even reminding the LO's not to shout, but not discouraging talk about books. The children did not get in the way of others, the area is big enough to accommodate lots, but they did interact with my LO, commenting really nicely on his choice of a book about dinosaurs.
But I could just see this poor nursery/ CM gaining negativity because of lack of knowledge and in my opinion an aspect of poor parenting rife in my town where coffee with friends takes priority over a child's choice / interaction with books. ( but at least they were borrowing books).
I came out of it and nobody knew me, they were clocked and I presume, further discussed when they met with their other friends in the coffee shop ( whilst their LO's sat in buggies).

As others have said, there are positives and negatives about wearing advertising.

Maza
10-06-2017, 06:53 PM
Floradora your story reminded me of another experience I had - sorry for digressing on the original thread...

I used to go to the library most weeks with just one particular very lively toddler. I always planned it so that as we arrived I would keep him in his pushchair for five minutes to have his snack. As he was eating his snack I would quickly hunt for the books that I wanted for our setting. Once my little hurricane was out of the pushchair there was no way I could have focused on anything but him. It literally would take me no longer than 5 minutes and then I would get him out of the pushchair and devote the rest of the library session to this little one. That was our weekly routine and it worked well. One day, a volunteer at the library spotted the little one in the pushchair and called out in a jokey - but very loud - voice "Look at you being left in the buggy! Dear oh dear what a terrible mother you've got!" I was too shocked to explain what I was doing but I really wish that I had done. The mother of my other mindee used to have lots of friends who used the library at the same time as me and I would have been so angry if they had consequently gone to other mindee's mother and told her that the childminder just leaves them in pushchairs whilst at the library.

An unfair snapshot of my practice and so I do try to keep an open mind with what I observe. I ended up complaining about this volunteer after he said other irritating things. (I posted on here about him at the time.)

I have seen some wonderful practice when out and about too, from both childminders and nurseries and it is always so heart warming to see. Never anything fancy - no bells and whistles - just positive, rich interactions with gentle adults who are being great role models.