Daddy Day Care
07-08-2010, 09:58 AM
New to Minding? Struggling to get mindees? Feel like giving up?
WELL DON’T!!!!
As a lot of you know, I became fully registered in June 2009; I was full of enthusiasm after going through a lengthy pre reg. I couldn’t wait to get started but things didn’t exactly go to plan.
I advertised everywhere I could think off, gave business cards to everyone I knew, dropped of leaflets all around the school I’m able to pick up from, advertised all over the internet, I have a good group of childminding friends they all knew I was desperate for work, and regularly gave my number out, but I didn’t hear anything, it had already got to about September and I was feeling really fed up, had I made a mistake? Is childminding not for me? Is childminding not for men? I wasn’t about to give up just yet tho I’ll give to Christmas I kept telling myself.
Then late September I think, I got a text of a parent needing childcare wanting to know if they could come round and meet me. I was over the moon, finally after 4 months I was going to do it, a parent was going to come round love me and id start working. Then about 10 minutes after the joy the nerves began lol, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t meet with a parent I was to scared, what would I do? What would I say? It turned out I didn’t need to worry a couple of days later I got a text saying she had been thinking about it and had decided I lived to far away. Instantly all the doubts came back, was it me? Did I come across that bad in a couple of texts? Was it where I lived? Was it because I was male? It didn’t help that a minder I know took the child on and she lives further away from me. I was gutted and if it wasn’t for the support of the girls on this forum I really may have quit.
A couple of weeks later, I get a call from a parent, we arranged to meet, and again the nerves were getting the better of me. This time the parent turned up, a little late which did nothing for my nerves lol. I found it far more relaxing than what I thought it was going to be, I sat and played with the little un, who was adorable and had what I thought was a really good chat with the mum. It was time for them to go, we was saying goodbye when the mum said good luck with the birth of your son. Well there was still a few weeks to go for that so that told me straight away she didn’t plan on coming back, and sure enough two days later she e-mailed me saying sorry but she was going to use the childminder she had met before me. Once again I was gutted and once again this forum picked me up and kept me going.
Christmas came and went, and I didn’t hear another thing, id be in the job 7 months and hadn’t earned a penny. It must have been February the girls had got sick of me whining all the time that I had no work, when someone started a post how to get DDC some work, they all gave me different ideas and different ways to advertise myself, some of which I had done but some fantastic new ones in there. Including one idea of writing to a local paper and seeing if they would do an article on me, one of the girls (who I now love to bits) offered to do this, and after a couple of drafts it was sent. To be honest I didn’t really expect to hear anything from them, why would they do an article on little old me. The day after it was sent, I got a phone call from a journalist at the local paper, asking if they could do an interview over the phone with me, which they did, a few hours later a photographer turned up at my house and took several pictures, and 2 days later it was in the paper. It wasn’t just a small article either it took almost the whole page, the picture was horrid tho. The article included my phone number and the texts soon became to come in “I wish you was about years ago I would have loved a male childminder” “don’t give up things will change” “congrats on being a male childminder think your doing a great job” lots of lovely texts from people I didn’t know but nobody wanting work, two days later it was Sunday the texts had stopped and again I was feeling a little disheartened, when the phone rang, it was from a Nan, who helped look after her grandchild, but she had been offered a job on a Friday, she wanted to take it up and wondered if I had a space still, she expected me to be full after the article. I met with the mum a few days later did a couple of settling in sessions and then the contracts were signed. I’ve never felt so relived in my life, its weird but I felt soooo proud, it felt like id come first in the 100m at the Olympics, it was like my dreams had come true, it was march it had been 2 years since the pre reg started but I finally had my first mindee. It was only 1 day a week but it was a start and I was delighted.
The next few weeks, I started to get more calls but unfortunately it always seemed to be for a baby, and with a baby of my own it was always work I couldn’t take on. Other childminder started asking me if I could do holiday care, they hadn’t asked me before I took this mindee on, not really sure why but all of a sudden they were.
Then I got a call, from a parent who had just moved to this town, looking for after school care 2 days a week, and occasional Saturdays. The ideas of Saturdays didn’t thrill me, especially after occasional turned into every other Saturday but I wasn’t about to turn work down. It turned out the girl happened to be the new girl in my daughter class at school, and they had become friends. Mum singed the contracts and id got my second mindee, again not the most hours but it was all building up. I asked mum where she got my number from, its always good to see what advertising is working. She said she had initially asked the school about childminders and they had given her my landline number, which she tried but couldn’t get through (we were having problems at the time), she then phoned Northants childminding association and they again gave her my landline number with a couple of other numbers. She tried one of the other numbers, it was a friend of mine who’s semi retired, only really does holiday cover now, she asked what school it was and instantly mentioned my name, the mum said she’d been trying to contact me but could so she gave her my mobile number. It was good to know my number had been given out on 3 separate occasions.
We now reached the summer holidays, and I had lots of holiday cover planned so was reasonably busy, but I started to worry again, my wife was to quit her fulltime job in September to go to university for three years. I still only had the 2 mindees which worked out £50 a week unless I did the Saturday which boosted it to almost £90. How is a family of 5 going to manage on that?? Well Angel suggested I sell my body but that would cost us around £250 a week, I certainly wouldn’t make anything from it. I really started to panic (yeah I know I do that a lot) my wife went to citizen advice just to see what/if we could claim anything to help until either I had more work or she finished university. Well she went and its looking positive, from what they said we could get more than when she was working which really doesn’t make sense, but that’s England for ya.
Were going to have to re apply for benefits all over again tho I’m delighted to say because last night I signed up my 3rd mindee, again its not the most hours only 15 hours term time, 27 hours school holidays, but it works out at another £49 a week minimum. That’s not all had a call yesterday form someone I knew when I was 18, briefly shared a flat with him, he’s just got custody of his daughter, and wants after school care Mon-Fri and all day school holidays, that’s another minimum £50 a week. That’s not all tho, I’m also wanted to take on 2 brothers, after school Mon – Fri and all day holidays, I only have 1 space on the Wed and Fri and they said they would use gran for one of the boys on that day and just send 1 to me, they are ready to sign contracts, they just waiting to hear to see if they get help from tax credits, they are pretty sure they will, just if they don’t it wouldn’t be worth dad working. They want to even the costs out over the year and pay £150 a week, some school weeks ill be only having them 12 hours a week, and although holiday care would work out more than 150 a week over the whole year this works out fantastically for me.
Oh my god, haven’t I gone on, only started this thread because I see a lot of threads with people struggling and wanting to give up, just like I was. But I’ve managed to turn things round and if I can so can you. Childminding can be a very frustrating job, at times, but other times, most of the time it’s the most rewarding job in the world.
This forum is full of fantastic support, use us if you’re feeling down or need help with anything, you won’t meet a better bunch of people. If it wasn’t for these guys I have no idea what id be doing now.
Thanks for reading (if anyone has actually managed to read it all lol)
Love
Gareth
xxx
WELL DON’T!!!!
As a lot of you know, I became fully registered in June 2009; I was full of enthusiasm after going through a lengthy pre reg. I couldn’t wait to get started but things didn’t exactly go to plan.
I advertised everywhere I could think off, gave business cards to everyone I knew, dropped of leaflets all around the school I’m able to pick up from, advertised all over the internet, I have a good group of childminding friends they all knew I was desperate for work, and regularly gave my number out, but I didn’t hear anything, it had already got to about September and I was feeling really fed up, had I made a mistake? Is childminding not for me? Is childminding not for men? I wasn’t about to give up just yet tho I’ll give to Christmas I kept telling myself.
Then late September I think, I got a text of a parent needing childcare wanting to know if they could come round and meet me. I was over the moon, finally after 4 months I was going to do it, a parent was going to come round love me and id start working. Then about 10 minutes after the joy the nerves began lol, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t meet with a parent I was to scared, what would I do? What would I say? It turned out I didn’t need to worry a couple of days later I got a text saying she had been thinking about it and had decided I lived to far away. Instantly all the doubts came back, was it me? Did I come across that bad in a couple of texts? Was it where I lived? Was it because I was male? It didn’t help that a minder I know took the child on and she lives further away from me. I was gutted and if it wasn’t for the support of the girls on this forum I really may have quit.
A couple of weeks later, I get a call from a parent, we arranged to meet, and again the nerves were getting the better of me. This time the parent turned up, a little late which did nothing for my nerves lol. I found it far more relaxing than what I thought it was going to be, I sat and played with the little un, who was adorable and had what I thought was a really good chat with the mum. It was time for them to go, we was saying goodbye when the mum said good luck with the birth of your son. Well there was still a few weeks to go for that so that told me straight away she didn’t plan on coming back, and sure enough two days later she e-mailed me saying sorry but she was going to use the childminder she had met before me. Once again I was gutted and once again this forum picked me up and kept me going.
Christmas came and went, and I didn’t hear another thing, id be in the job 7 months and hadn’t earned a penny. It must have been February the girls had got sick of me whining all the time that I had no work, when someone started a post how to get DDC some work, they all gave me different ideas and different ways to advertise myself, some of which I had done but some fantastic new ones in there. Including one idea of writing to a local paper and seeing if they would do an article on me, one of the girls (who I now love to bits) offered to do this, and after a couple of drafts it was sent. To be honest I didn’t really expect to hear anything from them, why would they do an article on little old me. The day after it was sent, I got a phone call from a journalist at the local paper, asking if they could do an interview over the phone with me, which they did, a few hours later a photographer turned up at my house and took several pictures, and 2 days later it was in the paper. It wasn’t just a small article either it took almost the whole page, the picture was horrid tho. The article included my phone number and the texts soon became to come in “I wish you was about years ago I would have loved a male childminder” “don’t give up things will change” “congrats on being a male childminder think your doing a great job” lots of lovely texts from people I didn’t know but nobody wanting work, two days later it was Sunday the texts had stopped and again I was feeling a little disheartened, when the phone rang, it was from a Nan, who helped look after her grandchild, but she had been offered a job on a Friday, she wanted to take it up and wondered if I had a space still, she expected me to be full after the article. I met with the mum a few days later did a couple of settling in sessions and then the contracts were signed. I’ve never felt so relived in my life, its weird but I felt soooo proud, it felt like id come first in the 100m at the Olympics, it was like my dreams had come true, it was march it had been 2 years since the pre reg started but I finally had my first mindee. It was only 1 day a week but it was a start and I was delighted.
The next few weeks, I started to get more calls but unfortunately it always seemed to be for a baby, and with a baby of my own it was always work I couldn’t take on. Other childminder started asking me if I could do holiday care, they hadn’t asked me before I took this mindee on, not really sure why but all of a sudden they were.
Then I got a call, from a parent who had just moved to this town, looking for after school care 2 days a week, and occasional Saturdays. The ideas of Saturdays didn’t thrill me, especially after occasional turned into every other Saturday but I wasn’t about to turn work down. It turned out the girl happened to be the new girl in my daughter class at school, and they had become friends. Mum singed the contracts and id got my second mindee, again not the most hours but it was all building up. I asked mum where she got my number from, its always good to see what advertising is working. She said she had initially asked the school about childminders and they had given her my landline number, which she tried but couldn’t get through (we were having problems at the time), she then phoned Northants childminding association and they again gave her my landline number with a couple of other numbers. She tried one of the other numbers, it was a friend of mine who’s semi retired, only really does holiday cover now, she asked what school it was and instantly mentioned my name, the mum said she’d been trying to contact me but could so she gave her my mobile number. It was good to know my number had been given out on 3 separate occasions.
We now reached the summer holidays, and I had lots of holiday cover planned so was reasonably busy, but I started to worry again, my wife was to quit her fulltime job in September to go to university for three years. I still only had the 2 mindees which worked out £50 a week unless I did the Saturday which boosted it to almost £90. How is a family of 5 going to manage on that?? Well Angel suggested I sell my body but that would cost us around £250 a week, I certainly wouldn’t make anything from it. I really started to panic (yeah I know I do that a lot) my wife went to citizen advice just to see what/if we could claim anything to help until either I had more work or she finished university. Well she went and its looking positive, from what they said we could get more than when she was working which really doesn’t make sense, but that’s England for ya.
Were going to have to re apply for benefits all over again tho I’m delighted to say because last night I signed up my 3rd mindee, again its not the most hours only 15 hours term time, 27 hours school holidays, but it works out at another £49 a week minimum. That’s not all had a call yesterday form someone I knew when I was 18, briefly shared a flat with him, he’s just got custody of his daughter, and wants after school care Mon-Fri and all day school holidays, that’s another minimum £50 a week. That’s not all tho, I’m also wanted to take on 2 brothers, after school Mon – Fri and all day holidays, I only have 1 space on the Wed and Fri and they said they would use gran for one of the boys on that day and just send 1 to me, they are ready to sign contracts, they just waiting to hear to see if they get help from tax credits, they are pretty sure they will, just if they don’t it wouldn’t be worth dad working. They want to even the costs out over the year and pay £150 a week, some school weeks ill be only having them 12 hours a week, and although holiday care would work out more than 150 a week over the whole year this works out fantastically for me.
Oh my god, haven’t I gone on, only started this thread because I see a lot of threads with people struggling and wanting to give up, just like I was. But I’ve managed to turn things round and if I can so can you. Childminding can be a very frustrating job, at times, but other times, most of the time it’s the most rewarding job in the world.
This forum is full of fantastic support, use us if you’re feeling down or need help with anything, you won’t meet a better bunch of people. If it wasn’t for these guys I have no idea what id be doing now.
Thanks for reading (if anyone has actually managed to read it all lol)
Love
Gareth
xxx