Children ready with shoes on?

[Happy Gardener]

Currently all of my children are normally playing when it is pick up time in the evening. Parents come & then they put shoes on. I do however have 1 parent who is mostly late, although only by a few minutes each day, & then it takes time for her to leave.

I haven't been too bothered about this, but my husband is about to deploy for 6 months & without his support life is going to be interesting

What do you all do? Would it be rude if I had the children ready to go at their designated time? I don't want to appear unwelcoming but at the same time, I wil have my own children to take care of & write up learning journey's etc... & don't want to be up all hours. All my parents know that he is about to go & they have seemed sympathetic.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[jumpinjen]

I do now have children ready if parents are late.... one family is consistently five or minutes late and I serve tea to my children at five and it is ready then so I have them ready to go if late and then hurry them off telling them tea will be overdone..... i don't take even five mins kindly these days. Parents certainly don't get invited through the door if they are late. Child is passed out with bag and a brief explanation of the day.

jen x

[caz3007]

How about doing a newsletter stating that the children will be ready and waiting at their appointed time whilst your hubby is away. But if a parent wants to chat about their child, then you are happy to make an appointment for them to either telephone or pop in.

[Vickster]

My two older mindees (siblings) can take ages to get ready, so I ask the parent to text 5 mins before collection so they are ready.

[Louise0208]

i have to get my 4 yr old mindee donned for collection due to her behaviour once mum arrives! she refuses point blank to get shoes on & chucks the biggest of wobblers!......only when mums here though

unfortunately mum has been known to be up to an hour late, at least once a week so it can be frustraton for me & 'R'

[mushpea]

it depends on the child here,, i have on 5yrold who will throw her shoes at daddy and demands he puts them on and he does so now i make sure she is ready 10mins before hes due to arrive.
if it gets to 5mins before parents are due then i do get them ready but normaly my parents are early ,, only by a few minutes though.
one time a parent was 30mins late picking up and her children stood waiting in my hall for the parent to arrive whilst i ate my dinner,,, I refuse to ruin my dinner because parents are late,,,I ahave also taken a child with me to take my son to boys brigade before because a parent was late and i fail to see why i should make my child late.
if i need them to go on time then i get them ready and let them do drawing at the table untill parent arrives, the 5yrold i dont because she refuses to leave the table unitll her drawing is finished and her dad lets her

[mufftie]

I generally don't get them ready as I feel for the child if parent is late , by getting them ready you are getting them prepared and anxious in wait for their parent and if that wait is longer than expected then that child could be unduly worried
I agree lateness is an issue that needs to be adresses but by other means

[manjay]

All of mine have shoes and coats on and are ready when parents arrive. Saves all the out of character behaviour when mum or dad turns up. I have also explained to parents that I will only open the door once children are ready for exactly the same reason. All my parents are very happy as I think they get embarrassed by the way their children change when they arrive.

[Alibali]

Mine are all ready to go! it's much easier than when parents arrive and they start playing up, I have 2 with irregular pick up times and they phone ahead and tell me what time they will be here, the parents just want to get home too, and im sure they don't want all the hassle.

[Happy Gardener]

Thank you all for such prompt replies.

[Mrs.L.C]

I do this with 2 families. The first because parent picks up just before we leave to do school run but I did explain I would have to do this when they first came to visit.

The 2nd family we have started doing this if parent is not here by the time they should be so that they are ready to go as soon as parent gets here. Parent likes us to do this as they do take forever to get ready but I explain to the children whats happening and once they are ready I get them to sit down an either watch the tv or read a book which distracts them from the time.

The others are left until parents get here

[kel1983]

Mine all have there shoes on ready for collection. I have all there stuff together and there coat ready so that when parents do finally arrive they just grab it and can go

I dont want to have the children playing up not wanting to put there shoes on. Once they have their shoes on they can continue to play. This way they dont get bored waiting.

[georgie456]

I have one of mine ready to go with his shoes and coat on simply because his behaviour becomes so appalling the second I open the door!!!! If he's not ready it becomes utter chaos so I like to be able to hand him over as quick as possible!!!!

[Louise0208]

I have one of mine ready to go with his shoes and coat on simply because his behaviour becomes so appalling the second I open the door!!!!

it looks like most of us have one of these children.....why does it happen? it doesnt acheive anything apart from a grumpy CM & grumpy parents!

[ziggy]

i find it impossible to talk to parents at collection time as children always misbehave as soon as mummy appears, so i have all of them ready with coats, shoes on, bag ready. Find it easier to talk in the mornings unless something important has happened or accident book needs signing.

[Chell]

I have them ready a few minutes before their parents arrive.

[Shirlwith3]

I have them ready to go before parents arrive, my after shool children have their shoes on & I pass them their coats at the door but with younger ones I have their coats on aspecially the 9 month old twins as it can take ages for both me & mum to get them ready as they are not sitting up or crawling .

[Vickster]

Oh yes the change in termperament can be quite astounding some days...

[Mrs Pootle]

I start to get mine ready about 5 mins before collection. I find this really helps for a smooth hand-over, and only seem to have problems when parent is 10-15 mins early and mindee not ready.

I started it with one parent as they were always in a terrible rush to go and pick up someone else after collecting mindee from me. I found if mindee was ready it meant I got a minute to talk to mum about the day rather than the conversation being based around hurrying mindee into coat & shoes.

Since then I've started doing it for all my mindees, and must say it is a much calmer hand -over.

[onceinabluemoon]

Mine are almost always ready to go too. They come back and play once they have their shoes on and grab coats on the way out. They're never upset if a parent's a bit late but they like being here so are never in a mad rush to go (in fact one baby cries to come back sometimes, bless him, and another needs a shoehorn occasionally just to get him out of the door).

I would type up a quick note to parents just saying that whilst you are on your own you will have less time so children will be dressed ready to go for parents and you'd appreciate a prompt pick up.

I always dish up half an hour or so after the last child is due to leave to ensure we dont have to keep dinner back and burn it, or eat while children are waiting...