Question for those who provide food

[Little Dots]

I saw on this list about providing breakfast by a set time or tea at a set time. My mum also childminds & leaves for school for 8.30, at least 2 of her kids regularly turn up at 8.15 as she is getting them ready expecting my mum to feed them breakfast as they haven't had time, at which point my mum says it's too late and there reply is well what am I supposed to do, only to find out there mum had got them up early but been busy getting themselves ready.

Same with tea, she provides a light meal, parents regularly turn up asking if they've had a meal and if not (if it's being prepared) ask if they can sit and wait, part of there contract is that there picked up before tea is provided. She doesn't charge extra for food so it's not like they've paid for it and it's not provided! X

[AliceK]

I saw on this list about providing breakfast by a set time or tea at a set time. My mum also childminds & leaves for school for 8.30, at least 2 of her kids regularly turn up at 8.15 as she is getting them ready expecting my mum to feed them breakfast as they haven't had time, at which point my mum says it's too late and there reply is well what am I supposed to do, only to find out there mum had got them up early but been busy getting themselves ready.

Same with tea, she provides a light meal, parents regularly turn up asking if they've had a meal and if not (if it's being prepared) ask if they can sit and wait, part of there contract is that there picked up before tea is provided. She doesn't charge extra for food so it's not like they've paid for it and it's not provided! X

I think your mum needs to re-iterate to parents what time children need to arrive by in the morning in order to be provided with a breakfast. If a school child arrived here too late for breakfast I would give them a banana / cereal bar etc to eat on the walk to school. Not ideal I know but I couldn't let a child go to school with nothing just because they have a useless mum .
With regards to tea, I would remind parents that tea is served at X time. If their contracted pick-up is before that then they obviously wont get it. If they want their child provided with a meal then they need to change their contracted hours to include it.

xxx

[*daisychain*]

I cook food, but I only have a couple of mindees so it's not a big problem. I offer breakfast (toast or cereal), but generally mine have all eaten by the time they get here. A couple of times when parents have been running late they have said that it's a big help to know that children can eat breakfast here if necessary because it takes away that added pressure. They also show up in their pyjamas fairly regularly, I have no problem getting them dressed either - I've always taken the view that my job is partly to help the parents as much as possible, so I make the point of letting them know that as long as mindees are here on time I will work with anything else - all my parents currently are great so I haven't had anyone take advantage of it yet, though I know some people would. Foodwise, I generally cook the normal things I eat for lunch/dinner, and then mindees just have that - so soups, pasta and sauce, paella, homemade wedges, things on toast (beans or poached egg or both, etc). Same for weaning babies, but most of the babies I have had have been doing some form of BLW anyway, so no one has had a problem with it. No lunch boxes unless allergies, because when I did have a couple of kids with lunch boxes, they were always full of junk (crisps, chocolate spread sandwiches, haribo, etc). The one thing I do batch cook is tomato sauce, because I can use it for so many things and it's a great one to have in the freezer for an emergency. I can add it to pasta with meatballs or cheese, I can use it for lasagne or a load of other things. And it's dead easy to make too (and I can hide loads of vegetables in it by blending it smooth). We also have things like fruit or hummus and pita bread for snacks. Or anything we have baked. I think it's nice for mindees to have an understanding of how to cook and make food, and ingredients. A lot of their parents are so rushed during the day and tired after work in the evening that they tend to eat ready meals or precooked food (I can't blame them, all day at a job and then home to a toddler is hard!), so I know one of the draws to me is that I actually cook. Also it's really interesting to watch mindees playing in the play kitchen and see how they cook - one or two are definitely of the 'put it in the microwave and shout ping' school of play cooking to begin with, but after they've been here a while they all at least occasionally chop the play food and fry/cook it in a pan on the hob!

Exactly that! My husband (assistant ) is our 'cook' and to see , smell and taste the food is all part and parcel of what we provide. We use a ' hidden veg sauce ' ( annabel carmel recipe ) that gets used for a number of dishes.
I've not had a parent wanting their child to have a packed lunch yet and I'd be very uneasy about it. :-/

[fluff1975]

I start at 8 and don't provide breakfast and this has never been a problem. We have a mid morning snack and I do a cooked meal at lunch time. Monday its usually left over roast from Sunday with fresh veg. I do a pasta dish another day (aldi red pesto is our current fav. I fry up some onion and chorizo to add to it), and then a fish dish or shepherds pie on the other day. I only work three days at the mo so only have to come up with 3 cooked meals! Our leftovers feature a lot as I always make too much food!

After school I'll do sandwiches, toastie or Pitta veg and dips etc. All mine eat in the evening with parents so I just make sure I give them enough to last until then.

Meals are included in my daily charge but I regularly re-cost them just to make sure I'm not outdoing myself.
Hope this helps.