Originally Posted by
Jiorjiina
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!
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