I have breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner and my mindees never ask for food in between unless we are doing an activity and i let the lick their own spoon or the left over bits if they are edible (don't need cooking ect)
Being i am a completely different generation from you (im 21) i dont think its about age and being an old bat so to speak but how we think and regard our community, values and what we deem to be acceptable.
It annoys me that people can be so irresponsible fine if you want to do it with your children the fine but for pete's sake not with other people's children show a bit of professionalism i know they want home from home care but parents at least expect their childminders to be a good influence.
The thing is how you are with your children and how you are with mindees should be completely different (in regards to doing as you please). For example if you let your children watch tv all day, eat sweats and make exceptions such as eating in a supermarket then fine that's how you wish to parent then fine.
With mindees its completely different as they are someone else's children and you have duty of care to up hold the parents wishes, ensure the children's standard of care and well being are at a professional level. I personally don't think you can say it is either professional or good practice to allow children to eat food that hasn't been paid for, fine it could be a multi pack but what about the fact they haven't washed their hands. The amount of germs on things in a supermarket are extraordinary for example how can you be sure that the previous child who sat (less than 2 mins ago) in the trolley didn't dribble all over the bar and have tb? you just cant be too careful. And you can not wash the fruit if its apples from a multi pack. What about chokeing or a child is given something its allergic to (you can all of a sudden become allergic to things or be allergic to variations in food- I cared for a little girl who was fine with green grapes but was allergic to red grapes.) What about people walking past coughing and sneezing near the food?
Fine I will admit I analyze far too much but at least I consider everything so the chances of me being caught short are low.
Still even if she had a first aid kit, if a child choked and stopped breathing an ambulance would need to be called as CPR to bring them back to life is more common with drowning victims so she would just be keeping the oxygen going round the body to minimize brain damage. So then does she pay for the item or put the child first.
In this situation the shop would let it slide for the sake of the child but it would still be stealing as she left the shop without paying.
She would also have the fun task of explaining to Ofsted why the child was eating in the shop.
If the child could not be resuscitated she would indeed be found negligent and would loose her registration as there is actually no need for the child to be eating whilst in a shop. Her duty of care is to ensure the child has appropriate meals whether she provides or parents provides them so in a case like that there would be no need for the child to be eating in between meals and they would ask why she has not set aside appropriate time for the children to sit down and have their lunch.
Touch wood it wouldn't happen but it does only take a split second, a jerky movement, the child laughing ect.
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