Do We Play Out Or Play Safe?

[HoneyPancakes]

I have a house full of football-mad boys four afternoons a week (aged four to nine). I take them to play in the (unregistered but safe and risk assessed) garden during the Summer but it is very wet now and some parents fret about mud and wet clothes (and the lawn needs time to recuperate). I have said no more football on the grass! Even though there is ample (registered) decked space for other outdoor games, a rebellion is only just being suppressed.

 

We live in a quiet cul-de-sac of eight houses and I take my own boys (five and seven) out to play football in the street as have all the other children who have ever lived in the street. I put the bins out near the top of the street and stand there to watch for any cars coming in or out - rare. Some of the minded children have come for play-dates and have played out there, and now think I should take them when they are being minded.

 

My instinct is to take them out and be damned - that childminding should be a natural extension of the family. I think however that OFSTED would have a different view - that the family/home should be like more like a day nursery. I suppose I am less worried about what OFSTED think and more fearful that my insurance would be compromised should something go wrong - a tooth lost, or concussion from hitting the curb.

 

What sayeth the Forum?

 

Honey

[hali]

i would say as long as you have done a risk assessment - go for it

[Rea]

I drive past a childminders home quite often and feel a bit down when i see the notices she has to hav displayed in her front room and the fact that the front room is only for CM children who dont access the rest of her house.

I think childminding should be an extention of the family, its what I would choose a childminder over a nursery specifically for. I'd get each parent to agree and sign. Its no different to them falling over on the way to the shops or at the local park or even on your driveway as they are collected.

How strange that you say parts of your garden are unregistered, seems a bit silly to me.

[Guest]

I don't suppose there's a park nearby with a football pitch area you could use?

 

I'm with the others, play out, s*d ofsted!

[HoneyPancakes]

How strange that you say parts of your garden are unregistered, seems a bit silly to me.

 

My garden is an odd shape and there is quite a part which can't be seen easily. My last inspector did ask if I wanted it registered but for this reason I said no. Might next time if I'm still CM - put a mirror in a corner maybe.

 

On the matter of space for the family only, it is still important for our own children to have private space where other children don't croud. It is my work, not theirs after all.

 

Many thanks for encouragement.

 

Honey

[Rea]

On the matter of space for the family only, it is still important for our own children to have private space where other children don't croud. It is my work, not theirs after all.

 

Many thanks for encouragement.

 

Honey

 

 

I hadnt thought of it from that point of view. My house was always so full of my sons friends I didnt always know who was in or out. It was my privacy I relished

[Guest]

You would take them to the park to play, so having done a risk assessment why not take them out the front to play. Surely you would be covered on you insurance just as you would be if you went out on a trip.

[Annie-pops]

When I used to childmind many moons ago, the minded children had free use of all areas of the house except my own children's bedrooms. As someone has said before, they do not have to share everything they own just because I chose to childmind this was there own space and access was by invitation only