Hello and welcome to the latest feature in our career series which follows women in different professions over a 24-hour period. It includes what time they wake up, what they eat for breakfast and of course, what a day in their shoes looks like at the office (or, well… not in an office).
This week we’re chatting to Jenny* who works as a childminder. Jenny* is 38-years-old and has been working in this role for the past two years following a career switch – she previously worked in aviation, technology and design. She left her previous role after finding it tough to balance her own childcare with her career.
She says: “I had my son four years ago and found that being a new mother in a very male orientated industry was not working for myself and my family. I was working 50+ hours to try and ‘keep up’ (I was working every evening once he was in bed and working most of the weekend around naps/family time). I was missing every aspect of my son growing up as he was with a childminder from 7am- 7pm. So after researching, soul searching and long middle of the night chats with my other half, I made the decision to become a childminder and help other working parents with their childcare. It was a major drop in income but we hoped it would be a huge increase in a better quality of life.”
Jenny* earns around £25,000 a year and undertook courses in Child Care, Paediatric First Aid,
Safeguarding and Food Hygiene before becoming a childminder.
This is what a day in her life looks like…
6.30am: I get washed and dressed before waking my son for preschool. Our coffee is on timer (nothing beats the smell of coffee in the morning) so I’ll usually have a large cup of coffee with a bowl of cereal for breakfast.
7am: “I get my son up, washed and dressed. I sort his brekkie, snacks and school bag before the first child arrives. One of the reasons I switched careers and one of my favourite things about being a childminder is the time it gives me with my son. I am there for him every morning, afternoon and evening and love every moment that I get to share with him. I will also use this early time to prep the morning snack and lunch for the children as well as prep my own family dinner for that evening.”
7.30am: “As I work from home, I need to make sure that my set up for the day is ready. Do I have all equipment close to hand? Clothing, potty (if needed), crafts for activities and that the rooms the children will be in are risk assessed for safety!”
8am: “I greet the children and say goodbye to parents. This generally runs really smoothly but there are always off days for both the parents and children, depending on how their morning has gone. Often I’ll get a ‘good luck with Max* today’. Then it is straight into our routine of shoes off, slippers on, coats and bags away, operation distraction for those feeling a little sad before we start getting ready for the school run”.
9.30am: “I set up an invitation to play for the children every day based on what I know will spark their interest and based on what aspect of learning we are looking at that week. As a registered childminder, I follow the guidelines from the Department of Education and Ofsted to ensure I am helping get the children ready for starting school. The past week, we have been looking at Mental Health Week so we played with feelings jigsaws and flash cards. We read books about sharing feelings and worked on what we can do when we feel sad, happy, angry etc.”
12pm: “Working on helping children to be independent is a big part of my role and lunchtime is always great for this as there’s lots of fun and messy play! Today, the children wanted sandwiches, eggs and fruit so they helped me make their sandwiches (cheese and ham), cut up fruit for fruit salad and slice cucumber and boiled eggs. They also lay the table and get their drinks ready. Once we have all eaten, we clean up together and have a quiet story time before heading for naps. All of the children are a similar age and most still take a 30-45min nap after lunch. They nap on sleep mats in the playroom. Once they’re asleep, I commence a quiet clean up of the other side of the playroom, have another coffee as well as my own lunch. I send update messages to all the parents on how the day is going (eating, any milestone moments, toilet usage etc) and I prep the snacks for the afternoon.”
3pm: “This usually starts about 30 mins before we actually need to leave so that everyone has time to use the toilet, get their shoes on, coats on (if we are walking) or get out to the car and climb in themselves. Then, we are on the road to collect my son. The journey will consist of singing, pointing out all that we see and general chatter. Once we’ve collected my son, we will head to one of our local parks/woodlands for an adventure – this could involve feeding the ducks, visiting the playground, playing games to name a few!”
5pm: “In the run up to parents coming, I get the bags repacked (any soiled clothing, crafts or baking we may have made, anything we picked up on our adventure – sticks, rocks and pine cones) whilst the children get ready – coats, shoes etc on. The handover involves a quick run through of the day- anything the parent needs to know and anything I may need more of for the following day. Then the final goodbyes, see you tomorrow and the door is closed. It sounds a bit cheesy but seeing a child grow under my care and knowing that their parents trust me to be there for their child whilst they can’t is a really rewarding part of my job.”
5.30pm: “Once I have dinner cooking and my son set up with his own toys, I start the clean up of the playroom. With covid, I rotate the toys daily so everything gets a deep clean, Dettol spray the soft furnishings and then hoover and mop anywhere the children will have been. Anything that could have been chewed or dribbled on gets sterilised and crafting materials get replenished.”
6pm: “Then it is dinner time as a family, before I get my son ready for bed – bath, book, family cuddles and bedtime. I’ll do a quick catch up on any necessary admin for the following day and then it’s catch up time with hubby and usually an episode of something on Netflix!”
You can read more in our 24 Hours In The Life of series here.
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