When you think of using a childminder, the chances are that you will get an image of a woman in your head. But what if you were to call up a childminder and find that you were talking to a man?
To some people the very idea that a man would want to look after children is abhorrent. But why is this?
We recently conducted a small poll on a forum for parents asking "Would you use a male childminder?" and this showed that whilst the majority of people who posted a reply suggested that they were not bothered either way, 54% of the vote was a clear "Yes", with only about one third (32%) saying "No".
It is obvious that there is a difference in what people say to what they actually mean. No surprise there though. If you look at the search results …show more content…
"Nanny" gets: 5,000,000 global searches.
It is apparent that whilst there are some people out there looking for male childminders, and there is a small demand, the majority of searches are people looking for a childminder and expecting it to be a woman. The fact that there are no searches on the term "female childminder" is evidence of this. People assume that childminders are women.
After running childminderfinder for a few months, we can see that the majority of childminders in the UK are women. There are some male childminders out there and we have a couple listed on our site but demand is small.
In this day and age where CRB checks are now required for anyone working with children and vetting and barring checks are to be carried out for anyone with contact with children, is it any wonder that people are put off of using male childcare?
We live in a time where many working parents cannot afford to give up work to look after children, childcare is the only viable option. People want the best for their kids and using a registered childminder is a popular option. But if a female childminder is CRB checked and correctly registered, does it make her a better option than a male childminder of the same
To some people the very idea that a man would want to look after children is abhorrent. But why is this?
We recently conducted a small poll on a forum for parents asking "Would you use a male childminder?" and this showed that whilst the majority of people who posted a reply suggested that they were not bothered either way, 54% of the vote was a clear "Yes", with only about one third (32%) saying "No".
It is obvious that there is a difference in what people say to what they actually mean. No surprise there though. If you look at the search results …show more content…
"Nanny" gets: 5,000,000 global searches.
It is apparent that whilst there are some people out there looking for male childminders, and there is a small demand, the majority of searches are people looking for a childminder and expecting it to be a woman. The fact that there are no searches on the term "female childminder" is evidence of this. People assume that childminders are women.
After running childminderfinder for a few months, we can see that the majority of childminders in the UK are women. There are some male childminders out there and we have a couple listed on our site but demand is small.
In this day and age where CRB checks are now required for anyone working with children and vetting and barring checks are to be carried out for anyone with contact with children, is it any wonder that people are put off of using male childcare?
We live in a time where many working parents cannot afford to give up work to look after children, childcare is the only viable option. People want the best for their kids and using a registered childminder is a popular option. But if a female childminder is CRB checked and correctly registered, does it make her a better option than a male childminder of the same