I don't like to write negative reviews, but I relied so heavily on the reviews on this website that I am going to put our experience of Pauline on the website too. We honestly thought we had struck gold with her, she seemed friendly and caring at first. But she completely misunderstood us, and took offence at my husband informing her of what works with our daughter around mealtimes. She didn't act in a professional manner, and didn't ask for clarification of the tone of our comments, before getting angry and aggressive in her own tone, and very quickly deciding to terminate our contract.

I think the best way to give feedback in this instance is to write the text correspondence that my husband had with Pauline below, for you to make your mind up. We did not find her professional, warm, communicative or friendly in the end. She turned very quickly after taking offence over something that was only meant to help.

I have given 2 stars as the space is clean, tidy and the outdoor space is great for the little ones. But our experience has been a very disappointing one. I guess, so long as you don't try to offer advice about your child, you'll get on like a house on fire. It is very odd, as she asked us to fill in an "about me" document. But did not want updated information. Our daughter had been with her for 3.5 days, so she did not know her yet. We had no idea what our daughter had been getting up to whilst there, and had been told on 3 occasions that Lilly was loud. Pauline mentioned it on the 2nd full day that she screams after eating and that she has never had such a loud child, at this point we joked about how loud she was. But when I got home it got me and Ciaran wondering if we could think of ways to help, so that she wasn't so loud for Pauline... Anyway, that backfired spectacularly, clearly don't offer help on your own kid.

To make it easier, here is the correspondence typed word for word, for you to make your mind up on. We wouldn't recommend Pauline.

Husband: Hi, just wanted to let you know Lxxx will repeat words now and if prompted will say "more" or "maw maw maw" during meal times when she wants more food. We understand she has been noisy these last couple of days. We find normally if she is screaming it's because she's tired, hungry/thirsty or frustrated at something. We hope she has a fun day today and would love to see some photos if you get a chance. Thanks Gxxx and Cxxx"

Pauline: Hi, I didn't say she had been noisy, it was just general chit chat at the door and Gxxx told me that people didn't believe how loud her scream was, She hasn't been constantly screaming it's random outburst [sic] usually after food not saying more just a scream which then she was given more. I am able to recognise when a child is frustrated/hungry or thirsty, we don't have set times for meals etc! But we do have breakfast, mid morning snacks, lunch, afternoon snacl and tea I don't send individual pics to parents as this would take to [sic] much time but we do occasionally put pictures on our Instagram page and I have them on my WhatsApp stats. Pauline"

Husband: Hi Pauline, thanks for your reply. Earlier I was hoping to provide some additional info as I knew you had mentioned to us about Lxxx making nosie at times in the day, and she is obviously unhappy when I'm leaving her in the morning which is upsetting. As you have noticed she does scream until she is given more food at mesl [sic] times. At home when Lxxx screams at meal times we ask if she wants more, to which she responds, as mentioned in previous text, then she gets more food. I appreciate you don't have time to take photos of individual children, we hope to see some Instagram soon. See you later, Cxxx"

Pauline: Cxxx...I appreciate what your saying but like my previous message I'm fully aware of the actions and needs of babies and early years...this food situation I can assure you Lxxx is being fed on homemade meals and Health snacks which is plenty and I'm not shy with portions..there is plenty of photos on Instagram and Whatsapp status daily for you both to see.. The comment about Lxxx making noise was a response of Gina saying friends have commented how loud Lxxx can scream. The words were not a feedback of how Lxxx was that day. I base my setting on a home away from home environment for the children to have that homely feel away from their parents, I base my communication and interaction with parents on a friendly level and has beeen [sic] an important part of all my minded children's well being and development. Maybe you could benefit from one on one care for Lxxx as we are family orientated here and I take pride on this"

Following all this correspondence, I rang Pauline to ask for clarity on her last message as we were getting confused. She advised me that she didn't like my husbands tone and that we could either call it a day or she was serving us our 4 weeks notice. So very upsetting, when all we had tried to do was help, but clearly all children are the same to her. I had not mentioned that my friends had said how loud our daughter was. Pauline had mentioned that she screams, as if she is cross at other children still eating, and that she hadn't had such a loud child before. I laughed and responded that it was good to hear a professional childminder saying she is louder than any other child she'd met, as no one believed me when she was a newborn that she had an extremely loud cry! Pauline completely misremembered conversations, and misunderstood the tone of my husbands texts. And even when I gave clarity that we were trying to help, she still took offence...all very odd and certainly not what we had expected after reading all the glowing reviews. She made it very clear that she wanted to terminate with immediate effect, putting us in a predicament. She did offer the 4 week notice, but how could we keep our daughter with her when she flew off the handle at us trying to help....

There were no photos of our daughter on Instagram or WhatsApp, and all we had wanted was to know she was having a good time. Either by a photo, or just some positive feedback at the end of the day. We wanted this, as from our perspective she cried when we dropped her off, she was upset at the times were were picking her up and we were then being told that she was loud. Generally, she is only loud when she is frustrated/hungry/thirsty etc...and because we know our daughter, she isn't loud with us now. Had we been able to engage in a conversation with Pauline, we'd have been able to put across that Lxxx doesn't get more food when she screams, as this encourages the behaviour. And that if you say "all gone" she chills out. Anyway, it doesn't matter for us anymore, but this was our experience.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication