Andree looked after our Son during my return back to full time working. It was a struggle trying to find a decent child minder in the area. When we first met Andree seemed professional and we loved that she has a dog and family home environment, this being said Andree didn’t show me any further than her front room. I wasn’t shown where my son would be sleeping neither was I shown her garden (I assumed/expect that’s where the children would play?). Andree, I feel, has an old fashioned approach to minding. She comes across quite strict and after a while we discovered our little
Boy just wasn’t enjoying himself. He is used to being in a fun loving environment and it was heart breaking watching him sob his heart out every time we dropped and picked him up. My partner seemed to have nice conversation with Andree but whenever I saw her it seemed quite cold, not much updates given, I remember on my first day not one message of reassurance was sent and I was so scared about how he was getting on... Andree also only sends pictures to you if you send her the money. Fair enough but it just made me feel like it’s just a business to her, there’s no love for the child and warmth...
Our son, at the time was around 15/16 months old and getting used to using a spoon. We were told by Andree that he should really be using it by now and that it isn’t right... I mentioned that he’s trying his best and he is showing the correct signs so I have no concerns but Andree continued to comment on it... at no point did Andree explain how she was helping him to do this, it was as if she was looking at myself and my partner and questioning us and our parenting like we are not helping him? It made me awfully upset and this wasn’t the only time it had happened.
I would pick my son up multiple times with ruined clothes even when I have provided Andree with spare clothing to change. Neither did it look like there had been any attempts to clean the stained clothes. This has lead to multiple items of clothing being ruined.
We also used to have a lovely jogging buggy, Andree said she wouldn’t keep it in her house as it was too big and said it would be left outside, we had no choice to buy something which would suit us all... I could go on but I just wanted to put down the main issues we’ve had. I also want to reiterate that since going to Nursery and leaving Andree, our son is so much happier and is excelling in his learning. Andree is a lovely person, and we wish we all the best. We just feel she is set in her ways and isn’t suited to our son and our style of parenting.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication