When you think of Les Mamelles; childminding services does not come to mind, but it is a district that is brimming with activity and has the same needs as any other district. Thankfully there are people, like Maureen Esther, who are willing to offer this essential service to allow parents to be fully functional and go out to work.
Maureen doesn’t regret the 20 years she has dedicated to working with children, she recounts how she started. She was a home carer when she decided to do something else but she couldn’t get another job so easily. During that period, people who knew her and needed a safe environment for their children to be minded approached her, soon several other parents learnt about her taking care of children and they sought her services as well. Therefore she inadvertently went into the childminding business but never set out to be a Child-minder.
Currently, parents come to her from as far as La Misère and Cascade, perhaps an indication of the quality of service that Maureen offers.
Upon hearing IECD’s call for Childminders to register, Maureen answered the call and says she is very pleased with her decision. “I’ve learnt so many things from the various training programmes IECD offers, I mean you know things as a parent but you learn other things that makes you an even better minder.”
As a parent of two children of her own, Maureen says she has a balanced parenting style, but she’s mostly strict “when it’s time to joke and play around we have lots of fun, but when it’s time to be serious we need to be, so that the children grow up with proper manners.”
Maureen works in close collaboration with the parents and hardly has any problems with them; for instance she prepares her annual calendar at the beginning of the year and distributes that to the parents. Hence, if she needs to take annual leave, they are aware months in advance and organise alternative care for their children.
However, there have been challenges that she has needed to overcome, the extra expenses she made in order to meet the criteria to be a registered Child minder almost made her give up, she was anxious that she might not meet the other requirements for registration; at times she felt like she was in an exam. She is glad she didn’t give up “I’m happy I went through with it, the benefits outweigh the anxiety by far”.
We wanted to know if she would remain a Childminder for long and she answered in the affirmative. “I love children and I like it when they are safe and well taken care of. “If a responsible adult with the required qualities, a love for children, patience, self-control I encourage them to come forward and register as a Childminder. You will get a lot of support from IECD, a lot of very useful training and they visit you to help you and give you valuable feedback on your work. “
Maureen says that as long as she has the energy she will keep working with children, she recounts fondly when the children she has minded in the past meet her on the street, remember her and still talk to her showing the respect and love they used to have when they were small. “I feel very happy when this happens, it means I did something right.”
