Holly
Registered Childminder With Special Needs Experience Job In Horsham
Usually responds within 24 hours
Member since May 2024 Last Updated May 2024 Last Login May 2024
About Me
We are a neurodiverse, Christian family of 4; me, my husband and our two kiddos. I’m a British Sign Language Interpreter, among other things, with ADHD who doesn’t cope well with boredom! I work from home a fair amount of the time and enjoy crocheting, reading and watching movies. My husband, Lewis, is an autistic building surveyor who works from home 3 days a week. He enjoys video gaming, watching movies and sound design. Our eldest was born in September 2020 and is a lovely little boy with a gentle heart despite his big size (he’s predicted to reach 6’6/6’7 as an adult!). He was diagnosed autistic in 2023 and, although he’s entirely nonverbal, he makes a lot of noise and primarily communicates through signs and gestures. He enjoys playing iPad games with numbers, lining toys up or building towers, watching movies (especially Frozen!) and going anywhere with a slide and/or swings. Finally, our youngest was born in April 2022 and is possibly the closest to neurotypical this family has! She’s shy at first and strangers have often likened her to a doll, with her big blue eyes and long blonde hair, but once she’s confident people are quick to discover a chatty, strong willed, mischievous, borderline feral little girl! She has a kind heart though and loves caring for her big brother, fetching him things she thinks he’ll like, chasing him when he wants to play and giving him kisses on his arms and tummy just because she can. She enjoys doing anything with her brother, pottering around the house finding dollies to cuddle, and water play.
We’re big believers in gentle parenting and taking a child-led approach to many things. We maintain, though, that adults are in control of every situation and that the children shouldn’t have to carry that responsibility - kids should be kids!
My Requirements
My interpreting job is ad hoc and mostly irregular but I’m possibly going to be settling down into more of rhythm soon so we’ve recently applied for ‘free childcare for working parents’. I’m looking for someone who will come to the house to look after our children, prepare food for them and generally keep them happy and healthy!
Our eldest’s needs are more complex than people often realise. We struggle with people thinking they know better than us what he can and can’t do and so we need people who are happy to be led by us on what we feel is safe for him. He may not show all the things we mention because we’ve worked hard on curating a safe environment for him and we can’t have anyone jeopardise that for us. For instance, he must have 1:1 when leaving the house as he is a flight risk and runs into traffic. He can also have meltdowns that are hard to manage when alone with both children. We have worked so hard on meltdowns and his behaviour outside of the home and he has made HUGE progress which means he may be completely safe on the occasion someone take them out, but he also might not be and the risk of serious harm to either child is too great if things go wrong. I suppose it’s like wearing a seatbelt in the car. One could go without for a journey and everything be totally fine, but the risk of harm is so great if something DOES go wrong that it wouldn’t be worth not wearing one. So we know which seatbelts MUST be worn and which ones should be okay and we need people who respect this!
That’s our biggest concern when it comes to childcare so now that’s out of the way..! It’s likely to be the case that both Lewis and I are at home and we are usually accessible. We’re therefore usually available for answering questions or offering support here and there when needed!
Having ADHD, housework is my nemesis and so any jobs around the house - washing, folding and putting away laundry, emptying and refilling the dishwasher, helping the kids tidy up their toys etc. - would be greatly appreciated! It’s also worth noting that we do allow screen time, and we’re more relaxed about this an a lot of people are so we ask for no judgment on this, but also for this not to be taken advantage of and for screens not to be used as a form of childcare.
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