Gutted. The training I've done to be a child minder in the UK is worth nothing, I have just 10 hours of official training here. To become a childminder in NL I need 2 years and 850 hours worth (mbo). If I had done two years of full time study, would I have chosen to do it in childminding? I don't have 2 years and I was hoping in 5 years to stop childminding anyway, it's a bit like marathon running, 55 hours a week with multiple children under 8 is not a walk in the park, fun though it is.
This changes a lot. On the upside, the boys don't like be childminding, want the house and me to themselves and are always asking to go to afterschool club which in NL would also accelerate their learning NL. I was planning on running a shop, it's the temp market for me, I will see what I can find in retail, learn what it takes to make a shop work in Utrecht.
This a journey that does have some itinerary but so much has to be down to how things work out. I'm absolutely gutted that I can't continue childminding there. It changes everything, what we take with us (I will have to sell all my resources) and start all over again. My job prospects are all over the place, I'm now a middle aged mother of two in need of work. I have a CV with no clear path, lots of twists and turns and it really is time I committed to something work wise. I like the shop idea, I think it has legs but I am so far away from a coherent strategy at the moment, it's nothing more than a possibility.
One things for sure, faced with the prospect of doing 2 years study to qualify as a childminder, it isn't worth me starting that now, not if I was planning on doing it for only another five years at most anyway. It's fine say, if you are a teacher or nursery worker or something and decide to so childminding for a while but I don't think many people would choose it based on what it pays just on it's own.
Back to trying to find work. The upside is the boys will get to go to afterschool club like they wanted and they won't have to share their breakfast with other kids anymore, which is what they've said they wanted.
