I’m a lifeboat crew volunteer and am pregnant how do I find a babysitter

[pinklammma]

I’m a lifeboat crew and I want to ask if anyone had any tips for a good baby sitter

Do you have a partner?

Either the child's other parent will have to step up...

How, if he's at work when OP gets a call?

I'm assuming that would be adhoc short notice? In which you won't manage without a very strong support network. Dad, grandparents, extended family, friends to call up each down, working down the list. You won't be able to rely on paid childcare being available in those circumstances.

Then she can only be on call during his non-work hours.

You may find that your feelings change about volunteering once your DC is born, OP. I volunteered for 10years prior to having DD1 (not lifeboat crew), but once she was born, I found it extremely challenging to fit in volunteering around her, going back to work, trying to get some quality time with DH (who is a very hands on Dad and helping out around the house). I ended up taking a few years away, had a second DC, and now that DD2 is sleeping through and getting more independent, only now am I considering going back. Lots of good ideas on this thread but I think also remembering that your life is going to change a lot and its ok to take a step back (even if on a temporary basis) and reassess from there.

Either you only volunteer when the child’s father isn’t working (assuming joint parental responsibility), you get friends or family to agree to some sort of emergency rota or you pay a nanny to be on call for when you might need them.
my DC are now early teens. I’ve worked a paid job requiring on calls for their entire lives. Currently DH works away 3 nights/week. On the very rare occasions I have to be on call those nights my DM steps up. There are multiple exciting and career enhancing roles I could have on a voluntary basis…..but organising child care for out of hours is hideous for a paid job. There is no way on earth I’d be doing it for a job I’m not even paid for (irrespective of how fun it was). You may also find, once your baby arrives, that you aren’t prepared to take the risk involved to save strangers when it might leave your own child motherless.
when my DC were small I read : “you can always sort your childcare. You might not like it, but you can always sort it”.
at the time my DC were very small and we had a wonderful nanny. I thought if I didn’t like my childcare I wouldn’t work…..but as they’ve grown, and we’ve moved several times, I’ve had all manner of childcare, some of which I definitely haven’t loved. But it’s fulfilled a need and whilst might not have been the most educationally stimulating periods of my DCs lives has enabled me to continue a demanding career.
we all have choices.

And what happens the night you don’t come home? Who is going to tell your child and take over parenting them? This is the time you now put your child first in front of strangers who’ve chosen to go out and put themselves at risk

When I had young children and a job with emergency on call (from home) responsibilities, I had to make sure that DH was at home when I was on call and could potentially go into his work late the next day (I would usually have taken dc to nursery).

unless you have a partner living with you I don’t see how it could work.

I don’t know but what a wonderful thing to do

Wow