To think childcare should accommodate varying shifts?

[Somanyproblems]

I'm really struggling. Expecting first baby next year and am starting to look at childcare options.

(A nanny is not even a remote possibility, neither is an au pair.)

I have to start work quite early - at 8. The good thing is that I finish fairly early as well. However, this massively limits my childcare options. There is only one nursery that I've found we could use that opens before 8, and it really doesn't look very nice at all

Is this what people have to do - leave their baby somewhere they aren't happy with?

Have you a partner OP? Could they do the drop off and you do the pick ups?

Well, 'early' is in the context of 'being unable to find suitable childcare' Lady

What about finding childcare close to your place of work? Maybe there is a nursery that opens at 7.45.

A nursery near your work place?

That's what I have to do wizzy; that's the nursery I don't like but it's the only one that opens at 7:30, so ... No partner so it falls on me unfortunately!

We had this problem - I started at 8, meaning I had to leave at 7:30. DD's nursery started at 7:30, a ten-minute drive in the other direction. A quiet word with the manager and she could be dropped off at 7:15.

NHS here too, so long shifts and nights were much harder to arrange. Thankfully DH and friends/family were on hand to help.

Are you reading the replies OP?

Can you or your baby's dad (if in the picture) negotiate a later start time? Its likely one of your can - or one of you 2 days a week and the other the other 3.

Have you actually visited childminders and talked to them, rather than just looking at their published hours? Many people prefer child minders for babies and very small children as they can provide a cosier family setting, and will also often be more flexible if you ask in person once you've actually met them, discovered you like one another and could work together caring for your child, and explained your situation.

Childcare providers are private self employed individuals or businesses so there is really no "should" about what hours they work - they could only open 10am to 3pm if they wanted, but market forces would cause them to go out of business. The fact is if the nurseries can fill all their places by opening at 8am they won't open earlier for the convenience of a prospective customer because that would mean staff starting half an hour before the nursery opens, and possibly having child care problems of their own if staff have school age children etc, but a child minder can be more flexible and just take an early mindee on the school run if necessary and if you agree to that, or give her children breakfast and get them out the door with yours tagging along, or agree with you that though she'll take your DC at 7am she will only be "babysitting" for the first hour and she can put the TV on while she tidies the kitchen and sets things out for the day, and her structured minding day will still begin at her published start time.

*cross posts about partner but the rest stands - how much have you done about getting to know some childminders, rather than just being put off because your friend's child minder was once ill?

I am surprised, every nursery I have worked for has started at 7/7:30.

Could you consider hiring someone just to take your DC before nursery and to nursery. I have a friend who was a nanny who did part time out of out of hours nannying. She would do care before school/after school and random mornings, afternoons and babysitting.

If a nursery starts at 7 and staff work a 9 hour day, the people who started at 7 would leave at 4, still peak time. With staffing, I understand why longer hours are hard to offer.

If I lived in my own house I'd become a childminder who did evenings, nights and weekends.

I don't think it's fair to have a go at OP for discounting childminders. She's on her own so needs the guaranteed stability that comes with nursery. My DH and I have demanding jobs which we can't just take time away from particularly easily so we did not look at CMs either.

OP I would have a chat with some other local nurseries and ask about potential for earlier drop offs. They may be more flexible than advertised.

Have you asked the nurseries? We saw a couple who said early starts were possible if we wanted and one that had previously opened at 7.30 but noone ever got there until 8 so they stopped. They were more than happy to reinstate it if parents wanted it though.

It's difficult for the nurseries, if they can fill the spaces 8-6 why offer extra, it'll just cost more in staffing. I think hospital based nurseries sometimes cover shifts, for obvious reasons. Hospitals aren't always the easiest places to get to for drop off though!

It's part of the reason I went self employed as DHs hospital shifts are hopeless for childcare and my directors position was making days longer and less flexible than we could easily arrange childcare, plus living rurally limits what childcare we could actually get.
It's still a juggling act but a least the boss is more sympathetic when it all falls apart

You need to talk to childminders rather than just rely on a tale from one friend and equally you need to look round the nursery you don't like and speak to all the others.

When DC was at nursery I was under the impression that they could only legally have the child for 10 hours - no longer. So if you dropped off at 7:30 you had to pick up by 5:30, drop off at 8:00 pick up by 6:00. Not too sure if that's correct though. Our nursery started opening at 7:30 after lots of requests.
Agree with others, CM may be the way to go.

The thing is, any childminder is likely to be ill far, far less than the OPs child over the next couple of years, so OP is going to need a plan b or to leave/not go yo work at short notice anyway. So to discount childminders on the basis of unreliability seems a little illogical, given how hard the OP is finding it to secure a suitable nursery place.

Our nursery (which is lovely!) has standard opening hours of 8-6.

But, they have the option of dropping kids off at 7, by special arrangement. You have to pay a little extra for early drop offs.

Might be worth chatting to the nursery owners by you?

I had the same childminder for 10 years. She was never ill (or if she was it didn't impact on childcare) and even better, she looked after my DCs if they were ill much better than I did.

She was much more flexible than any nursery, and as a single parent, I liked that my DCs were spending much of their time in a two parent home. it was also useful in the frequent times I would forget that one needed to take a boiled egg, cornflakes box, whatever to school as she had these things to hand.

The only downside was the summer holidays. Her DH worked in a factory that shutdown for 3 week summer holidays -so no flexibility there. I used a nursery near work and when older shipped the DCs off to my parents (200 miles away).

Ditto pp. In two years, our childminder was sick just once. You're far more likely to need a plan B for your own child being sick and sent home from nursery / cm!

Yes good point - your own child is more likely to be ill than a childminder and a nursery won't take them if they are ill. You might not get much more than four hours' notice then, either. Some childminders even take children when they are ill (though I think this is rare!) - but mine used to be happy to take DS if he had a cold or was a little but under the weather but not too bad, whereas I get the impression a nursery would not.

Some childminders have back up for illness, too, they either have a reciprocal arrangement with another CM or a family member who is approved who will do the care. It's not always but it is sometimes.

I know it's exhausting and yes probably most will say no, but you should ask every single nursery and CM whether they would consider early drop offs.

You don't get much notice if a childminder is going to be ill, if your child is going to be ill, if the nursery pipes are going to burst due to cold weather and therefore the nursery is shut, if the road is going to be shut due to an accident, making you very late... unfortunately these things happen.

You may be able to sort something out with another local family and share a nanny? I know some families that have done so.

Also bear in mind that childminders sometimes have a reciprocal arrangement with other local childminders in case of illness. It's worth asking them if they have emergency cover.

It's worthwhile speaking to the nurseries and asking them.

DS2's nursery has standard opening hours of 8am - 6pm advertised on the website etc. But they do take some children from 7:30am. You have to pay extra for that and get it agreed in advance.

Dd had a fantastic nursery.

They officially didn't open until 7.45 but from 7.15 there would be cover and they would have breakfast etc. They didn't advertise this though as they could only have a small number of children whilst the skeleton staff were present.

It was literally a couple of extra pounds.

A friend was saying her DC nursery do similar it's worth an ask.