Nursery staff won't provide out of hours care?

[ThatMauveSquid]

My baby goes to a council run/owned nursery. I want to go out for dinner next week two nights on the go - with a friend. However baby will need looking after.

Everyone says to ask the nursery staff, which I'm 100% comfortable with them looking after the baby, but it's a council run nursery and I don't think they would be allowed to?

It would be so ideal if one of the workers I already know could do it :/

Just ask when you drop off/pick up

”Hi X, I just wanted to check, I’m looking for a babysitter for XX dates. I would love it to be someone DC already knows, is that something someone here would be interested in?”

Youre not going to get in trouble for asking

There's nothing to stop them doing private babysitting, some of the staff from my DD's nursery did

They probably aren't allowed to advertise it but if you ask around you might be lucky

I think she’s nervous about being overheard and either getting the staff member into trouble or being ‘spoken to’ by the nursery manager, which is understandable.

I’m curious as to why things have changed so much - my two were at two different nurseries and it was absolutely fine for staff to babysit. The notice on the board set the requested minimum rates.

I don’t think that anyone thought that school teachers would do it though!! That was seen as formal education, not daycare.

So mine were not supposed to but they all did babysitting on the side and the manager took the view that if she didn’t know about it, she wouldn’t be looking for it. So basically everyone used the nursery ladies and I still do now I’ve left.

I can see teachers not being willing to baby sit on the side, but TAs might jump at the chance to earn extra money and again, if it's someone you know and that they're reliable/trustworthy/competent, potentially mutually beneficial.

To me it sounds unprofessional for a staff member to care for a child whilst off the clock and I wouldn’t imagine it would be allowed.

Well seeing as the nursery won't be paying them 'professional' wages, that argument is irrelevant. They're paid for a job likely at or close to the minimum that is legally allowed, so it's none of the nursery's business what it's staff do in their own time.

Can the baby's father look after them?

Why do people like you do this? I absolutely hate these snarky back handed comments. If the dad could do it, do you think the OP would have started this post? Loads of people comment this just to see whether the dad is in the picture or not, you’re not actually trying to be helpful at all

How is it a 'backhanded comment'? It's a perfectly reasonable question.

If the child’s father could look after them, do you think the OP would be on here asking whether nursery staff are able to carry out babysitting? Genuine question

Do you know , maybe the OP hadn’t thought of asking the child’s father. Good shout .

It’s obviously not a reasonable question. It’s obvious the dad isn’t an option and that isn’t any of your business. You asked because you wanted to get the OP to spell out her status as a single mum so could sit smugly at home judging her.

Lol. Rather a lot of assumptions there.

Polite response - you are being a little ridiculous here. "Told off"?!

Ask a member of staff you like, she can know/choose what she wants to do and can answer accordingly.

If she shouldn't but does, that's on her - she's an adult and can make that decision. Literally not your responsibility.

Well it’s either that or a complete failure to engage the brain.

Why on earth would anyone be asking about babysitters if the baby’s dad can do the childcare?

Well to be fair there seems to be a lot of father's that 'can't possibly' look after their kid because of some nonsense reason.

Anyway sorry if my question caused offence, that wasn't my intention.

why would you get told off? I think all nurserys have a policy, whether it's a 'no way' or 'you can do what you want, off our premises it's nothing to do with us'. Ours had a suggested rate of pay and kept a log of it but made it clear it was a private arrangement and they had no responsibility for it. The staffs job is childcare and they have all the dbs and first aid stuff in place already, of course it's something they might want to do in their evenings to earn some extra cash.

Just say 'hello, I need a babysitter on sunday and my friend said they use staff from their nursery, is that something any of your staff offer?' - they'll either say 'yes here's the information' or 'no they're not allowed'.

I used to do it as well. Babysitting outside hours isn't poaching.

Employers shouldn't prevent their staff from having side hustles or earning money outside hours if it isn't conflicting with their work (eg having two WFH jobs at the same time :) )

It seems quite common and acceptable where I live, I often see people advertising in our local parents' FB group saying they work in local nurseries and are looking for extra babysitting work.

It's not really backhanded, there seem to be a lot of useless men out there who couldn't possibly "babysit" their own kids. Because of their "hobby". Especially on MN.

This is a lot of drama. No one ever got in trouble for asking. If th epolicy is no, they'll tell you that - and different nurseries have different policies. Ours was fine with it, but we had to sign a form saying we were hiring the person completely independently and would have no recourse to the nursery. Others have different.

At our school, teachers cannot be hired as tutors for children at our school. But as a rule, if you ask the teachers, they will give you names of teachers at other schools and I assume our teachers' names are provided to other students.

it's really no big deal. OP, nicely, you need to toughen up.

Why would you get in trouble for asking a question? You literally just approach them and ask if they have a policy on babysitting out of hours and if not could you speak to key worker about it? Even ask if they have any recommendations. All they can say is yes we allow it or no we don't. How do some people get by in life being so wet.

OP are you the nursery worker? Have you been asked?

Exactly. There's a thread running right now where the OPs DH is complaining about how she treats him like a mug and takes advantage because she goes away overnight a couple of times a year and he has to look after his own DC while she's gone.

Exactly. People know exactly what they’re doing