What do I need?

[buggyRunner]

Hi my dp has a new role in his company and part of this job requires us to go to fundraising events in the evening- about once a month. Now we need to outsorce child care as my parents (only gp's) live an hour away and we need to be on time etc for these events.

So we will have a 7.5mth old and a 2.8 year old dd's. Childcare will be needed from 7pm (so once they're in bed until we come home) thus may grow into an earlier time when I stop bfeeding or over night.

Do I need a nanny ? Do nanny's do babysitting? I really Want a reliable person

Most nannies wouldn't finish early enough to babysit from 7pm. An Infant School Teacher or a Nursery Assistant would probably be the best solution. You probably need to have about 3 who you use semi-regularly to make sure your evenings are covered (as it's not frequent enough for them to not want to take other babysitting jobs.)

So how do you proposition nursery people - is it ok to ask at my dd's nursery or will they think I'm wierd?

How much (Cheshire based)

Btw thanks

Check you contract with the nursery to see if it mentions anything in it about approaching staff with regard to evening babysitting. Some nurseries do have policies about that, some won't permit it at all, whilst others may charge a fee, and others won't mind at all. If you can't see anything in the contract, then talk to the manager. Then once it's been established it's ok, approach your dd's keyworker and other staff who know your dd well.

Look at listings on Childcare.co.uk it may help to get a feel for what typically babysitters in your area would expect to be paid. Ultimately it's up to the individuals concerned to decide how much they would charge for evening babysitting - then you decide to agree to the figure or to try to negotiate.

My nursery allows the workers to babysit the children with no fee attached, i would ask the management and see what they say.

Also you could try [[

sitters they provide professional baby sitters.

Sorry my i posted to early

If you have friends with children at other nurseries, ask staff there rather than at your own. If you're using several then there's no hard feelings.

I joined childcare.co.uk for a month, contacted as many potential babysitters in my general area as possible, a portion of them responded and I have used a few. It seems expensive at first, but YOU get to choose the person that way, and you don't have to maintain membership (most people looking for babysitting work only have a free account, to contact someone on that website at least 1 person must have a paid account).

Put your own ad up as well, and some of them may contact you. Bit trickier with schools, but again if you know someone who has children at the school they could ask the Teacher's Assistants or Teachers (especially younger ones) if they do babysitting. If you have a coffee shop in your town which allows ads to be put up you can put up an ad looking for babysitters there as well.

Qualified people, I pay £8. Some nannies etc want £10 - I just don't use them.

Local teenagers (would only use if you were nearby and were contactable with such young children) I pay £5.

I round up, and if they do story and bedtime I give a bit more.