Using two different cms?

[stella1w]

I am trying to find a cm who will take my one year old and four year old (for school run and holidays) and it is proving tricky. Apart from cms not knowing if they will have a space in advance (understandably), many seem to only have space on a couple of days a week..
I am nervous about leaving it til the last minute to find a solution, so was wondering if it would work using two different cms to cover my five day week if - as is looking likely - I can't just get the one cm to do fulltime.
I am less worried about my four year old than my poor one year old...

I think this can work, so long as it is regular and the children are able to settle in both places.

My friend has been using the same, wonderful childminder for ages and her children love going there, but this childminder did not have space for both of her children on Fridays. I'm recently registered, but I didn't have space for both children on Fridays either. So the one year old goes to the regular childminder for the day and I pick up the 3 year old from preschool and mind her for the afternoon. It works well for us

I would accept looking after the one year old all week and having the four year old during the holiday's plus do the school run during the week. So I think their must be some more cm's around that can do this too!

We use a CM 2 days and nursery 3 days a week, as couldn't find any suitable with 5 days vacant. When I go back to work after DC2 (due in June) I'll be cutting down to 4 days, 2 at nursery, 2 with CM. DS was 7 months when he started btw, and is fine. Loves his CM to bits, and has a whale of a time at nursery. It has worked very very well for us. :)

Good to hear that two cms can work. I think I would still need both kids with one cm at a time because otherwise not sure how dropoffs and pickups would work unless they lived very close to each other..

we also have used childminder for 3 days and nursery 1 day but about to change childminders and going to be doing 2 days of each.

My regular CM doesn't work on a Friday, and I am working on a full time contract at the mo (I am freelance). She recommended a friend of hers who had a vacancy on a Friday. I was concerned but it has worked out really well.

My DS knows the second CM and her mindees anyway as she goes to the same playgroups, and in a way it's a nice change for him to go to another house on a Friday, he's always really excited when I tell him he's going there on a Friday morning.

She also acts as a backup for me if my main CM isn't available Mon - Thurs.

I would do what you need to do short term (ie book a different one for each of them) and see how it goes. If you like them both, tell them that you would like them to take your other child as soon as they get a vacancy. It's probably all you can do right now, but it's certainly not ideal. Apart from anything else (like drop offs/the kids being together etc) having 2 lots of CM holidays to work around would be a nightmare. It's not the same as people using different types of care of different days.