What to do about approaching childminders for unusual hours!

[TheDetective]

I just wanted a little advice from those who are already childminders!

I am pregnant with DC2. DC1 is 10 and won't need childcare, but DC2 will. I am going back to work July 2013 (am only 7 weeks at the minute).

Dp is going to be working part time - his hours are Tues 11am-7pm, fri 11.30am-3pm, sat 8am-6pm. I work shifts, covering 24 hours a day 7 days a week! Some weeks I will be off when he is working, some I won't. Its done on a computer system. I work in the NHS.

I intend to make a formal request for no late shifts on Tuesdays, and no more than 2 Saturday (or Friday night) shifts a month. Whether work agree to it is another matter, but it isn't an unreasonable request, so we shall see.

I have no problems about arranging childcare for Tuesday and Friday, but the Saturday is causing us some headaches already.

My mum may do one Saturday a month, but since I can't expect work to agree to just one Saturday a month, I need to find childcare for the other potential day. (However my mum has no problems looking after DC1 every Saturday of the month if needs be - however that is another story!)

So, we have a potential one Saturday a month, but we won't know which particular Saturday, or what times, or if there will even be an additional Saturday (some months I can have no weekends at all - luck of the draw)

Would it be unreasonable to ask a childminder if she would be willing to do these ad hoc saturdays, given reasonable notice (minimum 4 weeks, maximum 8 weeks) and we paid them on an as needed basis. Or should we just offer to pay for every Saturday as we would the regular week days whether we use it or not. Or offer to pay a small retainer type additional amount to cover it as 'on call' or whatever, and then pay if the day is used on top of this.

It is giving me quite a headache wondering.

Also, was thinking of approaching childminders once I got to 12 weeks as I know baby places are harder to come by. Is this the done thing? Or do I wait til the baby has arrived and I have absolute dates on returning to work?

Errrr, if you have got this far, thanks for listening to my ramblings!! Any advice appreciated!

I would wait until baby is here, July 2013 is a long time away to know if you will have a space. I'm a cm and if I was asked to work Saturdays wouldn't have a problem with it (i look after my niece most saturdays anyway) but some do like weekends off. Each cm is different. You could always put a profile in childcare.co.uk as you're not in a hurry and see what responses you get?

I don't advertise Saturdays, but I could probably do 1 a month on an adhoc basis. Just ask.

Ex Cm here

When I was CM I actually had Saturday as a part of my working week so would have charged for all of them (sorry!) I would have made it clear to you that the space was being paid for so could be used all the time if you wanted though.

A lot of CMs don't however and just class Saturdays as an extra bit rather than normal working hours so would more likely charge ad-hoc.

Only problem with ad-hoc is that the CM can be unavailable to you.

Would also say, good luck in finding a Saturday CM as ime there's not many that do it! Have you considered perhaps employing someone to look after the baby in your home, a childcare student perhaps? Or know anyone on a conflicting shift pattern that you could share with?

Thanks for the advice ladies!

Will have to see what happens I guess! At least I know the option is there!

Flaming mother putting all my plans to cock ;)

Hi Foof!