What kind of childcare should I be looking at?

[queenofthepirates]

Looking for a bit of advice....

I've been tentatively offered a great job in London which would include quite a commute. If I take the job, I would be out of the house at 6am and back at 7pm.

Au pair? nanny?

How old are your children? I understood Au Pairs can only do 5 hours child care per day so even if your DCs are at school full time not sure this would work, and there would be school holidays to consider. So I would think live-in nanny?

for such long hrs I would suggest a live in nanny and if you cant/dont want live in I would look at having 2 nannies one to work 6am-1pm and one doing 1pm-7pm or 6am-4pm and an after school nanny doing 4pm-7pm or some cross over hrs to hand over.

A nanny working 5.45am-7.15pm (to cover hand over time) is not going to happen for 5 days a weeks maybe 3 if you are lucky so could split the week that way.

Bonus of 2 nannies is that should one go sick you would hope if no other plans they would cover each other.

Great, thank you all for your replies. Any thoughts about good places to look for nannies? My DD is 14mo.

Try greatcare.co.uk and gumtree.com - that's where i look for any upcoming Nanny jobs.
I've also heard good things about nannyjob.com but don't use it myself
Have a look at agencies too, they charge a fee but do everything for you (reference checks, CRB checks, initial interview etc)

I think one question you need to ask yourself is: Do you want someone else to be living at your home?

If the answer to that is No, then it rules out some forms of childcare (au-pair, live-in nanny).

Then there is the issue of money - how much money can you throw at the problem? Are you talking less than £20k, 20-30K, 30-40k, 40k+ ?

You are saying you will have a commute... so does that mean you do not live in London. Giving some indication of where you live may help indicate some likely childcare costs. For example in Surrey, Outside of the M25, a full-time live-out nanny may be £9-£11 gross per hour, where as closer to London that can rise to £15 gross. Nursery and Childminder fees also vary.