Inspire me re my next career move

[Victoria2002]

I have been a nanny for 15 years, now NWOC. I love my job but the hours are very long and the wage does't increase much with experience at this stage. I am trying to decide what my next career move should be, I want to have another baby and can have a career break to do so, but after that, what? Child minding is the obvious answer. Short of becoming a highly paid holiday-tester my ideal job would be something with a high hourly rate eg: kids party entertainer/running kids classes, or maybe parenting classes. Since having my baby I am fascinated with the birthing experience and thought of becoming a doula (unsociable hours) or a lactation consultant (though I think to become an LC would take ages). I wonder what other nannies or childminders plan to move on to, or have re-trained in? Or dream of?

I am a nanny and also doing a degree - I would like to help Forces children using play therapy in a couple of years.

Wow, good luck, that sounds very rewarding.! I cannot imagine how you find the time to study alongside nannying hours.

I'm currently working about a million hours a week (nanny) to save up so in a couple of years I can start a play work qualification- I was lucky enough to volunteer in the play department a hospital for a few months and really enjoyed it, I know it's a job I could do well and would certainly help more than caring for well-off children! A former nanny friend now, amongst other things, does creche work for an event firm so it's varied and all over the place.

I work a full time nanny job minimum of 50 hours including a lot of proxy parenting at least 2 24 hours duties month; upto weeks at a time. So yes it can be hard but if I don't do it now then I won't be able to down the line so even when I'm procrastinating {supposed to be writing an essay at the moment} I know that I will be letting myself down {and my boss} if I don't buckle down and get this qualification - am currently half way through.

Have you thought about becoming an ante-natal teacher, maybe for the NCT? It's a 2/3 year course, but it could be quite rewarding.

The other thing that would be in huge demand around the area I live in is school age holiday care over Christmas holidays or the periods between when private schools finish and state schools do. As there is currently nothing.

Thanks karoleann I had thought of being an antenatal teacher, and I love the subject, not sure I'd earn more than I currently do by working for the nct though. I am in London so I imagine there is school holiday care options available, although I can only think of sports camps etc so could investigate further.

What salary do any of these roles pay? I wonder if any pay more than nannying? Only job I have had that paid more than nannying was when I did a combination of IT Support and Consumer Sales (commission bumped up the basic salary).

If one did birthday party entertainment or ran a popular kids class one could bring in £100ph plus. When I was looking for a private lactation consultant in London a home visit was £200+ for 90 mins, and Amanda of Amanda's Action Club is £350 odd for 90 mins, I paid £500 or so for hypnobirthing lessons in my own home. Obviously I understand that you need to train/build a name for yourself/spend time on office work or marketing etc, but to be able to earn a days wage in half an afternoon a few times a week would be great, especially if it was in one of my areas of interest.