Does this exist?

[lilystem]

I'm a farmer and have just done my first harvest with baby - it's been a bit mad so I've been thinking about childcare for next summer.

In my ideal world I'd love a nanny/home help for 6 - 8 weeks over the summer. Farms often have harvest students who come and do loads of hours over the summer to gain experience and it got me thinking - are there nanny students who would be interested in a summer live in job?

Would nannies be keen or is it a no go?

I'm sure it would be very popular with people who are doing childcare qualifications at uni etc

Some students doing various courses may look for summer work between years of their studies.
They are probably not going to be experienced childcarers but they may have had some experience such as babysitting, helping at youth group.

Summer au pair seems very common - and they seem to be very nice young people that put themselves forward. Note that they typically are students looking to brush up on their English - which means probably no real childcare experience - and important to be able to provide social outlet for them (in terms of English & in terms of other young people).

I'd wondered about the au pair option but we are pretty rural so I'm not surer they'd get much out of it.

I think I'd be ok with someone gaining experience as I am on the farm and in and out of the house an awful lot - it would just mean I didn't have to lug baby round with me. It's been ok with him at 6 months but I don't think either he or I would find it so fun at 18 months.

Where would I look - are there nanny equivalents of agricultural colleges?!

Not really, courses tend to be at a college which does various subjects. Do you need someone to be a childcare student? May suit someone doing a different course.

Well you could contact Chiltern or Norland which are the specialised Childcare colleges but otherwise it's a case of just advertising in areas you think might be reasonable travelling distance (not necessarily daily) and seeing whether the local colleges there will put out an ad for you. Or you can advertise nationally on specialised sites like nannyjob and locally on MN local or netmums or gumtree.