What job am I describing and how do I go about finding someone to do it?

[stealthsquiggle]

DH and I have always muddled through with 2 FT jobs and no childcare other than after school club and a lot of help from my DPs, largely because we work in jobs where we can work flexibly and at least in part from home. DC's are 7 and 11.

We are approaching breaking point. DH's job may well require him to be on site about 3 hours away 2 days a week, and I am doing a lot more international travel, and the resulting "gaps" are more than we can reasonably ask my parents to cover, so we need to look for paid help.

We need someone to pick up the DC (DC2 typically around 4:30pm, DC1 typically at 7:30pm, although both might be earlier on occasion), feed DC2, make sure she does music practice, listen to her about her day etc and generally be around. If they wanted to combine this with cleaning / housekeeping that would work really well for us, and justify the hours. Sometimes we would need someone to come early in the morning and do the school run. Whilst we would do our best to make this regular days, we don't have regular schedules so a degree of flexibility would be needed.

Is this a job description that actually exists, what would it be called, and where would I start looking?

Nanny-housekeeper. Good luck

Thanks, nameless. That was one of the possibilities I was thinking of. Are you implying that they are like hens' teeth, or just that this is not an attractive setup (which I could entirely understand)? I was thinking that it might suit someone who was, for example, a TA, as it would be entirely outside "core" school hours. Unfortunately we live in the middle of nowhere, and everyone I know who is a TA does it because it fits with their own DC, which this clearly wouldn't .

The job you describe is either au pair or nanny-housekeeper, depending on the level of skill you need the person to have.

The chances of finding a nanny housekeeper who wants to work irregular afternoons/evenings and the occasional morning are very slim imo. Asking someone to be available as and when you need them without paying them to be available just doesn't really happen. You can't possibly expect someone to never make plans in the morning on the off chance you might need them (unless you can give weeks of notice when a morning will be required?).

Your best bet would probably be an au pair, but that's not for everyone, it brings its own hassles.

The other alternative would be someone with their own child/ren or an older person who doesn't need/want to work full time, but is looking for a bit of extra cash. I think your problem might be the Kate evenings though. What time would they finish?