advice on childcare from parents?

[Lindalove]

Hi I am expecting my first baby and thinking about how I can childcare to fit my lifestyle. Basically I am a freelance digital consultant and work project by project, so sometimes I might be at home able to look after my child, and other times I won't be. For example I aim to be off work for 4 months with the baby to start with but hope to then work for a month on a project before being at home again.
Is this feasible? Will childcare be able to be this flexible or not - generally can you only access childcare through booking a place or places somewhere every week, as that doesn't work for me. What I am hoping is to find someone locally with their own baby who is off work and perhaps will look after mine when I am working.

Nursery places tend to be pretty fixed, have to agree to fixed dates 52 weeks per year with notice periods. Childminders generally the same but may be able to offer more flexibility depending on how many they've got already and whether want more income now and then. May have to be creative, short term nannies from agencies or nanny who has had a baby who just wants to work now and then and take it on case by case basis if you could find someone this flexible who doesn't mind the unreliable income. Maybe nanny share although other families generally want a long term plan... Go onto childcare sites and see what people offering/advertising. Get local childminder lists and ask around......

Unfortunately I think it will probably be tricky to find childcare. If you want to have a single childcarer that you can use each time and that your child can get to know and settle-in with then you will almost certainly have to pay some sort of retainer while you are not working. However, if you are happy to mix and match childcarers, and just go with whatever setting happens to have a space then it may be possible to just pay for the times that you work, but this will probably be quite stressful for both you and your child. So for example, as a childminder I would be quite happy to take an adhoc child on for a month, if I happened to have a space available, but I definitely wouldn't guarantee to be available again in a few months time.

You may get more flexibility if you go down your suggested route of an unregistered stay-at home mum with her own baby, but this isn't really legal (unless you employ her as a nanny) and you wouldn't be able to use childcare vouchers or claim tax credits.

You may also want regular childcare in place so that your child is settled and used to their childcarer.

Difficult but not impossible. You may be able to find a Childminder who deliberately doesn't fill all their spaces as they prefer not to be be so full on all the time, in which case they may be happy with a regular ad hoc child. I've done this in the past and it suited me well.
Your idea of using another new mum would work if they came to your house (nanny) but if being paid it would be illegal for them to do it at their house for more than 2 hours in any one day - they would have to register as a Childminder to do this legally. You would also then have the benefits of insurance, first aid and childcare training, and be able to use childcare vouchers & tax credits if applicable

thanks all - I can probably afford to pay a retainer while I am not working. if not the using a stay at home mum who comes to my house might be an option. I live in a pretty busy area of London so with luck will be able to make it work, if not I guess I'll just need to bite the bullet and pay all the time/ work more. Just seems odd that if I'm off work, I still have to pay for childcare as the system isn't flexible. Maybe a gap in the market for women like me... we need flexinannies who deliberately keep space for flexibility to help women like me.

"stay at home mum who comes to my house" - this is called a "nanny with own child". It's usually someone who was a nanny, has had a baby, wants to carry on nannying but bring their child to work with them. Usually about 20% less than usual nanny fee as their attention will be shared between the 2 children. Can work well if yours is same ish age as theirs, I believe.

There are temp nannies available but then you have a different person each time (not ideal at all) and it costs more. There are also drop in creches but only in certain areas and again they are pricey (and some may not be able to do a full day).

Another option is a nanny share - if you are in London this is more likely to work - for example you could look for a family whose kids are school age but want to keep their full time nanny but want to keep her busy in the school day and share the costs a bit. This would work best if you could do much/most of your work in the school term times.

Flexinannies sound great for parents, but i'm not convinced it will pay the bills!

I'm a freelance TV bod and I the same situation. I'm working part-time at the moment and what I've done is pick a nursery in an area with a lot of nurseries that's a little less shiny and less busy than the others. I've also selected sessions on Mon/Fri as they're days when most nurseries are less busy.

No easy solution though. I dream of decent drop-in childcare.

I found one nursery who were super-flexible - I booked them in for a base number of hours each week (you can always find something to do with that child-free time, and it keeps their routine), then I could add on extra sessions when I had extra work on.

It was near a hospital so I think they had evolved to fit around staff shift patterns. You might get lucky like that.

The downside, particularly for younger babies, of course is that they won't necessarily have the same key workers each time.

Also think about the child. I went back to work quickly each time and we had a nanny who came to our house each day. The babies and toddlers like regularly, certainty and sameness. If they are chopping and changing they may not so happy. However there are lots of people out of work in the UK. You will definitely find someone who can come to your house to look after the child when you need them. Try advertising in the local paper.