CM:.I'm not a bloody babysitter..i'm a childminder..........er..well actually!..

[StrawberrySnowflakes]

i replied to an ad for a babysitter who has cm experience in the nice area we used to live in.
only have one mindee on at minute, so thought i try and raise a few extra pennies by doing this!..go's against everything we say really doesnt it..am off to meet her tomorrow, she wants regular/weekly, but may not be so often as current mindees hours are wildly varied..sigh.....wish i could get another mindee on instead tho

I have thought of doing this in the past, I now do homecare for two of my sibling mindees on a saturday at their house. There are 2 of them (so worth it money wise), my ds gets a change of scenery and to play with someone elses toys lol! In summer just plan to take em out with us for days out etc. Could you do something like this?

Hope it works out for you keep us posted. Sure another mindee will be along soon hun x

Thanks KS...its not a bad thing its just everything i do revolves around my dd and im being stupid by worrying about her dad putting her to bed if im out working..stupid i know, but ive always been the person, if i want something doing ill do it myself!..its a nice area, mega expensive houses, so im sure will be fine..just wish id said more money now

so do you charge extra for the weekend home care?..do the parents work 7 days?if you have them trhough week too?

No mum works part time I have youngest tuesday morning, then both thursday afternoon/evening and now both saturday at home(mum is a hairdresser). I charge my usual rate as there are two of them but if I was only doing it for one child I think I would charge a 'weekend rate'. The mum is a good friend, respects childminders and what we do, pays on time and is grateful for my services tho so it's all very palatable!

I'm the same with my ds, have to do it all myself or feel bad - us cms are just big softies I'm afraid. Look on it as quality time with dad rather than a bad thing - that's how I try to think of it when ds goes to his nanas lol! At least it will tide you over for a while.

yeah i spose..she prob get away with more if dp puts her to bed!..and if i can get and extr £20-£25 a week, then its £80-£100 a month, so not bad really.

You might find that offering this service makes you a more attractive childminder as well. When I used a childminder, she would babysit for £6/hour (childminding was £5). So if DH and I wanted to go out after work we'd give the childminder the key and she would take DD home, get her ready for bed, and carry on. Her babysitting fee would begin when the normal childminding day would have ended. It was a great service.

yeah my mindees mum asked me if i would do this a while ago, but with her dd i start at 6am and work till 10pm most times, then i would have to take her home and stay until mum got home and i just thought it was too much!having my own 3 yr old and not being able to 'do' much with her working these hours..i will do it when i have a'normal' day though ie finishing before 6pm or on a 'day' off..anyway, will have to give it a try cos id be daft to turn money down at the moment!

You could do say a 3 or 4 hour minimum so that would ensure you are at least paid enough to make it worth the hassle.

As a parent, I think a 4 hour minimum puts me off a bit, but that is what sitters.co.uk charge. But, I'd be happy to agree a 3 hour minimum.

Blimey, those are long hours though. What does the mum do for a living? I guess the child must go to bed at your house then before mum (or Dad) comes to collect at 10:00.

yeah she would be going to bed at 7.30 same time as my dd and mum would have picked up in p.j's...as it turns out, mum is ill and has left work, shes having a few hours sleep than collecting at 5.30!
shes in nursing so shifts all over place bless her!

Strawberry - this babysitting thing.. I've had an enquiry for this very thing at their house. I've asked Dh what he thinks and he said to leave it, as he is gone the week and wouldn't see me. But it's only two weekend nights per week and I am charging £5 so seems worth it!

Don't know - what are you going to do?

Per month, per month! Ugh, not per week

two weekend nights per month??..id do it, met this family today(not the dad he was at work) but mum and children were lovely, am just about to email what nights i can work around current mindee.i'll work say but not sunday as we do lots as family sunday and have lots to prepare for week ahead, but otehr than that?..tell them minimum hours required, i have said 4 cos its not near me and ive asked for £5.25, so £21 a night if not more, if you charge that and work a weekend, youll have an extra £40 odd quid in your pocket!..worth it id say!

Yeah, I agree, and it's easy work. I think I will pursue it further. DH is just concerned as he is away working during the week and our weekends are the only time we have - though he is away all weekend for project work. Sigh..

Will you bring your kiddies with you? Or leave them at home?

i only have one dd so dp will either put her to bed or i will do it before i leave.
The mum hasnt come back to me yet, but she does sometimes take a while to reply and her dh doesnt get shifts for following week until a friday, so this week was too late anyway, maybe next week???

do you mean your dh is away every weekend for project work or just the odd one?
i can understand how it will be hard if he works away through week, but depends how much the extra cash can help you?, i know we could do with it!
got another enquiry tonight from cis, but little boy needed to be collected from school too far away..the hours were odd(6am-2pm for 4 weeks then 2pm-10pm four weeks)but my current mindees are too anyway!..suc a shame..hopefully something will come up for us both soon