Where have all the minders gone? One anguished parent in need of support

[LadySnotAlot]

Oh my god. I've never had any problems getting childcare before.

I have called 20, YES 20! childminders today and do you know what? Only 1 can do the hours I want and one can sort of accomodate some of it, and neither of them are in my local area!!!!!!!!!!! My little boy goes to playschool where I live and the people in the new location won't be able to bring him here! He can't leave now, he goes to school in January!

What on earth is going on?

I feel like crying. Probably because I'm due for my period. But for goodness sake, 20 phone calls later and I'm still no further forward!

Oh no Have you called the local Children's Information Service and told them you're having problems and see if they can help? Sometimes we CMs in my area get begging emails in these cases.

Can we help you find someone? If you want help, let us know what area you are

Looneytune x

I live in Essex in a pretty rural area. I used to live in Chelmsford and never had a problem there.

I've been on the phone to the CIS 4 times today to get numbers in various different areas. I have to start work in 2 weeks as I've a 5 week induction to get through! Nursery would be pointless as I'd need to earn 3 x the amount of money I do now in order to pay for the children to go there.

I'm totally fed-up and I feel a bottle of wine coming on!

Has anyone had any experiences of nannies and how much they cost for part-time?

BUMP - Is the desperation showing yet?

Have you tried asking all the parents of children at your ds's playgroup? They might know of a cm in the area that isn't on the list at the CIS. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Have you tried looking in local shops windows, yellow pages, thomson local, gumtree etc?

Have you started a thread in nanny shares? as thats where lots of people put requests for childcare help. Also if you give your exact location, if you want to someone might be able to help you, Or put up an advert in your local shop/post office and see what happens

A nanny to care for one child is usually not financially viable in my view. If you need a very rough figure, then a nanny may set you back anywhere from £90 to £150 per day - sorry, very ballpark figures.

Out of the 20 you called... how many of them actually had any vacancies? Reason I ask is that my gut feeling is telling me the problem may not be a lack of childcare providers, but more an issue with the hours you require - I could be wrong, but you did say that 'only 1 can do the hours I want'. What hours are you wanting? If the hours are not that many, then can you bump up the hours to make it more attractive to providers?

Are there any childminders already collecting from the playschool? Have you already contacted them and found that they don't have any vacancies?

Out of the 20 I called, 15 were fully-booked. Two had vacancies and two could only fit me in for some of the time I required. Basically I need 6 hours a day 5 days a week!

We live in a very rural area so I've managed to get hold of every (registered) minder there is and that was the situation! I've had to go further afield to get my daughter looked after and I'm having to pay a family member to take my son to and from playschool!

In fairness, I personally can't afford to take children for days that short, but we're all different. IF you are desperate, just a thought but would it change things if you paid extra? Maybe book longer hours and then have some time to do other things? It's only a thought as I know you were really stuck.

I hope you sort something

Oh....just ignore what I said, I didn't read the bit about you sorting it