When mum is ill, what happens?

[marionara]

Hi! Disabled mum here.
What do you do when you're unable to look after the baby?
I have health issues which sometimes make caring for my one year old very hard. No family nearby to pop by. He has a childminder but its a formal arrangement one day a week.
Babysitters seems to want some sort of regular arrangement also.
Was thinking of collecting details of babysitters and having a first meeting with them, ready to call on in these circumstances, hoping one is available at the time? Is there another way? At a loss! Thanks!

What sort of frequency are you requiring help? For one offs, if I'm ill, either dh will take an emergency (unpaid) day or my Mum will have them. However I don't have any recurring/long term health issues.

If you find yourself in a situation where you may have a day a week or so, then maybe you need to swap the one full day childminding to a loose Mother's Help type person who has flexibility to pop in for a couple of hours each weekday and may be persuaded to work (paid) overtime on the days you really need.

There is a site called emergencychildcare that specialises in last minute nannies/childminders. You can also get a last minute babysitter off sitters.com, I believe.

Yes meet a few nannies or cm that have spaces

make a list who is free on what days

and pray when you are ill and need someone that one of them is free

or join a local nanny agency who will have temp nannies and hopefully they will be able to send someone tho uou may not meet them till rhe dag

i did temping for a few years as worked 3 days so if a Thur or Fri emergency job came up I would do it

Yeah I had an emergency childminder once as my mum who did lots of our childcare was in hospital for a but and nursery couldn't squeeze them in. I'd ask for contacts and have an emergency list.

This is another v good reason to build your social network - apart from the benefits to you in terms of friends!

When I work with families with issues like illness I go out of my way to accommodate changing needs, build the relationship with your cm....social services often help organise things I'm often contacted by them to see if I can help