Self employed and looking for childcare

[emmack]

Hi mums, looking for childcare advice here. I’m self employed and while I have a lot of my work automated (I sell products online and a warehouse packs up orders for me), there are parts of the business that need my time, such as marketing and admin. Not on a timely, day-to-day basis necessarily, but bits and pieces that do need doing at some point.

I have a 10-month-old, and while I love that I have the freedom in my work to look after him as much as I can without the strain of a full-time job, I could really do with more time to get the ‘should-do’ stuff done that I can’t fit in during nap time. I desperately want to keep my baby’s routine as close to home life as possible, avoiding compromising on nap quality, but am really struggling to find something out there that works. People are mostly telling me that child minders are what I should be looking at, but how flexible are they? I really think I’m only looking for 10 hours a week, but does that sort of care exist? We have no grandparents that are local otherwise I can see that being the ideal option.

I know it’s something a lot of people need to go through, accepting that someone you don’t know will be looking after your child, but the nature of my work isn’t necessarily forcing me into that decision in the same way that full time work would. So it’s really tearing me apart right now.

What I’d like to know is, what sort of childcare am I looking for, and what are the compromises that I need to get my head round?

I am a nanny, so I go to the child's home, and I work for parents who are self employed. I do one day per week, set hours. I have done that since the youngest child was 4 weeks old.

It means the parents know that they have that day to do whatever they need to get done. They may spend some time in the home office , they may go out to a trade show or to an event to sell products.

Quite a costly option having someone come to your home but has the advantage that you don't need to take baby anywhere and they can sleep in their own crib/cot, stick to routine (though routines change as children get older). One day per week costs them over £700 a month. What salary a nanny in your are expects will vary, have a look on childcare.co.uk to get a feel for what is typically expected.
Factor in payroll admin cost, pension (though that depends on salary), employers NI (depending on salary). The nanny payroll company can provide a cost estimate if you tell them the gross salary and number of hours per week.

Some childminders will do this either as 2 or 3 fixed sessions or some may do adhoc

10hrs a week as in one 8-6 or 2mornings 8-1 etc

a cm is prob better esp as they are se and pay hourly rate tho will be at their home

a nanny will prefer to do one full day every week but means you will employ them , pay tax and no from their gross rate and poss pension and employers ni

@nannynick is pension and employers ni based on minimum amount

Yes pension is based on earnings. Auto-enrolled if age 22+ and earning £10,000 or more per year. So 10 hours per week may not need to do pension, depending on salary, but nanny may opt-in.

£10k per family or overall

as nanny likely to be working the other 3/4 days of week so earning over £10k

Per employment.

I am self employed. I work as a nanny and two days at one house , one at another and a morning somewhere else . So I charge per hour and that’s what you pay.

If you're in London or surrounding areas, you should try Bubble childcare app or sitters. Both great for flexible childcare although I haven't had any work from it so far sadly.