OK, nanny is leaving - what do you do if you only need a bit of childcare?

[elliott]

Well here we go again. After a whole year (!) of stability in childcare arrangements my nanny is leaving in Sept and its back to the drawing board.
Dss are 6 and 4, the younger is starting reception in Sept so we hardly need any childcare really - ideally 2 afternoons per week plus occasional days in the holidays (amounting to probably 12-15 days in total).
Our options are:

1. Go it alone. We might JUST be able to do this (we both work 80%). Problems would arise when either of us is away, plus in the school holidays when we would need to make heavy use of camps/clubs (which I'm not keen on, would rather they had time chilling at home). Viability depends on whether we can get places at afterschool club. Not too keen on that as they tend to get really tired at after school club.

1. Recruit another nanny on the same basis. Very expensive for what we need (we have been paying about £500 a month just to cover the needs outline above). Quite hard to find someone whose needs fit ours, and stability is a problem. Could (and will) try to find a childminder but have never had luck with this previously - very thin on the ground.

1. Try the housekeeper route - has anyone had a satisfactory experience with this? No idea really how to recruit - only know of one agency locally. Could try a newspaper add I suppose, feels a bit risky.

1. Au pair? Overkill probably for what we need and too many downsides.

1. Try to find something ad-hoc - e.g. a student. Again, not really sure where to start with recruiting, and also not sure whether this is something I'm comfortable with. they would need to be available occasional days in school hols and one or two nights after school.

I am interested particularly in whether anyone has made a more informal/ad-hoc arrangement work (as in 5) - how do you recruit, how do you pay etc? If it were someone's only job its probably below the hours limit for employment registration, I think, but if not the whole hassle of employing someone for so little time input seems ott.

Sorry for the long and tedious post, probably of limited interest to anyone else but at least it helps me to think it aloud!
Would be interested to hear how other people manage when it just doesn't seem worth the time or expense of employing a nanny.

Actually the role would be ideal for the mother of an under 5 who wanted some more cash but not a full blown job, assuming that you were OK for preschooler to tag along too. With that in mind I would try Gumtree and local paper.

In similar circs I would try to split up the two areas, so you might need 2 different solutions - one for the after school bit, another for the adhoc holiday care. I've used a local nanny agency who have been able to supply day nannies for school holidays, and who have a couple of nannies who only want to do temp work (more variety, usually better rates of pay).