So quite clearly no one wants to be my nanny. Do I need to change my requirements?

[flowerybeanbag]

This is getting daft.

I have asked for someone qualified, experienced with babies, to work about 20 hours a week with at least some flexibility about days/times, without wanting to bring own child/husband/gerbil with them.

I realise these are restrictive requirements, and I have been willing to bend on almost all of them.

I have tried gumtree, nannyjob, another website which momentarily escapes me, a rubbish agency and a good agency.

But still no good. Am I on a hiding to nothing here? Do I need to change my requirements? No children/gerbils is not up for discussion, neither is experienced with babies, but the other stuff is, including number of hours.

Any suggestions about how to make being flowery's nanny a more appealing prospect would be more than welcome....

If it helps I'm having no luck at all getting an au air or mother's help, live out or in.
I too have tried gumtree and various agencies. Maybe this is a bad time of year to look for people?

Flowery I'd rethink about the childminder option if I were you.

I think our DS enjoys the company of having a couple of other children to play with and the bigger ones are at pre school for a lot of the day any way.

If you find a CM who is working most days anyway then provided your requirements aren't too unusual then she might be ok with your patterns changing provided it was a minimum amount of hours per week. Plus much cheaper than a nanny.

As for babysitting, perhaps you could get a regular sitter through one of the agencies or set up a baby sitting circle with friends using www.mynightoff.com.

Hope it works out for you as you give such great employment advice to people that it would be nice to see you sorted out with good child care.

Flowery - I would stick with it as think it is just a time thing and would also go for as many agencies as you can to try and spread the reach as far as possible. Had similar instance myself looking for somone to do 26 hrs over 3 days. Similar to you had lots of applicants who wanted to bring their child with them and also nannyshares neither of which were right for my 2 DS's who are 1 and 3 and the flexibility I needed for work. I waited and stuck to my guns in what i was looking for and found someone who genuinely wanted to work ptime and was able to put childcare in place for her own kids. If you do have time on your side I wouldn't compromise your needs - it's too important IMO. Good Luck

I think Fridayschild's suggestion is a good one - could you find somewhere (if you were in London I'd say Simply Childcare) where you can advertise yourself as a means of cutting the cost of a nanny? The only thing is you said you preferred ds at home and if you did that I think you'd have to accept him going elsewhere - as the other family would be the main family.

could you maybe combine two ideas? get a nanny for two regular, long days a week, and then find a cm or piggy-back arrangement for any extra hours you might need?

These are such good suggestions everyone, thank you so much.

I think bottom line is I may have to compromise on my requirements one way or another, whether it's financial, paying for more than I need, DS not being at home or something else.

I've got some good ideas to think about now, thanks for your help everyone, and thanks rookiemater for nice compliment!

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