Does this childcare exist? Early mornings.

[rainyskylight]

Hi,

My husband leaves for work very early in the morning (6:35am). He is a teacher, there is no flexibility. Because of this, I do all of the nursery drop-offs for our 3yo DD. She is very settled at her nursery and we do not want to move her.

My career is being limited in certain kinds of progression because I cannot travel and stay overnight because nursery opens at 7:30am, an hour after DH catches his train. I am missing out and it is endlessly frustrating. I earn more than my DH, by some way. But his job is important too.

I need someone to come to our house at 6:25am and take DD to nursery for 8:30am.

We are in SE London. Does this exist? Where can I find it?

Any advice very much welcome!

Well they aren’t in my school, not as standard any way. I do breakfast club so see when everyone arrives.

This is not normal. Slt and the odd person who likes to leave just after the kids but most staff trickle in 30 to 10 mins before the students. There is no obligation to be there earlier. Also you can leave if no meetings within 15 to 30 mins of the students leaving. It's in our contracts. If they want 8-6 they can pay me 80k instead of 45k.

My children’s school is 0825 for form. I see a few cars arriving around 0750 as I walk past. I don’t think the teachers have to be at school just because the children are, or do they? At my school, first (and all others tbf) playground duty is on a rota.

Yes I am a teacher and leave home early. It was really hard when the children were young. I had a ‘nanny’ I got from an agency who used to come to the house and take the children to school. I also had a childminder who would do one early morning a week and I would drop the children off on the way to work. I had someone from a charity who would come to the house in the mornings to help out. There was also a nursery who would pick up my youngest, take them to nursery for the morning and then take them to school for the afternoon. It was a complete juggling act and I had to use different people on different days. It got even harder when the children grew up and were in separate schools.

Btw I have several colleagues who are in school for 7am.

Feel sad for the child? Stop making such awful comments. People need to work and need childcare. Get off your high horse. Choose what you like for your child if you’re lucky enough not to need very early morning child care and don’t make judgy comments about people who do need it. Their child will be absolutely fine.

What? Most teachers care in by 7.30 at mine, some are in earlier.

That's not the case everywhere. School starts at 8.50 here and when I leave home at 8.30, I drive past a huge number of teachers just turning up to work!

I love the shock that anyone needs childcare at 0630. Obviously no shift workers here…..:I have no idea how people imagine essential services are staffed.

Pretty much everyone I know has this issue OP. The work arounds are a combo of other parent/relatives; nanny; local teenager who can come in to help (for older kids); au pair; early opening child care centre (the one closest to my hospital opens at 0615 for exactly this reason).

Your DH needs to work closer to your home.
It’s not going to be a popular opinion here but I’m feeling a tiny bit sad for the 3 year old in all this. It’s not how I’d choose to live my life or the life I’d choose for my child.

Fully agree. I arrive at school at 8:25am each day. I'm a HoD. My deputy head arrives only a few mins before me! I moved schools and am now only a 10 minute commute away from my workplace; it was 45 mins before and I struggled even with that.

What? Most teachers care in by 7.30 at mine, some are in earlier.

But they don't have to be, do they?

The fact that the first in your list is family suggests there is an issue. I haven’t looked for childcare for a long time but I don’t think it’s common to finD a childminder that opens at 0630. Even the nursery in my road doesn’t have staff arriving until 0700. My teacher has to wait till 0745 to drop her child off in the morning. I imagine the premium for such an early start as 0630 would be prohibitive.

I don’t know what shift workers do but I don’t think it’s often a nursery type environment. What if you are starting at 0500? Where do you draw the line?

You might be able to get a local sixth former to do that from 6.30-8am

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Do you have a teenager?

If you have one that will get up between 5:30 -6 to go to work before school, congratulations. You have the official unicorn teen.

You're incredibly lucky if you live somewhere with childcare available at 6am!

The teachers rocking up to school 10 mins before the first bell .... really?! I've worked in schools for 15 years, you're clearly not in a pastoral role!

The teachers rocking up to school 10 mins before the first bell .... really?! I've worked in schools for 15 years, you're clearly not in a pastoral role!

Yes, and sometimes I get there 1 minute before the bell. I'm a HoD and also a form tutor. So what? Do you have a problem with teachers arriving at work ON TIME, rather than an hour early...??

PS I've worked in schools for 15 years too... what's your point?

When I was at school 20 years ago, some of the teachers caught the bus and arrived at exactly the same time as the students - ten minutes before registration!

Why would teachers need to be in school over an hour early everyday?

If you paid cash I’d do this job before my professional full time job as money is tight. I imagine there’s lots of people in a similar position.

I was also going to suggest seeing if you can get a local 6th former; or for that matter check your local colleges, somewhere that offers childcare courses might have a teenager very willing to do what you need. Especially as it's ad hoc, teens that are keen to earn money might be perfectly happy with the early starts now and then.

[doi I was not a nightowl as a teenager. In the months leading up to final exams when you'd hear people saying they'd stayed up studying until x o'clock in the morning, well my pattern was to go to bed early and set my alarm, I got much more done if I got some sleep in first. Typically got up between 2 and 5 am depending on how much I had to do]

If you're a primary teacher there's a lot of classroom and resource setting up to do before the kids arrive. Are you one of those people who thinks that teachers are only working when there are kids in front of them?
I was in special ed and I arrived at 7:30 for a 9am start. Teachers had to be in by 8:30 at my school. Obviously some of the ones with children would be the 8:30 arrivals, but would stay later than me at the end of the day, to prep for the next day.
Also twice a week there were brief staff meetings before the kids arrived.

I guess that secondary teachers are more able to turn up and start, as their classroom set up and resourcing is entirely different. It's more 'have laptop, will travel' (from classroom to classroom) stuff.

Have you room for an au pair? Just as child gets older the less inclined they will be to get up so someone there already might help.

ive worked in several secondary schools. Staff were expected in by 8am, most would come in earlier. We wouldn’t allow anyone in before 7.30 as it impacted site staff. Some buildings are complicated to open.
At DDs primary I used to have to drop food off to the kitchen on my way in, at 7.45 there would be no staff in at all!

Does he really have to get there so early? Does he actually get paid from when he gets there? Why does the poster need to work out childcare -sure they both need to sort it? Surely they can take it in turns to do drop off? I got offered a job recently that the hours l found at the interview, meant my husband had to do all drop offs / pick ups so l didn’t proceed

@saraclara this was primary and secondary school,

The teachers would arrive when we did and leave when we did too.

How often are your possible overnights OP? Finding someone to do this occasionally is quite different from finding someone to do it regularly.

If it’s occasional, my first port of call would be the nursery staff. Some of them might be happy to do the occasional very early start for extra money. And it’s obviously easy for them to take your DD to nursery with them. Probably wouldn’t work if it’s often though as they have a full day ahead.

Ask at the nursery if any of the staff are willing/able to do it.

If not, advertise on childcare.co.uk and also look at babysitters/nannies/childminders advertising their availability. Approach people, don't be passive.

Also, post the job on local childcare Facebook groups etc. Get the word out locally.

It'd work well for a student or someone doing another childcare job and looking for extra hours.

You'd probably get even more interest if you could offer more hours and combine it with a bit of housekeeping/dog walking etc.

Put an ad on childcare.co.uk or on a local FB page. Over the years, we've had one person do 5 - 7pm 2x a week, another do 2 - 8 once a week, another do 10 - 12.30 2x a week and now have someone doing 5.30 - 7.30 once a week.
All of these people have had a range of childcare experience with the evening ones both being school TAs.
If you're prepared to pay, someone will be prepared to do it.