Would you trade your presence for free childcare?

[SamHill92]

Question...
With childcare being so expensive these days and more and more people working part-time, flexible hours, compressed hours, WFH etc.

Would you willingly trade a days childcare with another parent/ friend to help with childcare costs so you could do another day working?

For example if you both had a different day off in the week would you be happy to help look after your friends children for a day in return for your children from your friend?

You could even just be present in each other's homes for a day you WFH (obviously the other would have to not be working).

Just wondering if people would do this and is it just a hard/ awkward thing to ask?

SH xx

It sounds like a brilliant idea but in reality a lot harder than it sounds.

What about holidays? Illness of your child and theirs or you and them?
What if your children don't get along? What if you disagree with their parenting style? What if one of you decides to do soft play and farm parks and the other stays at home with the TV on all day? Who provides food?

All these things are far easier to resolve with paid care.

This is what my mum did when we were growing up. There seemed to be much more informal childcare in those days. We went to a friends with our packed lunch every morning of the school holidays, and then mum picked us all up at 1 (me, sister and friend's boy and girl) and took us home for the afternoon until they got picked up about 4.30/5.

My sis in law did something similar. Her friend was her neighbour in London flats. One day all kids went to one house but were looked after by a minder. Then the next. This worked out cheaper as the minder charged by the hour not by number of kids. In this case it was easier as it wasn't the mum's or dads looking after kids so no chance of falling out over "my kids said you did this and that to her..."