Just contemplating child care options for post-Easter. I have a 3-yr old and (will be) 6mth old. Have choice so far of old nanny now childminder with 2 kids of her own aged about 3yr and (will be) 18mths. She is about a five minute walk away. Have checked with Ofsted and they are happy for her to look after mine as well. The pros are she is a lovely person and her DD and my DS get on really well as we've kept in touch since she left. But it would mean lots of trips in the buggy for DD - first for me to drop off the kids at 8am, then 9am to her DD's nursery, back at 12 to pick her up and then to my DS's nursery at 12.45, back at 3.15pm to pick him up and then home again at 6.30pm.
Alternatively, current childminder could do it - she has a DS aged around 7 and a DD also 3yrs. But while she could come to my house and work as a nanny, she is about a 10minute drive away, and would need to go back to her house to pick up her DD from nursery at 12, then do my DS's nursery run, then go and pick up her son from the after-school club. Pros are she has looked after DS for over a year and he worships her older son, plus he knows her DD well.
Or I could plunge into the unknown, return from holiday and face having to find new childcare - probably a new nanny. For DS's sake I'd prefer to stick with the women he knows (he knows both of these women really well), but it is not perhaps fair on DD? What do people (including childminders/nannies) think about looking after 4 under 5?