Does anyone have totally flexible, as-and-when needed childcare? How?

[woodstock3]

We currently have ft nanny but i am considering a fairly drastic career change where i'd be working a lot less (yayyy!) for rather less money (boo) and working very flexible, changeable hours as a freelance. I'd need about a day or two days' childcare a week but it might well be more than that/less than that some weeks and the days I need it might well vary. For one preschool child (but potentially, fingers crossed, at some point two....)
Obviously a nursery isnt going to work on this basis. Was thinking maybe either a nanny share where the main nanny employer is happy for it to be on an as and when needed basis (I guess there are not likely to be that many who would be) but are there any childminders who could operate like this?
The ideal obviously would be grandparents but they live bloody miles away. All ideas welcome....

Do you have room in your house for an au pair? - that could presumably work out quite nicely, both as regards meeting your ad hoc needs and the au pair's getting lots of free time.

Otherwise there are various agencies that supply ad hoc people (like babysitting agencies), but your children are too little for changing faces I guess.

Have heard of ad hoc childminders, but I imagine you'd have to pay retainers if you don't want to take pot luck on a free space on the day.

Re nanny-sharing: when we had one child I think we'd've been happy for a mate to share our nanny part-time, IF we knew each other well and could completely rely on the relationship working. Probably would involve lots of ongoing dialogue though ... still think an au pair better.

(Have written this post very slowly in bits, so probably everyone has already said everything.)

I thinks sharing someone elses nanny is a good idea, but keep in mind other family will probably expect first dibs on things like:
choosing holiday
babysitting availability
choosing activities
etc.

But if you are happy to go with the flow it could work. I had a full time nanny who did this for another family. Other family paid in cash and very good deal financially. But also was perfectly happy that nanny would not show up if my kids were sick or I had given nanny holiday, etc. Obviously I'm not advocating cih, but I'm sure it happens all the time.

There are some childminders out there who are willing to work at short notice, there are plenty who are willing to work a couple of days a week , especially if you find someone that already has a full time child on their hands. I have a parent on my books that is a relief carer she normally gets a call the morning she is needed in some weeks I work 3 days, some weeks 2 and sometimes only 1 but I have a full time child on my books so arrangement works for me and mum, but ring around youll be surprised at the available cms. A lot of cm`s do the job because of flexible hours.

I have a child one day a week who's mum freelances and needs flexible care. For me to keep this vacancy for her I charge her an hourly rate that is a little more than my other kids, with a 5 hour minimum charge per day, to make it worthwhile for me.

Her hours literally change every week, which is not easy for me I can tell you, as I have other children to mind, and have to work around meal times, sleep times, nursery time etc. But I go with the flow, with flexible routine on that day.. and the children are all happy and content, which is most important.

My cm is totally flexible. I work shifts and they're all over the place. It's a condition of my contract that work can change my shifts with as little as 24 hours notice, and my cm will do her utmost to help. It actually doesn't happen that often, but it has helped that she's good friends with my sister, both my nieces have been to her, and someone else I work with who has similar conditions also uses her.

I guess it's a case of hunting around, getting as much notice as possible and being prepared to pay a little bit more to make up for the unpredictable nature of their income. I sometimes pay for days I don't use, but I think that's a small price for the peace of mind that comes with knowing I can call on her just about any time.

I must add that I personally would not like to do this everyday, as it does make me have to rethink things often - outings etc... but as it's only one day a week, I work around that.

I use a childminder on an ad hoc basis without paying a retainer. However, it does mean she can't guarantee to have space when I need it. I use her as a back up for when my nanny doesn't make it into work and sometimes she can help and sometimes she can't. I don't think I could just rely on her as my main form of childcare on an ad hoc basis.

You might need to explore having more than one ad-hoc arrangement with childminders and then ring round when you need cover.

Alternatively maybe you could reach an agreement with another family for a nannyshare for x number of days a month which you specify. You would have to be flexible in fitting in with their arrangements though - e.g. if they had plans to go to a group activity with the children that day your child would have to tag along even if they were't eligible to participate.

Although you plan to freelance presumably you need to devote a certain amount of time to developing new business/marketing yourself so that would take up some of your time as well? In which case you could make use of any spare paid for days to do your own self promotion to develop further business.

I sort of do - but mine is due to health reasons not work reasons - so we have an au pair. She has weekly set hours but if I'm having a very good week then I'll give her additional time off, and likewise if I'm having a bad week she might be called upon to do more than normal - if it's considerably more than normal (ie not compensated for by the extra time off she has banked recently) then we pay her more. The only way we could see how it would work for us was an AP - I can literally go to bed fine and not be able to get up the next morning so we need someone in the house who DH can knock on the door and say "can you do the getting up please?" and we've made it clear from the recruitment stage that there is some element of this to the role. As long as you are upfront, and always fair in renumeration and treatment of them as an individual (and respectful of the fact they might have plans) then it can work. This works for us because AP is unlikely to have an arrangement beyond her lie in in the morning, but might have an evening plan but by then DH can be home to take over.

I wouldn't rule out nurseries, you know.

My nursery is happy to do ad hoc days. They often have spare places on a Friday or a Monday. Unfortunateley they do charge more per day but guess that's the price for the flexibility.

Otherwise, you can look at temp nannies. I found one who was happy to do a Thursday or a Friday on an ad hoc basis. She works Mon-Wed for another family on a permanent basis. Because she studies part time, she didn't necessarily want to work every week but just took the work as it came.

I have 2 mindees on ad hoc contracts, let them book 2 days to 2 weeks in advance, but obviously thats when i have space for them. If you could have a few childminders willing to do this in your area then it could possibly work.

hth

think ds is still too young for au pairs so sounds like it really is either a nanny share with v easygoing family (might be harder as we will be moving to a new area where i dont know anyone) or childminder to whom we can at least guarantee one day a week that's always fixed and then hope to have spare capacity if needed. will also look into temp nannies as doozle said. thankyou very much!

Our nursery is very flexible, because its in the grounds of an NHS hospital, and caters for parents who predominantly unpredictable shifts and long hours at work.

Where abouts are you woodstock? Im a paediatric nurse based in london who does ad hoc childcare / babysitting to supplement my income!

Hi Woodstock,

I'm ONLY an ad-hoc CM, so this would work well for me, and I'm sure I'm not th only one.

Where are you based?