What kind of childcare would be best? Can I get what I need?

[notyummy]

OK, I live in Lincolnshire (and all the Bl**dy nanny/mothers help agencies only focus on London and the South East. Grrr!

I work 4 days a week with a long commute. DD is 2.7. Up til now, DH did nursery drop off and I left v early (6 30/6 45am) to beat the traffic and get to work early, and then left office early to get dd by 5 30/6pm having done a full day. I have a drive of 1.5 to 2 hrs each way.

DH is now having to work away 4 days a week, so will not be able to do the drop off/pick up. This means I need some sort of support to be able to continue working. I would prefer not to have an au pair because I would rather not have someone living in our house. I don't want a full time nanny, because DD loves nursery. Does anyone have experience of employing someone parttime on this sort of basis?

We would buy a car if necessary, as they would need to be able to do nursery runs. Ideally we would need someone for 2/3 hours a day to help get DD ready/ drop her off and perhaps do a little housework. There could occasionally be other hours by arrangement. We would be happy to pay good wages (£9/£10 per hour) for the right person.

Any thoughts/advice/applicants???

May suit a college student... if you have a college close to you.
Decide what you want... advertise for it (local newsagents for example) and see what interest you get from local people.

If you are looking for someone to do both morning and early evening, then you may struggle... though you may find two different people. Early evening may suit a student (early morning may not suit them). Early morning may suit someone who has a job during the day.
You may find that it suits someone whose own children have long left the nest... a Grandmother type character.

Could you get a childminder who you could drop your dd with in the morning and then get them to drop at nursery and pick up if required?

Some silly lovely childminders like me start work at 6.45am

Meant to say...you might find it easier to find someone if you lose the housework part...I can't think many people working for you at 6am-9am (or similar) are going to want to do housework! Im sure they will be happy to do brekkie and tidy up after themselves...but can't imaging cleaning floors or doing ironing at that time. Might make the job seem more appealing

put an ad on gumtree.com , childcare.co.uk and netmums.com

you never know, there may be people willing to do those hours

good luck

Thanks all. The hours would be almost always mornings...with very occasional late afternoon if it could be done. I would be open to someone who didn't do cleaning....just thought that it fleshed the hours out tbh, as dd will be in nursery from 7 30/8am...and that at £10 an hour they wouldn't mind running the hoover round!

I live in Lincolnshire and am a nanny....i got my current job through eastmidlandsnanniesandaupairs.co.uk HTH

I am a childminder and had one child dropped off at 5.55am.
We have to be flexible to accomodated families, so my advice would be ring a few childminders and see if they can help.

Sally x

Thanks for the tips. Will discuss with DH. Think we will have a look at that agency, and possibly advert in paper/window as well. Just a bit wary about attracting some nutter.....

Bradford Mum - blimey - that's insane!! Hope they appreciated your dedication ??

Yes she did. She was a young mum trying to go back to work. She didn't drive and had to take 2 buses to ensure she was there by 7am.
In the end, she managed 3 months, but got no help or support from family, so finished working and ended up on benefits.
But ,3 weeks ago she contacted me to ask if I would have a space as she had a 6 week back to work course, so I'm having the little boy 3 days a week for the 6 weeks. This is the 3rd week.

Sally x

Notyummy, if you are doing 4 days and your huisband 4 days then presumably you only really need cover for 3 mornings from 6.30 until 8.00 (presuming the nursery opens at 8.00)? Then getting a nanny is going to be tough because you only really want nanny duties for 4.5 hours per week?

My thoughts:

1. Do not try an agency - they will charge you fees and even if they find you someone I bet that person will up and leave as soon as they find somethign better.
2. You are really on a hiding to nothing to try to find a nanny just for this. If you want to make up the hours with housework then fine, but you need to accept that you will be recruiting a housekeeper (with experience of children, obviously) and not a nanny. Another reason to avoid agencies. If you advertise on gumtree or locally for someone to do a combined drop-off/housekeepign role then you should find someone for the morning hours you need (but not a qualified nanny)
3. Have you asked around at the nursery if any of their staff offer wrap-around babysitting? At the nursery my DC?s use, around half the staff do out of hours stuff with the parents ? they will act as 'nannies' between say 6.30am and 8 (at the family home), then take the baby with them to the nursery, then do their normal nursery work. (The opposite end where they take the kids home and get tea etc is obviously used more commonly). Nursery staff are really quite poorly paid so £10 an hour might get oen of the carers jumping at it. You mayhave to be careful about askign round at the nursery for this if you think the nursery itself frowns on this (our one turns a blind eye)
4. Can you switch your hours to late start/late finish? Not as much fun I know because evening time with kids much more precious (and presumably the drive will be less pleasant late rin the morning), but if needs must, then this is one of the easiest options ? you will have no problem at all finding a childminder to cover from nursery pick-up until 7pm.
5. If your heart is set on a proper nanny to do this then you must be prepared to turn it into a proper nannyign job and cut back on the nursery time accordingly.

Thanks Squiffy; I take your point about the nanny and I think you are right. The days DH will work will change every week (very helpful!) so we probably need 4 mornings cover just to be on the safe side.

I think advertising if def the way forward, and we will try gumtree and the local paper. I may think about asking round at nursery; they were happy about us canvassing the staff for occasional evening babysitting, but I will be discreet.

BradfordMum - well, that was still really good of you!! I take it you're a morning person!! I bet you're loving having him back for a bit!!

I hope she has better luck with it all this time around. It's tough.

Why not advertise for a mother's helper. A newly qualified student who holds driving lisense or you could share a nanny with someone who only has a PT nanny and she could do your mornings and work for other fam in the day.