What is easier to find childcare for two (early) evenings a week or days?

[littleducks]

I suspect the later

I want to do an access course and may be able to start in sept, but that is only a few weeks away

The evening option is 6-9pm to evenings a week, but i would need childcare 5.30-7.30 (dh home from work) on tue and fri, for a 3 and 1 yr old

How easy would it be to find? Ideally they would feed dinner and get pjs on ready for bed (bedtime is 7 but i could do later naps on those days)

The day option is 9 to 2.45 so alot longer in someone elses care and appears to be for more than two days bizarrely

Days will always be easier to find than evening cms but there are people out there who do work those hours, it just might take a lot of phone calls to find that person, so get started asap!

agree days are easier to fill - you may find a nanny who has a 3day job who wants to earn some extra money for a while

tbh your evening hours are probably too early for the average nanny as they generally finish not earlier than 6pm if not 7pm - so to find someone to do 5.30/7.30 would mean using someone who only has a morning job

plus as its only 2hrs, if i was to do this on my days off, i charge a minimum of 4hrs regardless if i am used all of that time - to make it worth my while iyswim

again not impossible but harder

i would look on your local site of netmums and see if there are any nannys there looking for work

other option is possibly a cm - who has got mindees leaving at 5.30 (so that they dont go over their 3under 5's ratio)

Another option for evenings is a member of staff at a local nursery - they often work shifts to cover the long opening hours so if they start at 7.30 would be finished by mid afternoon.... Or how about a local teenager - would be finished school in time.

i was going to suggest a student or your usual babysitter.

I dont have a usual babysitter which is why i dont have a clue, i dont really want to send them to a cm (although this would be funded by the college as 'registered' childcare) as its their tired time, i would be happy for a student etc. they just need to eat at 5.30, can watch bedtime hr from 6 till 7 or play in living room, then put pjs on i wouldnt even expect baths

So will check netmums, shoulod i put up signs

I have found out daytime option is spread over 4 days so that is too much time for them to be in childcare for me

Thanks for all ideas

Usually the daytime courses are more compressed so shorter in overall length of time. Doesn't the college have a creche?

The evening course is more compressed in this case

The college has an onsite nursery but you have to apply before June and places have already been allocated but even then ds is too small for four days of nursery, dd goes to preschool atm

I have put an ad on netmums, if i cant find anything will have to wait till sept 2010 when ds will go to preschool for a few half days so would be easier

what area are you in?

maybe have a look on the babysitter thread?

babysitter thread? will look for that now

am in berkshire

babysitter thread

Think I have spotted your ad.
I would suggest changing your Netmums ad so that it includes your location... at the moment you could be anywhere in Berkshire. Indicate your village/town.

Also you may want to start it by saying:
Babysitter required to care for my two children (aged 3 and 1) on two nights a week (currently tue/wed), from around 5.15pm until 7.45pm.

ooh, im being stalked across sites will take on advice nick, thanks

have had a read through of babysitter thread, i think i should move to London

Hope you don't mind me proof reading your ad - I think it reads much better now... spelling error near the end though - foor ?

Did you spot that further down that page there is a parent posting on behalf of her daughters, based in the same town as you. May be worth contacting them to see if it would fit with their college studies.

I think you would find the evenings easy enough to find a nanny/babysitter many childcare students would do this.

I also do this as does dibdab78 who comes on here we both charge £10 an hr but have a min 4hrs fee.

I guess if you were to look at a childcare student paying around £5 an hr depending on where you live and the age/experience of student.

would def advertise on netmums and have a look on gumtree as well.

Maybe also contact your local school holiday clubs that are currently running as many of these employ students and maybe one of them would be interested in a part time eve childcare job with you.

So far i have had one reply to ad, but where do i stand in terms of paying? For these hours im i just paying a 'babysitter' easy enough or do i need to worry about tax and ni and whether they are properly reg as SE or not?

A reply already that is impressive. I rarely get any replies to my ads

If the person does not have another job, then you won't need to do anything as I expect the amount you would be paying is below the lower earnings limit for NICs, currently £95 per week.

Must have been the catchy editing
Would def be paying under that limit, so can relax on that front

Now how do i go about deciding on a fair wage if she wants to bring a child with her (she says she has two? no idea if she wants to bring them?) Do you minus a %?

How much were you planning to pay if they didn't want to bring their own children?

What would happen about food for her child/children - as making food for your children is part of your requirement.

Ask her regarding if she would be wanting to bring her own children - they may be teenagers, so look after themselves.

The daytime option is four days a week, im a sahm as i want to be at home with my kids, i would be ok with having them in a little bit of childcare (dd goes to preschool which is fairly educational letters/numbers/lots of messy painting and creative stuff) but i wouldnt be happy for them to spend the majority of their week in nursery/at a cms. It would be different next year when dd is in school and ds in preschool p/t

I would consider a cm but at the time of day the course is its their teatime/chill out/bedtime so i think they would be happier at home.

I was thinking about £20 for 2.5hrs, with it written in that i may require 15 mins possibly on either side in emergencies. Her kids are 4 and 10 mths. I will cook for mine, just need it served to them. The more i think about it the less i think she weanted to bring her kids, just that she was explaining she was a mum as well as working in a preschool (but taking another yr out with her baby).