moving to Sydney - how to find a childminder?

[koalalou]

Hi, moving back to Sydney later this year and hoping to find work when we are settled in, maybe 3 days a week. Have got 2 girls, 7 and 9, both with a few afterschool activities that they would probably need to get to, and/or homework to do. Does anyone have any idea how I could go about finding someone to pick them up from school, take them home for tea/homework and then drop them off at their activities?

findababysitter.com.au is great. Just pace an ad or search the database. You might also consider an au pair?

THank you, a very interesting site. Sadly no room for an au pair so have to make do with ad hoc arrangements probably. Hopefully this will help.

I found a number of people on there (often retired, middle-aged women) who were very happy to do the afternoon/evening shift. Some were ex-nannies who were a bit past doing the full-time gig but missed the kids, some had other morning jobs etc There are some great people about.
Good luck!
Where are you moving back to BTW?

Remember an awful lot of schools here have out of school care on site which is what most working parents seem to use. If you aren't working full time, using that on your work days and planning their activities the other days when you can take them houself would certainly be the cheapest option. If you want your kids brought to individual activities you will need a nanny/babysitter; our local paper is always full of ads looking for people to do exactly what you say - pick kids up from school, bring to swimming, do homework etc. - so I guess there must be people willng to do it.

Lots of after-school-care have activities built in. The school that DS will go to has soccer on a tuesday and tennis on a thursday. It's optional, but for an extra $8 added on to the price of the session, it actually works out cheaper than taking him to one independently.

Hi there, we will be moving back to Balgowlah. School does have afterschool care but I hope to work 3 days/week and would like to have one day/week when the girls are free/can have friends over/head down to the beach. So for me it would probably be better to get a babysitter to take them to their activities so that I can do the socialising.

Lovely! Defo with making sure you can make the most of it when you get back here!
Good luck with the move - urgh - I remember it well.