Juggling work as a single parent

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I’ve recently secured a brilliant new job after years of struggling financially and studying alongside a full time job with single parenting of 2 children. My new role is fantastic but involves national and international travel and I have no family support for midweek childcare. I’m trying to find advice on whether other single parents- male or female- can recommend an adhoc but frequent nanny style service. I don’t have a spare bedroom so can’t go down the au pair route but will need regular evening/wraparound and occasional overnight childcare. I’ve been frantically searching but feel like I’m hunting a unicorn without committing to set dates.

I don’t think this os in the right section. I don’t know where it should be though and I hope you get sorted! Good luck with the new job:)

ask to get this moved to one of the nanny/childcare boards

I found our nanny on findababysitter.com She was an older lady who lived local to us and was v flexible with hours so might have done overnights if needed. I've also had good success with hiring MA / MSc students who study some days & can work 3-7pm + some nights.

In hiring nannies, I always found it good to get someone local who can do short & irregular hours more easily.

if you can offer 2 or 3 days a week of regular hours, then your part-time nanny might easily be able to step up for any extra hours.

Thank you for replying, I’m new on here so wasn’t sure where to post!

Hello, have just reported to ask if they can move you to Chat or Lone parents where you may get more traffic and help. The powers may have a better idea.

Good luck, I'm a working lone parent and feel your pain.

Have a look at Koru Kids.

www.korukids.co.uk/content/parent-part-time-care

Forgot the link.

I know they have older women on their books who may be up for a regular but slightly more ad hoc arrangement.

Otherwise you could put an ad on childcare.co.uk? You'd have to do a bit more vetting tho.

And congratulations on the job!

Thank you!

What childcare do you use now?

A friend of mine would use her childminders 19 year old daughter for occasional overnights. Her daughter liked this woman and my friend knew they had her regular childminder as back up just in case.

Full disclosure though, she's now moved closer to her family as trying to do it all without support was becoming too hard.

Hi OP - what did you work out in the end? I am in a similar situation and my ex will do everything to make life difficult so I need to find a solid solution. I used to have an au pair but thanks to brexit that is no longer possible

I can't help, but am also very stuck atm.

My son is 13 and there is no way he'd be happy having a nanny type person come and mind him while I travelled.
He doesn't really need minding as such, more just an adult to keep things running and be on hand.

I'm holding out until he's older. Luckily my managers are understanding. When I took the job I got to second interview before asking whether travel was essential. If it had been then I would have told them I couldn't take the job.
I was able to travel when he was younger because he was happy to be bundled off to a mate's house for a week.

I am hoping that a conference next Spring coincides with when my adult son is on uni break so he can come home.

Such a pain. When I was able to have au pairs before Brexit it was no issue. I don’t go far or for long so it was a matter of after school and next day off to school at most. I have no idea how families in airlines or the emergency services working shifts cope now.

I’ve relied on family as well but they live far away so tricky to arrange a visit. The father declines 99% of the time when I ask him - he sees it as him “helping me” instead of him getting extra time and he’ll actually do his best to eff it up if he can as he keeps using me working against me.