Evening Nurseries

[girlfriend44]

Does anyone know of any evening nurseries or are they all daytime?

There are some nurseries that are open past 6pm but most are shut by 8pm.

Why? Are you looking for childcare options? Would a nanny work for you?

Thanks for your reply. Will think about that?
Just wondered why there werent many evening nurseries. My local one is 6pm.

I presume it’s because home-based care is better for a nursery-aged child where it’s common for them to be in bed at some point between 7-9pm.

I’d assume there aren’t many evening nurseries because most people work during the day so there isn’t the demand.

Often when a parent works in the evenings it’s because the other parent is home from work by then and can do the childcare.

I imagine there isn't many because young children are in bed . How late were you thinking ? .it would be handy for shift workers i guess.

I once read about a nursery that was open all the time even Xmas and the children could sleep over. Not sure if it’s still about. Sorry not very helpful for you! Think it could be a good idea for shift workers such as healthcare staff who have no other childcare.

I think its just lack of demand. When I lived near an airport there was a 24/7 nursery nearby, as there was enough demand from parents who were both crew or did funny shifts that sometimes overlapped.
When ds was small he had a nursery worker who was also his babysitter and she'd bring him home at the end of nursery and then babysit if we needed it

There’s a nursery near me that operates overnight - it’s near a large hospital so I expect caters largely to parents working there.

Years ago I did work experience at a nursery that offered overnights.

2 members of staff lived on site and looked after any babies staying overnight. There was no such thing as DBS checking then though. I think regulations would make it harder to offer that kind of service.

I moved house and job so never used it but when I was pregnant with dd I visited a nursery that opened til 10pm. It was right next to a hospital and was apparently used by a lot of hospital shift workers.

Because most nursery aged children need to be at home, having their dinner and bath and going to bed around 7pm.

You would probably find more luck with childminders who can look after children at evenings/overnight - if they don't mind working those sorts of anti-social hours. Given they're in their own homes, it's less logistically challenging than requiring nursery staff to work or sleep in a nursery building.

There are a few childminders round here that run until 10pm because there are a lot of shift workers locally. It’s expensive (understandably)

I knew a lady at the toddler group I took our oldest to who had been offered a reduction in hours when she returned to work after Mat leave, of 3 days a week. Because of her contract, she could have got 1.5 time on a Saturday and 2 x time on a Sunday, so it made it financially worth her while to work Fri - Sun each week. She couldn't get weekend childcare though, so had to do weekday hours. It's frustrating for shift / weekend workers not to have childcare outside of standard hours.

Watch out for when yourDC starts school though. The number of holiday clubs that are open 9 - 3 is mad. You may still be expecting to go to work at 7.30am but most of these clubs don't offer breakfast cover.

Where I worked in London (long time ago) there was a nursery and children's hotel that operated 24 hours a day and allowed boarders 0-4 years old. They catered to those going on business trips

The nursery we used was open on demand from 6am to 8pm.
It is part of the Tops Day Nurseries network.

Some nurseries stay open until 7PM.
Your best bet is to ask one of the nursery workers if they wanted to babysit or advertise online for an evening sitter.