Parents of children who model please give me some advice!

[Dillydaydreamer]

I thought dd1 (3 yo) might be good at it. She is outgoing, sociable, fairly confident and communicates well. I am always being told she is lovely by strangers, who seem to be drawn to her.
I have some questions.

1. Can you turn down some auditions or once you put your unavailable dates in you have to work every one offered iyswim?

2. How well behaved are they expected to be?
   Obviously she is 3 and does have off days.

3)Are most shoots in London or can they be anywhere and can you ask for auditions closer to where you live?

4. I have a baby 11mths, can I take her with us if we go to audition/shoot?

Anyone?

where do you live?

ds 7 is with urban angels so these are only my experiences.

most castings are in central london. we've also been to fulham, old street, kentish town all over really. usually very short notice - they maybe ring day/night before for a casting in the morning. some give a couple of days notice. you can turn a casting/job down although not sure it would go down well if you did it all the time.

when they ring for the casting they check you can make the shoot date. sometimes you get jobs with out castings but not very often. i'd say even less so at 3yrs.

im sure the photographers know they all have their off days.(dont we all) esp. if they were fine on the casting. ds7 did a tv advert last year and they always have a no2 in case they dont get right shots/kid isnt happy etc.

also they sometimes book 2 kids for same job, take both sets or pictures and see whose the best.

you might be ok to take baby with you for a casting as in and out but havent seen anyone bring them to a shoot. you have to be on hand to make sure 3 year old is ok.

any questions ask sway...

I would say that legally if you are chaperoning your own child (I am a licensed chaperone and am often responsible for organising licences) then you can't bring a younger siblling.

Casting are different as the rules don't cover them.

The Education Welfare Officer in charge of Children in Entertainment will be able to advise you.

Mmm, thats a problem then because I don't have anyone to look after dd2 if we need to go to a shoot. As I live in Dorset it would not be practical to have to leave her all day. All our family live north of Birmingham.

Thanks for your experiences. I think I will have to leave it.

You can always employ a professional licensed chaperone but it could be expensive. Some clients do pay a chaperones fee which either you, as a parent get or you pay it to a licensed one.

So I could take the baby and someone would just supervise dd1? If the client pays a chaperone fee then really it still isn't too bad because dd1 will be paid for the job no?
I don't want to earn from her, just to put more money into her account than I can afford for the future. I think though by the time I have paid petrol/parking in London and other expenses there will be little left. Do you get travelling expenses to castings/shoots?

I'm not sure if you get expenses as we have never actually done modelling, most of my work is in the theatre where the children get very little, if anything!!!!

A student of my husband's did a radio voice over ad where his mum got paid £70 chaperone fee and he got paid a fee as well. However as you say he did have to travel from the North West down to London. I don't think they got extra expenses.