Childcare when childminders is closed

[DontTouchTheMoustache]

Hi, this is probably a stupid question but this is my first baby and I don't have any mum friends to ask...but how do you arrange childcare when childminder is closed for holiday? Do nurseries or other childminders offer temporary places for a few.weeks?

We take leave
That's what annual leave is for , we both get 5 weeks a year, so a 2 week family holiday and then the rest is for situations like this

You use annual leave or the goodwill of family. You would probably not be able to find a CM or nursery that would do a temp place, and it would be really unsettling for your little one anyway.

If you're smart you sync up with the CM and take the same holidays!

My childminder was friendly with other local childminders and would always arrange cover when she was on holiday for me (if required). She would also arrange for me to meet the "cover" prior to using them if it was someone I had not met before.

She was a fab childminder and even had my DS when he had chickenpox as hers had already had it.

Take your holidays at the same time as the childminder where ever possible. Most we have used only take 2 or 3 weeks a year at the most so you should have plenty of annual leave to cover it.

We fit annual leave around it and I work from home when necessary (one of the reasons we use nursery until school age and there is more flexibility with older kids)

I wouldn't and don't use a childminder for this reason, I'm afraid.

Yes that's what I plan to do next year but I only started the job recently so I won't have enough to cover the whole amount for this year. There is the added issue of work cover as it's first come first serve and obviously holiday times get booked up fast but as it's a childminder they don't have any set holidays so won't necessarily give me enough notice to do so. I'm a bit stuck when it comes to family as mine all live miles away and I'm a single parent so no dad to help either (he is not in our lives). I was hoping there would be other options that people use

Hmm...I might have to start looking into a nursery instead

It gets worse when they start school tbh

In your situation I'd be looking at nurseries as they don't close and you don't have a plan b

Cm may have an arrangement with other cms if they have space. Would you qualify for parental leave?

Yes I think that might be my only option. Thank you for your replies

Sometimes DH or I take Annual Leave but in general we have back up Childminder's and have found that quite a lot, if they have room, will take DS for just a week or two to cover my Childminder's absence.

The only time a CM is a real nightmare is when she rings up at 6am to say she's ill and can't have DS so we are left with no childcare at very short notice

That's why we used a nursery. Closed only for bank hols and about 5 training days a year.

My cm told us the weeks she was off absolutely months in advance.

My childminder gets 20 holidays a year plus bank holidays. They are paid days off. I take my leave when she does plus I'm lucky to get some extra too.
Would you have to pay double essentially if you had to pay your own childminder and another stand in one?
I would imagine though you might get a nursery to take temporarily especially if over holiday periods as there may be teachers off work so won't be sending theirs.
If you like your childminder it might be worth this extra expense until next year when you will have more holidays.