Anyone had any experience of having an after school nanny?

[Blackcoffeewithmilkplease]

Hi all, hoping someone on here might be able to help me out with some positive stories! I've recently changed my working hours and now need after school childcare three afternoons a week, until about 5.30 or 6. After school club only has space on one day 😭

So I'm now attempting to find alternative childcare for September. My parents would help out but they already do a lot for us and I'm reluctant to ask them to commit themselves to every week. I was considering trying to find an after school nanny/babysitter who would pick up my 2 DC from school and bring them home (it's a 10 minute walk away) and look after them for a couple of hours until I get home. Has anyone managed to do this and found it worked for them?

I'm guessing it's going to be more expensive than ASC, but hopefully the nanny might be able to sort tea for them (DC are 7 and 5 so still eat early) and then I can just come home without having to pick up tired and cranky kids from school and then start tea when I get home.

It this remotely feasible or am I looking for a unicorn??

Yes. She was a local mum who had 1 child in the same school and it suited her to earn some money. I paid a really good rate to make it attractive and worthwhile for her. She picked up my 2 along with hers and had them for 2 hours until I finished work at 5.30.

I was always flexible in my childcare "recruitment" meaning I didn't care if someone was a qualified nanny or whatever. Just a nice person who knew what they were doing with kids was good enough for me. (Obviously checked them out properly and did all the due diligence.)

I did this and it worked really well. My son was older (11) and I didn't feel he needed a traditional nanny so advertised on local mums Facebook group and found a lovely local 21 year old back from a gap year who wanted to work a few hours a week. She did 3:30pm to 5:30pm and got him tea and oversaw homework if he any any until I got home with my other kids. She was with us for a year.

Would you consider a childminder (collects from school, takes them back to her place)? That seems to be more the norm.

Other things -

Kids need to be fed immediately upon return from school. They're always starving. So she was responsible for giving them tea. Also helping them with homework if they had any. And they'd change out of their uniforms of course and into comfy home clothes.

Yes I did the same. I tried a childminder but it just didn't work out.

The nanny was a teenager at a local college doing childcare. It worked well with her college as school didn't finish until 3:45.

Still got references and a DBS though (college had obtained one for her). She also did school holidays and pre-school as the relationship evolved.

I pay above NMW for my childcare as I fee it reflects the importance I place on the person I trust to look after my children.

We do this (although ours doesn't cook as we don’t need that) - our autistic dc couldn't cope with after school club. It's a lot more expensive unfortunately. We recruited through Koru Kids which is easy because they sort out all the tax and NI stuff for you. If you find someone yourself you have to organise all that side of it.

Realistically your best option is probably going to be a student as the money isn't enough to support anyone else. It works pretty well, but we do find that students seem to want to move on quite frequently so it can be a hassle finding someone new.

@CointreauVersial I found that, although I liked the CM, by the time she'd collected several kids from school and got home they'd spent an age hanging around/sitting in her van. Then we still had to collect a tired, grumpy child.

Much easier to go straight home, more pleasant and chilled for children, nanny and parents..

Where are you? Because I think after school nannies are the holy grail but can be difficult to find. If you're in a city, a student is likely to be your best bet if you can find one who is reliable and who you like.

Option 2 is as per here - a local parent who perhaps will look after your child while also looking after their own. But that could be difficult to find.

What about a childminder? All the schools in our area have lists of childminders who collect from their school. Usually they originally have children at the school, although they often continue as childminders after their children don't need them or, in the case of my nephew's childminder, she swapped to a different school once her children weren't needing her.

We have a nanny housekeeper. She does 12.30 till 5.30 three days a week. We pay her £15 per hour and she cooks dinners for everyone on the three days she is here, cleans the house, changes the beds and does the kids washing and does the school run. She is worth her weight in gold and has saved my sanity.

We're in London and have one starting in Sept. 3 days a week, pick up from school and look after DS until 6pm. He's very young for his year and I didn't want ASC while he was in Reception as I think it will be too much for him. I think we're paying about £16 an hour. Our nanny does freelance social media stuff as her main job.

Thanks everyone, good to know that it's not a totally crazy idea! I did use a childminder for a while when DC1 was in Reception, but like a pp, he didn't get on at all well with the constant coming and going, shoes on/ shoes off so I'd rather not do that again! Plus actually very few childminders here offer after school care, or pick up from our (very small) school. We are in a fair sized town, with a university, so maybe a student will be the way to go. Temporary maybe not too much of a problem, they're on the waiting list for ASC so hopefully it won't be too long before they get a place.

We looked for one when DS started reception, but found it impossible to find one - the ones near us (London) wanted full time hours or nothing. Even the students had very limited hours (Monday 12pm-9pm, Wednesday 5pm-8pm, and they wanted those hours specifically and nothing else).

I was looking immediately post-pandemic, so maybe it’s improved since then, but it was like looking for a unicorn, even though I was happy to pay over the odds for the continuity.

This worked brilliantly for us from when our two were 4 + 6 to when they were 8 + 10. We were very lucky that their school was near a dance teacher training college, where the classes finished at 3.15!

We started with one lovely girl for a couple of years, who then passed us on to her friend.

They would pick up both children, take them to swimming/tennis/ballet/the park and then home - either DH or I would be home by 6 to take over.

Worked like a dream.

I have an after-school nanny who works 3 days a week and also does 2 full days a week in the school holidays. She has her own baby which she brings along and it's worked out great. Tbh the only interest in the role I got was from nannies with their own children, so it's worth thinking about whether that might work for you. I got nowhere with students/Koru Kids, but 8 hear they've been forced to up their rates so it might be a bit better now.

We had one for a couple of years. DC were late primary school at the time, so older than yours.
She was over from NZ for a couple of years and it suited her to have free time until around 3 so she could explore London (or not have to worry about getting up for work when she had been out partying!). DC loved her and in some ways saw her more like an older sister equivalent which worked well at their age, although she did have good childcare experience (although would probably have wanted more experience if they were younger).
It was easy to find her, although it helped that we were in zone 2 in London plus were looking for 5 days. She worked full days during schools holidays when required and we paid her a blended weekly rate and were able to offer a decent amount of leave to explore the rest of the country/parts of Europe because i get quite a lot plus the DC used to stay with GPs for a week each during the summer. It was a long time ago now though!

Bear in mind Koru kids want you to commit to a minimum of nine hours a week.

We had one for a while. Started off OK but then my kids seemed to stop enjoying being with her and I kept getting bad reports back. Ended badly and wish we had just put them into after school club although at the time that wouldn't have worked as the kids had out of school activities everyday.
We did try koru kids originally but couldn't find anyone suitable. The plus side with them is that they sort out the tax and national insurance which you have to do legally. For the short term, try bubble childcare app. We have used it a few times for adhoc sitting and found it really good.

I went back to work 3 days a week when my older daughter started primary school and the younger one was 2. I had a very convenient arrangement with a neighbour who had two children the same age as mine (plus one older one).

Our older children were at the same primary school and the younger ones at the same nursery. I walked the children round to the neighbour in time to let me get the 8am train, she took the children to school and nursery and collected them, and I picked them up from her at 6pm. As they got older they just walked themselves as it was only two doors away.

I usually cooked as soon as I got home but occasionally if I was delayed I'd warn her and she would always offer to feed them.

She registered as a childminder but never looked after any children but mine.

They stopped going when they reached secondary age as they then went to school independently by train, but it was a great arrangement while it lasted.

Over 20 years on from when it started, we are still friends and so are the children!

I have done this job for several different families and it seemed to work well. It's good that the children are able to go back to their own home after being out at school all day. They are able to get changed into comfortable clothes, play in the garden or with their own toys etc. I would prepare their evening meal, listen to them read their school reading books, sometimes help with homework or craft projects. The parents were then able to come home with lots of the daily jobs ticked off the list.

I had after school nannies for the best part of 8 years. I found that to make it worth their while they wanted to start before school pick up so they did at least 4 hours a day.
That worked well for me as they were able to change kids’ beds, iron etc before doing school pick up or anything else child-related. They would then supervise homework and feed them before I got home from work.