Nursery Staff as Babysitters

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Has anyone asked at nursery if they babysit?

We have no local family but would like to go out occasionally but unsure how to find a reliable trust worthy baby sitter.

Other mums I know have said they ask nursery but I’m not sure. Is this what others do?

We have! We had a brilliant bunch at our old nursery who we trusted implicitly and our DD absolutely loved. They knew her well and to be honest, they often would ask if one of the others could come too to see our DD out of nursery. We used to get them a pizza in or something (obv paid them as well). I feel like it’s the perfect way to get a baby sitter! Sadly we moved house & our new nursery don’t really do it. We have kept in touch with our DD’s old key worker though.

Two of the girls at our nursery do, it’s actually one of the reasons I picked that nursery 😂 my eldest daughters nursery didn’t allow it.
I think it works perfectly though, especially as the girls who do it at our nursery worked in DD2 room so knew her sleep routine etc!

Yes! Had two lovely sitters from nursery when DC were little.

Our Nursey advised when we joined that some of the workers offer babysitting but it has to be a totally private arrangement, and workers aren’t allowed to take children home from nursery or deliver them to nursery. We haven’t used it yet but honestly our DS would be DELIGHTED if his key worker turned up to babysit for him! (He was having so much fun this afternoon he cried when we collected him as he didn’t want to leave 🥺)

We did when ours were at nursery. We had a member of staff who babysat regularly.

We have no family near us and worked really well for us. The children loved it.

DS’s key worker did. She didn’t advertise it but one of the other mums told me she did. I never used her though as too expensive. Then when mine moved to school nursery the school actually provides a list of staff who babysit- mostly the gap year students and TAs. It depends what kind of care you need. If you’re going to do bedtime first, the kids are good sleepers and you’re only going somewhere local so it’s literally just someone to sit on the sofa in case of an emergency then I’d ask any neighbours with teen girls as it’ll be cheaper. I also know a lot of people that use their cleaner. If no luck there and/or you want someone to interact more with the kids and do bedtime then definitely worth asking at nursery. Worse case scenario is that they say no.

Yeah, I asked and they were all fighting over who got to do it. It’s an easy way to boost their income and most evening babysitting is watching tv

Yes, it’s quite common. We asked the nursery manager and she recommended two staff members who would be happy to babysit. One of them was our babysitter for years.

We do this. 😊 Our closest family live 2 hours away, so not easily able to support for the odd night here or there. We love it as our daughter knows them already and we trust them completely. She left nursery last year but we still use them.

I use to do it when I worked in a nursery! Babysat for some lovely families and carried on babysitting when the children left and went to school ect! The benefit was we knew the children and had the background checks and first aid training (provided by the nursery!)

We do! I don’t think they offered it, but we asked as we had literally no one else. Just had to sign something to the effect that it’s not the nursery’s fault if something happens . Costs us an arm and a leg but they’re good girls and the kids love them

We do this. As far as I’m aware almost all the staff moonlight as babysitters.

Ours do this. DS's old keyworker is our go to babysitter if Grandparents aren't available.

Yep! We did this when we didn't live near family and it was great. We knew and trusted them and they knew the kids so easy peasy

I started babysitting for my neighbours 3 yo old at 15 and did it several times a week until I was 19. I did one half term of 9 til 3 every day when I was 18 and she was 5-6.

I couldn't imagine leaving my kids with a teenager like that though!

my in-laws have looked after my 5 yo a few times. Once at 2 so we could attend a family wedding, once for 2h when we went up the road for an early bird special for our anniversary - we were gone 5-7, another time they had her 10 -1 whilst we went to look at new cars. We have done one afternoon meal out where my sister and niece looked after her whilst we went out for a previous anniversary and had her 12-3. I think we are probably averaging once every 12-18 months. We find day time or early evenings easier to leave her or making the most of visiting relatives. We have done also done half days and gone out for nice meals whilst she's been at nursery.

My mum has unreliable health and only in the last year has she been able to look after my daughter. She started with an hour after school once a week. She has her during the day time with my dad and sisters on hand whilst I was in unwell in pregnancy amd in labour but my partner came back to do bedtime each night. My in-laws are good babysitter but live 250 miles away. Rather than finding a babysitter to go out we go with the approach of we have a babysitter available... Shall we go out? But as I say it's very infrequent

Staff wasn't allowed at our nursery but a lot of friends have used nusery staff as babysitters.

I haven't asked at my DD's nursery but a couple of the staff have proactively told me that they offer babysitting (quietly, when the management weren't around as they aren't supposed to "advertise" babysitting services to the parents). So if you're going to ask, maybe ask your child's key person or room lead rather than nursery management, as the manager might just say no because that's the official policy.

I can also recommend checking out the Sitters app - that's what I use as I have no family local to me who can help out with babysitting, and have found a couple of really good ones on there who my daughter really likes. They have babysitters based all over the country and they do all of the criminal record checking etc. so you know they've been vetted first.

Yep! The staff will tell you if they’re not allowed to moonlight. We had to sign a form to say the nursery wouldn’t be liable for anything that happened if a staff member babysat for us. 🤷‍♀️