I can't navigate around here very well and I'm sure to post this in the wrong forum...
I live in Friern Barnet (= very North London) and I work in Orpington (= Kent) at www.avinittattoo.co.uk - it takes me up to 2 hours sometimes to get door to door.
I'm panicking about summer childcare for my 6 year old son. His current after school childminder charges £6 an hour, I work on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Saturdays = husband does childcare. On Mondays and Fridays he makes sure he is home by 6.30pm to pick our son up from childminder at 6.20pm (childcare from 3.20 to 6.20 = 3 hrs after school) as I do not get home until 8 - 8.30pm.
During the summer my husband is very busy with work and may not be able to pick up until later,... with no school = more childcare, we'd have to drop our son off by 10am at the latest and pick up could be 8pm = 10 hours x 6 = £60. My wages are 100% commission based and sometimes (Mondays!) I don't even earn that much. Including travel you can see that with childcare cost it'll be hard for me to make a profit during the summer, but I can't not work as my boss would have to employ another piercer and I'd lose my job. I have tried to no avail to find a job closer to home, also I love the Orpington studio, it's a very well equipped studio (believe me I've worked in much worse places).
Now as my son LOVES trains I had the bright idea to take him with me to Orphington and therefore save on the travel hours with regards to needing childcare, a search showed that Orpington childminders charge around £5/ hour so I thought, working from 11.30 to 6.30, I'd need about 7 hours of childcare, I thought 'hey that would save me a lot of money',...
I went to www.orpingtonchildminder.co.uk and contacted nearly every childminder on there, only 2 responded BOTH demanding a minimum a day rate, as I would have to pay my current Friern Barnet childminder £9 (£3 (half fee) for 3 hours)) for not using her, the £50 they were asking as a minimum + the £9, completely wiped out any savings I thought I would be making.
I wonder if there is any-one in Orpington who would be happy to charge by the hour, and pick up from studio would be ideal as I don't drive so it would have to be either someone who'd pick up from the studio OR someone who is located between Orpington station and avinittattoo.co.uk as I'd want a simple commute and drop him off with ease.
This is a last ditch attempt at me finding a solution which will see me have some income left during summer, please help and please repost this in relevant forum if you think this is in the wrong place.
I hardly log into forums so email me at [email protected] if you can help at all or call me on 07764683195, my name is Sofie
Thanks!!!