Need to pick your brains - re after school childcare

[twotimestrouble]

If I go back 3 or 4 days a week with my old company I will need to leave before the school day and come back a few hours after it's finished. DS1 starts school in Sept and DS2 in a year or two.

We live in the country and the little village school doesn't have after school clubs or any such thing. Most mums round here seem to have family or can pick up children themselves.

What do people do in this situation? Do you find nannies or childminders? Will they cook tea? Do you have to pay all day?

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Well if you are in a rural area you'll have less choice. You may find that talking to the school secretary will give you an insight into what is available and she may even be able to give you an idea as to which childminders drop off and pick up at that school. But if you are one of the few working mothers you may need to be prepared for a bit of tutting.

I have an after-schoolie two days a week.

She is collected at 5pm so I have her 3.15 to 5pm, parents pay for 2 hours care, that's my minimum charge. I give snack when we get in -fruit/cheese cubes/carrot sticks so that not too full for her tea when she gets home.

If the hours were longer I would give her tea if required

HTH

A lot of childminders do after-school pick ups, and will give tea if needed.

A friend of mine runs a nanny agency and says you can get nannies for after-school only as well, but obviously more expensive and might be harder to find.

Thanks that's helpful. Do you know of any childminders who drop them off to school as well?

Yes, thats possible too. I've got 4 that I take to school and then pick 2 of them up again afterwards. Totally normal. Over the years I've had various ones that arrive sometime between 7.30 and have brekkie with us, to those that arrive 5 mins before we leave for school. Same at the other end of the day, some have dinner with us, soem don't.

and can I ask, what do people normally pay? I have no idea what would be normal or reasonable.

Depends where you are in the country really. I charge £3.80 per hour, minumum charge of 2 hours. I'm in London.

Thanks, that seems v reasonable. Now I guess I just have to find someone.

Do you know where you're looking? Start on your council website under Early Years or Childrens Information Service. That'll give you a list of all childcare providers in your area! Good luck!

My council website gives links to Childcare Information Service, but if you phone up you get a more complete list than that on the website, as not all CMs will want to list so much information about themselves online.

I've recently returned to work leaving my 1st baby born last May with a childminder full time, so far it seems to be going well and although I honestly expected to have to contact a lot more, she was the first I visited of two. She also has a brother and sister before and after school. Though we're in London too not the countryside.