EmmaCC

We're looking for someone to look after our two children aged 8 and 10 after school 3 or 4 afternoons a week starting in September, Mondays- Thursdays. For the last two years we have had a great student who did the job around her studies which worked really well. Our children are at Kilmorie Primary School, Forest hill and we live 5 mins walk from the school. We need someone responsible and caring to collect the children from school at 3.30, walk home with them, prepare a simple meal and supervise their homework. Some nights they have activities which they will need taking to and/or collecting from. Our children are full of energy and lots of fun so the role would suit someone active who would enjoy taking them to the park and their various sporting activities. We get home around 6.30/7pm. Please do get in touch if you're interested. Thanks, Emma

We're looking for someone to look after our two children aged 8 and 10 after school 2 or 3 afternoons a week starting immediately - Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. For the last year we have had a great student who did the job around her studies which worked really well. Our children are at Kilmorie Primary School, Forest hill and we live 5 mins walk form the school. We need someone responsible and caring to collect the children from school at 3.30, walk home with them, prepare a simple dinner and supervise their homework. Some nights they have activities which they will need taking to and/or collecting from. Our children are full of energy and lots of fun so the role would suit someone active who would enjoy taking them to the park and their various sporting activities. We get home around 6.30/7pm. We're happy to consider someone who is only available short-term (but at least until the start of the school summer holidays) or someone who would like to stay with us into the next academic year Please do get in touch if you're interested. Thanks, Emma

We're looking for someone to look after our two children aged 7 and 10 after school 3 or 4 afternoons a week starting in September. We can be flexible on days. For the last year we have had a great student who did the job around her studies which worked really well. Our children are at Kilmorie Primary School, Forest hill and we live 5 mins walk from the school. We need someone responsible and caring to collect the children from school at 4.30 (Mondays) and 3.30 (Tuesday to Thursday), walk them home, give them dinner and supervise their homework. Some nights they have activities which they will need taking to and/or collecting from. Our children are full of energy and lots of fun so the role would suit someone active who would enjoy taking them to the park and their various sporting activities. We get home around 6.30/7pm. We can increase the hours for the right person by adding in some additional hours of light household chores if that works for you. Ideally we need someone who can stay with us until at least July next year. Please do get in touch if you're interested. Thanks, Emma

We're looking for someone to look after our two children aged 7 and 10 after school 3 or 4 afternoons a week starting in September. We can be flexible on days. For the last year we have had a great student who did the job around her studies which worked really well. Our children are at Kilmorie Primary School, Forest hill and we live 5 mins walk form the school. We need someone responsible and caring to collect the children from school at 4.30 (Mondays) and 3.30 (Tuesday to Thursday), walk them home, give them dinner and supervise their homework. Some nights they have activities which they will need taking to and/or collecting from. Our children are full of energy and lots of fun so the role would suit someone active who would enjoy taking them to the park and their various sporting activities. We get home around 7pm. We can increase the hours for the right person by adding in some additional hours of light household chores if that works for you. Ideally we need someone who can stay with us until at least July next year. Please do get in touch if you're interested. Thanks, Emma

We're looking for someone to look after our two children aged 6 and 9 after school 3 days a week starting asap. We can be flexible on days. For the last year we have had a great student who did the job around her studies which worked really well. Our children are at Kilmorie Primary School, Forest hill and we live 5 mins walk form the school. We need someone responsible and caring to collect the children from school at 3.30, walk them home, give them dinner and supervise their homework. Some nights they have activities which they will need taking to and/or collecting from. Our children are full of energy and lots of fun so the role would suit someone active who would enjoy taking them to the park and their various sporting activities. We get home around 7pm. We can increase the hours for the right person by adding in some additional hours of light household chores if that works for you. Ideally we need someone who can stay with us until at least July next year. Please do get in touch if you're interested. Thanks, Emma

Annabel is fantastic. She's been an invaluable support to me in helping me in the never ending dilemma of balancing a demanding career with family life. She absolutely understands the competing demands on working parents and by listening, encorouging and advising where needed she somehow enabled me to find solutions I wouldn't have considered without her professional guidance. Would highly recommend.

I can highly recommend Annabel - www.acexecutivecoaching.com. She's a career/executive coach and is brilliant! She lives locally, is extremely professional but friendly and full of fantastic ideas...many of which I'd never have thought to explore without her help. She's a mum of two young children too so she completely gets the work/life conundrum.Her email address is [email protected]. Good luck! Emma

Hi, I'm looking for a handyman/ woman who could come to our house in forest hill and fit 5 x John Lewis blinds. The blinds need cutting down to the right size (which is supposedly straight forwards) but having spent hours and hours trying to fit one ourselves last year, we really need someone a bit better at this sort of thing to help out. Please contact me on 07872 927325 if you can help or email me if you recommend anyone. Thanks

Yes, great idea Ed

Have PM'd you as we have a Spanish au pair arriving in August Emma

We also have a Spanish au pair arriving the last week in August. Can anyone reommend any local language classes? Or if anyone has an au pair who might want to meet up with her then please let me know! Thanks

Ole- agree entirely...I work 4 days a week but in reality feel like I'm working 5- was told by my boss that my target remains the same as when I was working 5- not sure of the rationale behind that?! Just had chart sent round work showibg that over the last 6 months I recorded more chargeable hours than my colleagues who are contracted for 5 days a week- feel like asking for my salary to go back up to what I was earning when I was full time!! Funny how I still feel that I should be grateful for being 'allowed' to come in late and work late or do an early day so I can actually take my children to nursery! Can we have it all? Yes we can but its bloody tiring, emotionally and physically draining and (after paying nursery fees) not financially rewarding! Sorry slightly off topic...!

I went with my 2 year old and 4 year old on Thursday and it was a bit cooler than they're used to (usually go to Beckenham spa) but they loved it and spent over an hour in there- no wet suits but a small baby might be better in one...

Oh dear... I'm now beginning to think it's a bad idea!!

We have just (2 days ago) put our two year old son and four year old daughter into bunk beds for similar reasons to you - though we do have a spare room, it's nice to keep that for the grandparent's visits and I actually really like that they share a room - they seem to enjoy it too. Anyway, 4 year old is on the top bunk - we got Ikea ones as they were nice, but fairly cheap and most importantly I didn't think the top bunk was too high for my daughter. Interestingly the instructions do say the top bunk is for 6 years plus but my daughter gets up and down the ladder very easily! There are also quite high wooden bars along the side of the top bunk so there is no way she could fall out. Anyway, she absolutely loves it on the top bunk so no problems with her. The two year old has been a bit more tricky - only done 2 nights so far - first night was fine, didn't try to get out or wake up at all in the night but last night he got up 4 or 5 times just as I'd put them to bed. I suppose it's to be expected as he's always been in a cot and probably can't believe his luck that he can get out of his bed himself! Have to say that last night the sight of him appearing at the bottom of the stairs (in his sleeping bag having sat on his bum all the way down) did make me laugh though I've a feeling that I'll tire of it pretty soon if he carries on. On the plus side he's slept through the last two nights and we were going through a period of him waking up so I'm hoping he likes his bed so much it might also help this problem.. that might be wishful thinking but I'm hoping he feels less "trapped" and therefore won't wake up screaming to "get out!"... who knows but I'm keeping my fingers crossed... One thing to look out for when buying the bed is to check whether the bottom bed has any kind of bar/ wooden bit round the side to stop the younger one falling out. Have to say that I didn't really think of this and it was only once we assmebled it that we thought this could be a problem as he could easily roll out having been used to just rolling up to the cot bars. We have wedged a soft chair next to the end he sleeps at as a temporary measure but I know other people who have bought bars that you can attach... I'm sure there must be bunks out there that have some kind of build in side like the top one does...