Childcare dilemma

[Sandperson]

Hi all,

My nearly two year old has been looked after by a family member every other friday since my wife went back to work. This arrangement has now had to stop rather suddenly and we are desperately trying to work out an alternative. Are we being unrealistic in thinking we might get a childminder who would agree to do every other friday or do people think this will be an impossible task?

We are really worried that we are both going to have to use all our annual leave up to cover the fridays and be left with no time for even a short break. I alrady compress my hours so I cna do every other friday and various pick-ups and drop offs in the week.

[dairymilkfiend]

Having been looking for a nanny myself for quite some time, I have noticed that there are a lot of nannies advertising on simplychildcare.com for fridays. One of them might consider doing alternate weeks - its worth asking!

[redjam]

A lot of mums (sorry to generalise, but it's usually the mums) go back to work part-time after they've had kids, and quite often in my experience Friday is the day they don't work. So I should think there are a lot of nannies who are free on Fridays, and might want a bit of extra cash every other week. Certainly no harm putting the word out, both informally amongst friends who are tapped into the childminder/nanny network, and formally on this forum and on simplychildcare.com or gumtree. Or have you thought about a nannyshare with another family on those days? If it's only one day a fortnight people might be more flexible about allowing another kid to help defray their costs on those days.

I managed to find a wonderful childminder who was happy to work really odd limited hours for us - it just fitted in with her other voluntary work so it was perfect for both of us. So there's definitely hope... Good luck.