Child Care Advice sought

[nb_ip]

I am hoping for some advice on different forms of childcare.

My children are 7 and 11 and had previously been at an afterschool club, but I've been at home this year and they now have quite a busy life after school now. I would like this to continue once I go back to work in September.

What are other families doing? Does your child care take your children to their swimming, football etc? What about in the morning, I need someone for an hour I think, 6.45 -7.45 i.e. wake them and take them to breakfast club. Am I dreaming to find someone who would do all this? How long in the evening do they stay? A cleaner would be good too! How did you find someone, how did you set out what would be done?

... Help please

[sillywoman]

Au Pair (if you have space). Mother's Help (usually a local teenager) if you don't?

[nb_ip]

Thanks for this I have started looking into mother's help. There is a world of stuff out there if you know where to start.

[MrsSW]

We have an after school nanny we found on here. She's fab. And she takes the children to a couple of after school activities and is happy to have "play dates". But we drop the children at breakfast club ourselves in the morning. I am similarly dreaming of somebody who could help with cleaning/washing etc too but it's hard to find somebody who is live out and will do both. People either want to spend time with children or prefer just cleaning/housekeeping, which is fair enough. So we have a cleaner (who I would love to offer more hours to but can't quite justify the expense...) and our fab after school nanny. Our cleaner was recommended by somebody I knew when we moved to the area. She's fanastic too actually, so we're really lucky.

Like sillywoman says, a good au pair would be the obvious solution for you, if you have space. However, they are normally fairly young and, often, not that keen on cleaning. They would expect to help load the dishwasher, maybe put a load of children's washing on and do some "top up" shopping but not much more. I'm sure some au pairs do more but most of my friends who have them say that's the sort of thing they help out with (and they are happy with that). And they would be treated as part of the family - eat evening meals with you most nights and be involved in general family life - so might not be what you are after.

You can also try advertising on gumtree. If you have space, it's much cheaper to have a live-in person. My friend advertised for an "au pair/housekeeper" and has somebody who is really nice and does about 20 hours a week. She does a mix of some childcare but mostly (proper) cleaning/washing etc.

Good luck!