What type of childcare?

[Guest darlo 2 adelaide]

To anyone who can help, opinions welcomed.

 

I am struggling to find any childcare in a nursery to fit around/be flexible with my husbands work roster. We can't find a nursery to be flexible with a quick start, and we've never had a childminder/family day care provider before and I've always been concerned about having one becuase at least when the kids are in nursery, there's lots of staff, rather than just one to meet their needs. My kids are 2 & 3 and its going to cost me a fortune due to being on the wrong stupid visa, and the nurseries will only have my kids on set days. Help!

 

How do other people who work shifts get help with childcare, besides the obvious, DIY or get family (both of which in our case are impossible).

 

Any opinions greatfully appreciated.:idea:

 

Sarah.

 

ps i'M LOOKING FOR CHILDCARE IN THE NORTH-EAST SUBURBS.

[Guest ems]

Hi Sarah.

 

Childcare is the worst thing to find as you want to make it perfect for your children and as you say it's not cheap on our stupid visa. With family day care they are limited to the number of children they can have,i'm not sure of the actual ratio but someone on here might be able to help. I am lucky in a way as Alicia is at school so that is my early shifts covered as she starts at OSHC at 06:30 in the morning. When i do night shifts i do have a friend helping with 1 night a week but the other night i have a babysitter who can be flexible if needed. Not cheap though as have to pay $120 for the babysitter + $25 agency fee's a night (the agency fee will be for about 4-5 months). You can have a nanny but they cost even more. As for late shifts i approached my boss when i started work and said that i would find them really hard and we have arranged my shifts so i don't do any lates. Is there any chance yours or your husbands employers could be flexible?

Sorry haven't been much help, really hope you get something sorted as i'm well aware it's the most important area of your new life that needs to be right.

Take care and good luck.xx

[Guest darlo 2 adelaide]

thanks EMS! It's nice to hear from someone who clearly cares the same for their kids.

xx

[Diane]

Can't really help with suggestions for here, but just wanted to say that when my two were little (in England) we had a childminder for them, and whilst I can see your point about more pairs of eyes/hands to look after them being good in a nursery setting, my view was that with a childminder that was as close as possible to being at home with me, where of course they'd only have one carer! It worked really well, the childminder looked after a couple of other kids too, so it was very much a family setting, learning about sharing toys, helping out with chores, going shopping together etc - if you can find a childminder local to you, I wouldn't have any worries about the standard of care they're getting. When they're older they'll get plenty of group situations, so really the closer to one-on-one you can find at this age the better. Just my view, and hope you don't mind me sharing it.

 

By the way, you said you're looking in the North East - did you mean that or did you mean North West as I see that's what is says in your profile for where you're living. If it's North East, I can ask around some parents I know with littlies and see if I can get any recommendations if that helps.

 

Diane

[Bailey]

Family Daycare I feel will be youre best option as they can be extremily flexible unlike a nursery. I am a Family Daycare provider although I do not operate "flexi hours" - I do recognise youre concerns but feel that you should look into it and go and visit some FDCproviders and see what is on offer - I think you will be surprised.There are a lot of good people around who do some fantastic work.

If you require any more info please do not hesitate to contact me via pm!

 

Fiona