Happy Monday!
For many parents, the kiddos head back to school in the coming days or weeks. Which always brings up the important question: how can I find before or after school child care FAST?
Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered!
In the first part of this video series, I discuss four tips for finding before or after school care. This type of child care can be the most difficult to find so make sure to check out the video and comment if you have any questions!
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A transcript of the video follows:
Hey everyone, Laura from Nanny Parent Connection here.
Today I’m going to talk to you about what to do about before and after school care.
It’s a big problem for a lot of parents because often, the workday doesn’t line up with the school day. When I moved to Seattle many years ago, I came here as a single mom who needed care for my three-year-old child before school. I had to be at work at 6:30 AM in the morning and his preschool didn’t start till 8:00 AM. That left me somebody new to the area with not many resources, not a good network, questioning how I’m going to find somebody who is reliable, somebody who wanted to come and be at my house so early in the morning, so it was a really big problem.
I started by putting out several ads and trying to figure out, “how am I gonna find this person?”. I think I had maybe two people respond to my ad and thankfully one of them was a Nanny Becky. Nanny Becky was a lifesaver for me, she was amazing and she was a college student. She answered my as and It thankfully worked out. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t worked out, but she came to my house probably around 6:15 AM every morning so that I could then leave. My son was still sleeping at that time so I was able to count on her and she was such a blessing for us. So once I solved the problem of how to connect with a nanny, I was flying pretty blindly. I didn’t know what I should be offering a nanny as far as to pay and didn’t know about things like guaranteed hours. There were just a lot of things that just were kind of shooting from the hip, I was kind of making it up as I went. I didn’t know about all of the industry standards and I didn’t know what a working relationship with nanny might look like.
Well, first of all, you have to connect with somebody who has that right kind of availability.
You need someone who can swing part-time hours financially and can accommodate that with their schedule, and have an early start time, somebody who is either an early riser or somebody willing to start their day early.
If you can connect with a college student, that’s great, because sometimes they can do before school care before their schooling starts, and then after school care after their classes are done. College students are great for this type of work just because it tends to fit well with their schedule.
One thing that’s important to remember is that a lot of college students now don’t know their exact schedule until a little bit later in the summer. So if you have started your search early and you’re not getting a lot of interest in the position, don’t panic, just remember there are a lot of those college students who’re waiting to understand their schedule is before they commit to another family. So don’t panic, stay calm, just start early if you can.
You’re also going to want to find somebody who is in close enough proximity to your location where it makes sense for them to come and just do a couple of hours of care in the morning or a couple of hours of care in the afternoon.
It doesn’t make sense for someone to commute 30 minutes for a two-hour shift because all of a sudden those two hours of care that they’re providing for you turns into a 3-hour chunk of their time. If you can partner with somebody close to you, that is key, and that will greatly increase your odds of finding somebody you need to cover those hours.
How do you find before and after school care?
Tip #1: Start your search ASAP!
The summertime is the perfect time to begin looking for before and after-school care for the next year. A lot of people know what their schedule is, some nannies out there have a job that is just right in the middle of the day. A great way to boost their income is to find some part-time hours before or after the typical shift.
So start now, the key to this is to take advantage of having time on your side. Do not wait until two weeks before school starts because that will be a great way to guarantee extra stress in your life. Start now and get going on your search early.
Tip #2: Network
Talk to everybody, talk to the moms at the park, talk to your neighbors, talk to your friends who have college students. Make sure that you’re casting a wide net because you just never know where is that perfect connection is lurking. You might get lucky in conversation and might have somebody say “Hey, I know somebody who’s looking for just what you need”. Nobody knows that you’re looking for a nanny unless you talk about it.
Tip #3: More networking!
My last tip was networking, talk to everybody. My next tip is to do it more, more networking! It’s important like I mentioned, to cast a wide net because you just never know who knows somebody. Post on the online forums and use NextDoor. Proximity is an important factor in finding somebody to provide just a few hours of coverage here or there. If they are just two houses down that it’s super easy for them to come over and provide some child care for a few hours, but if there are 20 minutes away, the chances are a little slim that is the perfect position for them.
Not only post everywhere but post frequently, so if you aren’t getting many hits one week, post again, a new post is a great way to bring that information in front of fresh eyes.
Post early, post frequently, and post everywhere.
Nanny Parent Connection is a great place if you’re in the Seattle area to connect with a lot of people to do some networking because I guarantee you you will bump into somebody who knows somebody who can help.
We also offer our Last Minute Care Service, CareCalendar, and Member Search tools – all of which are great for finding part time child care (or you can ask our Search Team for help!)
Tip #4: Compensation Package
The compensation package is more than just the hourly rate. If you’re struggling to find somebody. Besides, ensuring that you’re offering the proper rate, make sure that you’re offering incentives. These aren’t even really incentives, these are considered industry standards, which traditionally haven’t been as strongly associated with a part-time position. It’s becoming more popular, and if you’re having a hard time filling a position, think about paid time off, think about offering some paid holidays or accrued sick time, or maybe like a $100 health care stipend every month.
Any little thing like that is going to make that position more attractive to a candidate, and it’s going to make your search easier. Anything like that can help sweeten the deal and help nannies to understand “Gosh, it’s not just $20 or $25 an hour, it’s this hourly rate plus mileage reimbursement plus a medical statement each month!”.
See what you can do to make the position more attractive by considering the compensation package and not just an hourly rate.
Alright, everyone, that’s it for the first part of Eight Tips To Find Before And After School Care. Please check-in for my next video coming out in a few days with tips 5 through 8, so that you can find somebody to provide before and or after school childcare!