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! We’ve got you covered!
In the first part of this two-part guide, we share four tips for finding before or after school care. This type of child care can be the most difficult to find, so read on and reach out if you have any questions!
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Before and after school care is a big problem for a lot of parents because often, the workday doesn’t line up with the school day. Picture a single parent, new to the area, who needs care for a three-year-old before preschool. Work starts at 6:30 AM, but preschool doesn’t begin until 8:00 AM. That leaves someone with not many resources and not a strong network, wondering how to find a caregiver who is reliable and willing to be at the house that early in the morning. It’s a really big problem.
It often starts with putting out several ads and trying to figure out, “how am I going to find this person?” Sometimes only a couple of people respond, and thankfully one of them turns out to be a great fit, such as a college student who can arrive around 6:15 AM every morning while the child is still sleeping. Once you solve the problem of how to connect with a nanny, though, there’s still a lot to learn: what to offer a nanny in terms of pay, and how things like guaranteed hours and industry standards work. Without that knowledge, it’s easy to feel like you’re making it up as you go and unsure what a working relationship with a nanny might look like.
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 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.
So 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 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!
Our last tip was networking, talk to everybody. Our next tip is to do it more, more networking! It’s important, like we 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 then it’s super easy for them to come over and provide some child care for a few hours, but if they are 20 minutes away, the chances are a little slim that it’s 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 we 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.
That’s it for the first part of Eight Tips To Find Before And After School Care. Be sure to check out part two with tips 5 through 8, so that you can find somebody to provide before and/or after school childcare!