Very non boats/Advise needed.

powerskipper

powerskipper

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Has anyone used au-pairs or nannys for child care when both parents are working?, what did it cost and how did you find it.? Or how did you handle the child care over summer and easter hols?. children one teen and near teen!
Julie

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IMOSHO of course,/forums/images/icons/smile.gif
 
teen and near teens is a bit old for nannies. Also, nanny will need lots of loot to take them to places.

1. Camp beaumont and similar run camps on IOW over the summer, residential too. You need to book early.
2. Take them to work and tellem to anwer the phone. This tends to wake up the admin dept who sudently realise that they are in danger of being replaced by a child who is almost free. But after 2 days the 11 year old wants 25 quid a day.
3. Take them to work and lettem play on computers all day.
4. Send them to granny/friends.
5. Send them to the boat and tell them to clean it.
6. Leave them at home watching the telly, whcih is what the nanny will do most of the time anyway. You need large colection of DVD's and playstation games.

There is a chance that the social services wil take them into care which of course solves the problem entirely.




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A lot of Public Schools (ours included) run holiday activities during the day.
Our summer programme runs for three weeks and keeps kids of your ages amused with quad bikes, archery, horse riding, art, and many other activities, properly supervised by qualified teachers and properly CRB checked activities instructors.
Unfortunately ours isnt residential, but I'm sure that a school in your area will be running something similar.
Its not that expensive and gives Parents a break, or allows them to continue working during at least some of the holidays.
If you let me know your general area I will try and find out through ISIS if there is anything on in your locale.
Steve.

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by steverow on 25/03/2004 16:03 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
have used au-pairs and demi-pairs when kids were younger basically they wwre looking for aroud £15 a week plus they only used to look after them B4 school and then at home time till we got in plus they used to hoover a bit and then they would get from us every night off and weekends , which some people never used to give as they wanted to go out w/ends.

We have had Turkish and Spanish amongst others and have found these are the best

But it can be quite stressful with a stranger in your home.

At the end of it they did become like family and then you start getting all their problems on top as well

Good luck

think its a mag called lady that does advertise agencys but you could try Spanish Language schools teaching english in spain as they like to get students to come to uk in summer hols

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Yes, "The Lady" is the place where top notch nannies and agencies advertise (e.g. the Norland school, which is the creme de la creme of nannying) but mostly people looking for a more permanent job, rather than a short school holiday placement. There are Nanny temp. agencies but the rates they charge usually involve the loss of several limbs, and the sale of a couple of internal organs, to finance. A colleague is just putting a full time nanny in place to look after her 3 kids, and reckons the gross cost to her, allowing for employer's NI etc, will be about £35K per annum.

A couple of other possibilities:

PGL (stands for "parents get lost") run residential adventure holidays for kids. They have a good reputation but I doubt they'd take your kids for 6 weeks........

Try contacting a couple of Colleges of Higher Education (Eastleigh? Southampton Institute?) to see if they run courses for child carers and, therefore, whether they have any new or recent graduates looking for work. They will at least have had some training and a spell of work experience before assuming responsibility for your kids.

I'd be wary of going the au pair route unless you can set it up in advance and hence get a feel for how competent and capable they'd be, before leaving them on their own with your kids. As noted above you will, in any event, become surrogate parents. Some au pair arrangements are great and the cause of lifelong friendships. Others are a disaster.

Final word of warning: a friend of ours partly financed her degree course by working at a council-run playgroup for kids in their early teens. Her preferred way of keeping them quiet was to dole out fags all round............ /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho
 
Surely the cheapest way is to plant drugs on them and then shop them to the police. That should get them off your hands for 6 months or so. /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

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