Childcare.co.uk!

There’s a scene in the film ‘Jack and Sarah’ (one of my most favourite films of all time’ where newly widowed dad Jack (Richard E. Grant), is trying to find a nanny for his newborn baby daughter so that he can go back to work. The scene is incredibly funny as he interviews unsuitable nanny after unsuitable nanny in a bid to not make the wrong decision – because as a parent you will know, finding someone else, someone that isn’t YOU, to look after your most precious being, is blooming hard and takes a lot of planning, preparation and research! It’s highly unlikely that we will just stumble upon that perfect person in a busy London cafe after striking up a conversation – which is, incidentally, what DOES happen in the movie… But life isn’t like a movie mostly and unfortunately the planning, preparation and research is entirely necessary on most counts! This is where childcare.co.uk can step in and help you out massively!

Jack was after a full time nanny for a very tiny baby. I’ve luckily never been in a position where I’ve needed to search for similar but I have had to find a nursery for my big two and soon, I imagine, will be looking for one for the Raffster too. When we moved from London to Norwich I had been lucky to have been all set for childcare and the move felt daunting for that level on its own aside from anything else. I loved the school nursery and finding a new one in Norfolk seemed like an incredible task. On the one had I was coming back home where family were on hand to help me, something I hadn’t had in London, but on the other I was entering into the unknown when it came to finding the right childcare provider. All my Mummy friends were in London, who would I ask in Norfolk? It was a time which really stressed me out and I shed more tears over that than the actual moving – if you’ve bought and sold houses you’ll understand that means buckets.

I eventually found somewhere but I was never sure about it and as it turned out, though it was fine, I wouldn’t have chosen it had I known a bit more, had I had a few recommendations or other people’s opinions on it. This is where a site like childcare.co.uk would have been amazingly helpful had I known about it back then. It has over 2 million users so that’s a LOT of opinion and it’s SUPER easy to navigate for whichever type of childcare you’re after. You simply find your type of childcare, be it a nursery, baby sitter, child minder or otherwise and then you opt for a radius to a postcode before with each click of a button you can narrow your search or widen it as you require.

Now I live in a pretty small village and have been here for 4 years so when it comes to choosing Raffie his nursery I’m in the know I feel and then with regards to the child care I need on a regular but very ad hoc basis my Mum can usually step in. I’m pretty lucky for that but just like when I was in London, there are occasions when I might need an evening baby sitter and there’s simply no one else around. How on earth do you choose one of those without knowing one? There’s a saying along the lines of having babies is like giving a piece of your heart away and letting it walk around independently of you. That feels so true to me, that is absolutely the most perfect description and when I am away from them, from those pieces of my actual heart, I need to know they are in not just good, but the very best and most capable hands! And Childcare.co.uk will also help with an evening babysitter would you believe?! I’ve used their site to find the best one for me and I can honestly say it’s a dream to use, very simple and gives me all the info I would be asking for!

I put in my criteria of ‘babysitter’ then narrowed it down to ‘evenings’ and gave a radius of my own little village thinking there’d be absolutely no one, but up popped 6 profiles with pictures, bios and their rates. When you click into their full bio it tells you a lot more with bullet points for the important info and then a blurb written by them. So I found a woman in her early twenties who works as a year one and two fully qualified teacher but has masses of other EYFS (early years foundations stage) training along with creche and nursery experience (TICK). She is available in the holidays and evenings and of course is DBS checked through her job as a teacher (TICK) – The DBS check is just one of the things that you can put into the criteria search as a must amongst many other things! As well as all her childcare teaching qualifications she is first aid trained (TICK, TICK, TICK!) and I can also see what she wouldn’t be able to do which is over nights or before school hours care. She sounds fab doesn’t she! At £10 an hour this is a babysitter that I’m keeping a mental note of and when I want to use her? Well it’s easy, I simply send her a message through the site and she will get back to me. She has a nice and friendly smiling face in her picture, loads of experience and though no one has left a review for her on the site yet, the info given is enough to make me feel immediately confident!

And that’s the thing often isn’t it. A feeling of confidence in the choice you’ve made. I never had a good feeling about Jimmy’s Norfolk nursery which subsequently got a very bad Ofsted report and went into administration and had I had a site like this I could have had that feeling way before it got to the point of us making the decision to use it before we’d even moved here. I’ll certainly know going forwards won’t I!

There’s a lot to be said for the visual of a photograph coupled with all the info you want to ask but which would take days to find out if looking on your own, IF you managed to come accross the right person in all your blind searching in the first place. Here you can search for what you want, when you want it and with immediate results so that a quick and informed assessment can be made for you then to go on and find out in person. It’s saving of a lot of work and hassle cutting out a middle man part of the job so to speak!

When Florence was a tiny baby I felt overwhelmed with worry about her. I felt it was all consuming and wondered if I would ever be able to truly relax ever again. I asked my Mum when the time would come, how old she would be when I could stop worrying like this?

She told me that the answer was unfortunately never. I would never sleep properly again, always have one eye ready to be opened and needed and that if anything, the worry gets worse not better. She said ‘At least now you know where she is! When she’s 15 she will be off out and you won’t have a clue, then the worry grows bigger and by the time she is in her early twenties, not phoning you from one day to the next, out partying, drinking, meeting boys… Well, you will be beside yourself. Then… she will settle down and get married and you will think finally… FINALLY! She’s bought a house, found a good man, she is happy… NOW I can relax… An then in the blink of an eye that moment will be over, she will have babies of her own and the worry starts ALL OVER AGAIN!

Well, at least my Mum doesn’t pull any punches! And it’s true, you never stop worrying about them and yes, at least when they are tiny you do have control over where they are, who they are with and what they are doing. And childcare.co.uk is invaluable to making sure you know that the little piece of your heart, the one that’s out wandering around all by itself, is looked after just as well as you care for it at home – it does the planning, the preparation and research so that you don’t have to and at least that’s one area where you can relax – being a parent is hard, make it as easy on yourself as you can I say!

Collaboration with Childcare.co.uk.