Advice please: Childcare during interviews?

I'm sure there must be a trick for this! I have 13mo DS and I am looking for work. Every time I get an interview I spend hours and hours trying to find someone to watch DS for 90 min. Childminders don't do one-offs and babysitters don't work days. I usually end up dumping him on my poor aunt who is the only family in town home during the day, but she isn't always available.

Is there a different name for daytime babysitters? How do I find them?

Unfortunately, there isn't a trick for this. Other moms, friends and relatives will lend a hand for someone looking for work. I know of one synagogue-based day care center offering drop-in service for job-seekers who are members of the shul; this is very unusual but you could ask if your community has a program like this, or wants to start one. There are some drop-in child-care centers around, but they are not common, and perhaps they don't exist in your part of the world (I'm in the US). In some circumstances it is acceptable to bring a baby/child to an interview - I know one mom who dressed her baby in "business casual" for the occasion - but that isn't always a good idea. Presumably you will have some sort of childcare once you start work; perhaps enrolling your baby in part-time day care now will give you more flexibility in scheduling, and you could increase the hours once you find a job.

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 18 2010 Posts: 3018

Do any of your friends work? You could ask if you can leave your child with their sitter (obviously, you pay the sitter for the extra work). Most sitters don't mind, especially for just 90 minutes. It does require some advance planning though, because you have to clear it with the friend who then has to clear it with her sitter.

Executive Member Joined: Jan 14 2008 Posts: 451

Where are you located? I know a childminder who is happy to do one offs, for a couple of hours, and I'm sure that she's not the only one. Ask around.

I'm in Hendon, UK. I've checked EdgwareK, but none of those babysitters can do days.

I found EdgwareK to be rather useless when it comes to looking for a childcare.
You can try gumtree or childcare.co.uk
Have you tried looking up a childminder on OFSTEAD report?
Did you check notice boards at supermarkets or newsagents? (Obviously you'll need to call/interview/check references).

Ideally you may want to develop a list of potential babysitters--someone in uni, post-sem girls/post-yeshiva boys (be an equal opportunity employer--our evening/weekend babysitter is a wonderful boy in 6th form), neighbours, someone you know from shul, friends, friends' mums and sisters.
Do you or your friends have a cleaner? A housecleaner may be able to look after a child.

The tricky bit is to make sure you have enough advance notice to organise the childcare.

Platinum Member Joined: Apr 12 2010 Posts: 5773

I also had this problem. In USA there are many drop-off babysitters but often it was too far to bother taking ds there on the way to an interview and I didn't have enough time to start searching for someone.

I usually dumped him on my sil or cousin but a couple of times they cancelled last minute or no one could do it so I made sure to put him to sleep before I went and (shocker I know!) took him with! He slept outside. Once once he was awake and I explained to the lady, my babysitter cancelled it was too late to find someone else.
Stuff happens!
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