One of the biggest decisions I’ve had to make as a mum of 2 has been finding the right childcare for my boys. There isn’t anything more daunting than putting someone else in charge of caring for your children.
As a working mum I know how much peace of mind it brings to have the right childcare in place that isn’t going to let you down. To have a one stop site to go to is amazing and shows how far childcare provision has come over the years. Over 1,800,000 people have used Childcare.co.uk to find childcare or childcare work since they launched in 2009.
What is Childcare.co.uk?
If you haven’t heard of Childcare.co.uk before, it is the UK’s largest online community of parents, childcare providers, household helpers, schools and private tutors. They make the task of finding the right support for you easy. The list of specialised carers is vast, you can choose from babysitters or childminders through to nursery nurses and private midwives, with a bit of everything in between.
So, what can you expect when you visit the site?
What struck me most was the large range of services you can get. I tried the search function which is where you put in what you are looking for, which for me was ‘babysitters’. Now you state within how many miles of your postcode your search can cover, then you have the filter button which for ‘babysitters’ bought up a huge list of different types of babysitters. I was so surprised that there were so many! On offer were; 24hr babysitters, male, female, hotel babysitters, babysitters with special needs experience as well as babysitters with newborn experience, the list went on and on. What this really helps with is not thinking that you have found the right person only to be told that they don’t have the specialist experience that you are looking for.
This is ideal to use if you have friends visiting too. For our wedding in May we have lots of relatives making the journey from other parts of the UK and from Germany. This service is ideal for our friends and family to enjoy our weekend wedding and make the most of travelling without any stress. Imagine being able to go to a family wedding for the day with the kids and then have a babysitter come to your hotel so that you could also have an evening out with the grown ups, it’s a win win for the whole family. I gave it a thorough testing with different requirements and it kept coming up with a wide selection and availability.
It is free to sign up for an account and to make it even more user friendly you can download the app from either the apple app store or google play. Most of my planning comes when I’m on the move and my phone is where everything gets done so an app is crucial to me.
What do you think of Childcare.co.uk? Have you used them before? What are your experiences of arranging childcare? I’d love to hear your views.
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