Wedding Nanny?

Aoifs10

Was reading someones post there re children at weddings and what to do with them. It can be quite the dilemma when there are a lot of children at a wedding as nobody really wants to spend the day running around after them!
I'm a qualified primary teacher and have been thinking of providing a service whereby myself and another teacher would look after the kids for a couple of hours to give the parents a breather.
Activities would include arts and crafts, music and dance, table and floor games, group games and a chill out zone with dvd's and books if they're too tired for any more activities.
This sort of thing is pretty common in the US. Anybody think it could take off here??

billybunty

Hi - I'm getting married this Sept and like this idea. The hotel I have booked has already offered this service FOC, as far as I know, but when I asked my brother if he would like to avail of this (hint hint!), he was highly offended as he said his children would be with him and his wife for the whole wedding. I was thinking that at 5.30-6ish in the evening that the kids might prefer to be off playing at something like you are suggesting, thus makingthem nice and tired ! BUT I have other friends who've all been married in the past and I know that this idea would have worked well for them. Unfortunately in my case, no though but I wish you luck, I think you've a great idea.
Another good idea might be House-sitting for the few days around the wedding!!

Aoifs10

Hi, Thanks for the feedback. Still tryin to suss it out at the moment but hopefully some other people think it's a good idea too!

OS119

its an excellent idea.

personally, as someone with kids, i find being invited to weddings with the proviso 'no kids' pretty offensive - exactly what do these people think i'm going to do with said offspring: hand them in at a lost property desk and hope they're still there 24hrs later? invite me, understand my kids are going to come - don't want kids at your wedding? don't invite people with young kids....

that said, i don't think kids particularly enjoy weddings - anymore than their parents do - and anyone who says 'yeah, my 5yo will be fine at 10pm after being up all day' knows fcuk all about 5yo's, and hasn't much consideration for either the 5yo or everyone else around it

the only potential downside - for you - is that you'll be undercut by the teenage kids of the hotels' employees. they're 15 and looking for pocket money, you're professionally qualified teachers looking to pay the mortgage...

Ever2010

OS119 wrote: »

its an excellent idea.

personally, as someone with kids, i find being invited to weddings with the proviso 'no kids' pretty offensive - exactly what do these people think i'm going to do with said offspring: hand them in at a lost property desk and hope they're still there 24hrs later? invite me, understand my kids are going to come - don't want kids at your wedding? don't invite people with young kids....

that said, i don't think kids particularly enjoy weddings - anymore than their parents do - and anyone who says 'yeah, my 5yo will be fine at 10pm after being up all day' knows fcuk all about 5yo's, and hasn't much consideration for either the 5yo or everyone else around it

Sounds like you're contradicting yourself there.

Most weddings involve people drinking/nipping outside for smokes/loud music - not a place for children! Your friends want you at their wedding, it's not that they don't like your kids, it's just not appropriate!

I think it's a great idea

Personally, I wouldn't invite kids to a wedding but there are many who do and this kind of service would be welcomed I think.

Aoifs10

OS119 wrote: »

its an excellent idea.


the only potential downside - for you - is that you'll be undercut by the teenage kids of the hotels' employees. they're 15 and looking for pocket money, you're professionally qualified teachers looking to pay the mortgage...

Good point about the teenagers. I suppose we'd be coming at it from a slightly different angle by trying to make the day enjoyable and entertaining for the children as opposed to just keeping them out of trouble:) We'd have to hope that people might be willing to pay a little more for that. Although, with the way things are at the moment it might not be the case.
I have an almost 5 yo myself and he found the last wedding we were at a little overwhelming with so many adults around. It would have been nice for him to have somewhere to go to to do children's things.

billybunty

Aoifs10 wrote: »

Good point about the teenagers. I suppose we'd be coming at it from a slightly different angle by trying to make the day enjoyable and entertaining for the children as opposed to just keeping them out of trouble:) We'd have to hope that people might be willing to pay a little more for that. Although, with the way things are at the moment it might not be the case.
I have an almost 5 yo myself and he found the last wedding we were at a little overwhelming with so many adults around. It would have been nice for him to have somewhere to go to to do children's things.

Very well put. To be able to bring the kids somewhere after the church (or even before!!) would be ideal for a lot of families.

How Strange

OS119 wrote: »

its an excellent idea.

personally, as someone with kids, i find being invited to weddings with the proviso 'no kids' pretty offensive

Why? I personally find parents sense of entitlement to bring their kids to a wedding offensive. They're your children not mine so if I invite you to my wedding then I expect you'd arrange a babysitter to look after them. I had some children at my wedding after receiving requests from some friends but apart from my nephews I made it clear to the parents that they had to be taken home by 10pm because it's an adult evening with lots of alcohol which I don't think is a suitable environment for children.

It's the bride and grooms right to decide if they want a children free wedding. If parents don't like it and feel it offends them as parents then they can always decline the invitation to attend.

invite me, understand my kids are going to come - don't want kids at your wedding? don't invite people with young kids

Wow, that's some ultimatum.

that said, i don't think kids particularly enjoy weddings - anymore than their parents do - and anyone who says 'yeah, my 5yo will be fine at 10pm after being up all day' knows fcuk all about 5yo's, and hasn't much consideration for either the 5yo or everyone else around it

:eek: So what are you saying? Invite me, invite my kids OR ELSE but make damn sure you arrange for them to be babysat and entertained too?

OP, to answer your question, I think your service may work in theory but people are cutting back on their wedding budgets so it depends on how much your service costs.

RIRI

I think this is a great idea. While I'm not a big fan of kids at weddings (simply because I think it's adult time) sometimes you have no choice.

For example we're getting married in July, all of our usual babysitters will be at the wedding as will my sister & sister in laws usual babysitters, no choice but to bring the kids.

This definately something we'd consider, what kind of price are we talking OP?

TommyGun

I was at a wedding that had a full table of kids. They had a magician to entertain them all after dinner until up until they had to go to bed. It worked well.

SarahMs

I think in theory your idea is great, but cost would be a factor! there would also be a danger of the kid/s wouldnt want to leave their parents or the 'party' so it might end up being wasted.


A friend of ours is getting married, and she invited kids + babysitter. Parents pay babysitter flat fee for the day/evening aswell as being fed at the reception.

Heineken Helen

I think it's something you should definitely try! Luckily I don't have many people we'll be inviting who have kids so it wouldn't be a factor at our wedding. I'm not much of a kid person anywho so, other than close family with kids, I don't want kids running around who I don't know and love.

But there are plenty of people who want all the kids at their wedding and some of these people would certainly like somebody qualified to keep the kids happy. If I WAS having plenty of kids, I would NOT like to have a teenager looking after them as you risk potential disaster!

Anyway, what have you got to lose? Maybe discuss it with local hotels and see if it's a service they would recommend or something?

bellabloo

Hi aoifs...
I think you have a great idea there and as a chilcare worker have often wondered about the practicalities of doing something like thgis myself.. but when I looked into it I found that in fact there are a few companies offering this service already and it is not as new an idea as I thought it would be. Im new to the forums so not sure if i can mention names of the companies but if you google wedding childcare you can see what I mean.

I am also just wondering our of interest if being a teacher qualifies you to do this sort of work? are you childcare trained as well?? if there were small children and babies would you be legally qualified to look after them? probably a stoopid quesiton as being a teacher you are allowed to look after 28kids at a time but the ruled for chilcare are different.

Just something for you to consider!
Best of luck with it
Bella

The Big Red Button

I used to do this when I was a teenager ... I regularly babysat at a local hotel and, if there was a wedding on with a good few kids, they'd bring in 2-3 of us and leave us in a room for the day with the kids and a load of DVDs and games etc. Then, when it came to about nine in the evening, they'd bring in a few more babysitters and we brought the kids back to their own hotelrooms and put them to bed and babysit there for the rest of the night. In my own experience it worked well - kids were happy, parents were happy, and they were only in the next room if they wanted to check on the kids.

I assume most hotels that do weddings would offer a similar service, so I'm just not sure how many people would be willing to pay extra for a qualified teacher? For that matter, would it be the wedding couple that would pay, or the hotel, or the childrens' parents?

intothewest

Have to agree with other OS119...you are contradicting yourself. And if you're looking to reduce the number of invites you get to weddings, you're going about it the right way. It is completely up the the bride and groom what their take on the kids side of things is. I'll be inviting friends with kids, and they certainly won't be on the invite..I don't expect them to leave them in lost and found for the day/night, but they'll have months of notice to arrange a sitter, so bar something falls through on them, a wedding is no place for kids. They're bored stupid after a couple of hours when the novelty wears off of being somewhere new, by then people have started drinking, and tensions will wear between couples as they juggle who takes the wee one to entertain/put to bed/console...if anything, should be a break for the parents.