Childcare When Both Parents Travel: How to Plan It Properly

We get it. One of you has a conference in Melbourne, the other has a wedding in Sydney, and the two calendars have quietly collided on the same Thursday. Arranging childcare when both parents travel is a different job from booking a babysitter for a night out, because nobody is coming home at eleven to take over.

The families who do this well are not the ones with the most relatives nearby. They are the ones who plan the trip as a whole rather than as a list of hours to fill. Here is how to do that, and what it costs.

Start with the shape of the trip, not the roster

Before you think about who covers which hours, write down what the days actually contain. School drop off and pick up. Tuesday swimming. The medication that has to happen at four. The friend’s birthday party on Saturday that your child has been talking about for a fortnight.

Only once that is on paper can you see the real gaps. Most parents discover the hard part is not the nights at all. It is the messy middle of the afternoon, and the weekend commitments that assume a parent will be driving.

Then decide the single most important question: does your child stay in their own bed? Continuity at home is worth a great deal when both parents are away, because the house, the routine and the bedtime are doing half the emotional work for you. It is usually the deciding factor between shuffling children between relatives and bringing care into your home instead.

Overnight care, and what it actually covers

Our overnight babysitting runs from 7pm to 7am in your own home. Rates are billed per night and GST inclusive: $275 for one child, $297 for two, $330 for three, $363 for four and $385 for five.

Two things are worth understanding before you book. First, those overnight rates apply when the child wakes twice or fewer during the night. If the shift turns into genuinely active care beyond that, the applicable hourly rate is charged instead, which is simply honest pricing for a carer who has been awake most of the night. Second, the overnight rate covers the night. Daytime hours either side are booked as ordinary casual babysitting, which starts at $56 an hour Monday to Saturday for one or two children with a three hour minimum.

So a Wednesday to Friday trip is usually built as an afternoon block, an overnight, a morning block, and so on. It reads as a lot of pieces on a spreadsheet and feels perfectly ordinary in practice, because it is generally the same carer moving through the days with your children.

Ask for the same carer across the whole trip

This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it costs nothing. A child who has met the person once, at a normal handover with you standing there, settles far more easily than one who meets somebody new at bedtime on the night both parents flew out.

Where the dates allow, we will book one carer across the whole stretch rather than a different face each day. If you can manage a short session with that carer in the week before you leave, do it. An hour of overlap while you are still in the house is worth more than any amount of written instruction.

The handover pack

Everything in this section is about your household, not about the carer. Write it once, keep it on the fridge, and update it before each trip.

• Medical. Medicare number, allergies, asthma or anaphylaxis plans, current medications with doses and times, your GP and the nearest hospital.
• Written authority. Clear written permission for the carer to seek medical treatment for your child while you are away, and to collect them from school or care. Tell the school in advance who is authorised, in writing, before you leave the country or the state.
• The daily map. Wake times, meals, snacks that are actually eaten, nap or quiet time, screen rules, bedtime and the exact order of the bedtime routine. Include the comfort item and where the spare one lives.
• The people list. Both parents with time zones and the best way to reach each of you, plus two local adults who can be at the house within thirty minutes.
• The house. Alarm code, wifi, bins, pets, where the fuse box and the stopcock are, and which neighbour has a spare key.
• The soft stuff. What your child is like when they are missing you, and what helps. A carer who knows that the crying starts at bath time on night two handles night two much better.

Decide who makes the call while you are in the air

Both parents unreachable at once is the scenario worth thinking about for five minutes now rather than at thirty five thousand feet. Nominate one local adult who can make a decision if neither of you answers, tell them they are the nominated person, and put them at the top of the contact list.

Agree with your carer what triggers a phone call to you and what does not. A grazed knee does not need a call to Singapore. A temperature that will not come down does. Setting that line in advance saves everybody a lot of second guessing.

Build the backup before you need it

Care arrangements fail for ordinary reasons. Someone gets sick, a flight is cancelled, a trip stretches by a day. The difference between an inconvenience and a crisis is whether there was a plan B written down.

Because our carers are employed by us rather than working as contractors, a replacement is something we organise from our own team rather than something you go hunting for from a hotel room. Our piece on backup childcare goes through how to structure that properly.

If the house itself is the worry, pets to feed, a garden to water and nobody home for a week, house sitting is a separate service: $110 a night Monday to Thursday and $165 a night Friday to Sunday, with a twenty four hour minimum. There is more in our guide to house sitting while you travel.

The part we have already handled

Nowhere on this page have we asked you to vet anybody, and that is deliberate. Every carer we send has been fully screened before they ever meet a family. Only around the top twenty per cent of applicants make it through. Each one holds current First Aid and CPR, a valid Working with Children Check, and references we have contacted and checked ourselves. Each is employed and insured by us. You can see exactly how that works on our screening process page.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should we book care for a trip?

As soon as the flights are confirmed. Multi day bookings with the same carer across every shift need more notice than a single evening, and school holidays and event weekends go quickly. If a trip lands on you at short notice, ask anyway, because we can often still cover it.

Can one carer stay for several nights in a row?

Often yes, and it is what we aim for. Overnight care is billed per night from 7pm to 7am, with the daytime hours booked separately, so a run of nights is straightforward to arrange when the dates are known early.

What happens if our child becomes unwell while we are away?

Your carer follows the plan in your handover pack and contacts you, or your nominated local adult if neither parent is reachable. Written authority to seek medical treatment should be in that pack before you leave, which is why it is the one piece of paperwork worth doing properly.

Is it better to send the children to family instead?

Sometimes, and we will say so if we think that suits your family. What tips the balance for most parents is the number of moving parts. Grandparents an hour away can be wonderful for a weekend and difficult for a working week with school runs and swimming on Tuesday.

Tell us the dates and we will build it around them

You have enough to think about before a trip without also project managing the roster. Send us the flights, the school hours and the commitments you cannot move, and we will come back with a plan that covers the lot.

Book your dates or get in touch and talk it through with a person. Call 0451 394 018 or email hello@thecarecollectivegroup.com.au. Travelling is hard enough. Leaving should not be the hardest part of it.