It has not been without its challenges! When Penny was younger I could get away with doing work while she played – not anymore! She’s a toddler now and very active, and needs lots of attention. Plus, if she sees a laptop screen she wants to be part of the action. So I have had to organise my work time really tightly. I thought I would share the things I work on each week, how time-consuming and how many of them there are, and a few ways I manage to keep on top of things (this doesn’t always work!).

A major part of running Granny and I is finding, selecting, meeting and screening the Grannies of course! This is incredibly hard work and there is no quick or easy way around it. We get applications every day so I go through them all. I try to chat with the grandmas on the phone before selecting the ones to interview. Each face to face interview lasts at least an hour ( I usually schedule these over Penny’s afternoon nap) – after which I need to make sure I have all the relevant documents and carry out all the checks. I wrote more about this process here.

Another major part is dealing with our clients – some weeks are frantic and others are quiet, and there is never a way to predict this! I respond to all queries as quickly as I can, and register new babysitting clients, and I work hard to find them a babysitter when they need one, sometimes with very little notice.

A small selection of the other things I squeeze in – marketing activities such as promoting the business, working with other local businesses, networking, sending press releases; social media is a big one – updating the blog, keeping ontop of things on Facebook and twitter (my excuse for spending so much time here is it’s work, right?), writing articles, organising guest posts and planning our newsletter; sorting out all the admin (I keep all our client and Granny info in files on my laptop that need to be updated constantly); I am constantly researching new ways to promote our business on a low budget, and adding to my lists of media, websites, events and businesses that we are hoping to work with; and last but not least we provide sitters for all London Mothers Club events so organising this and making sure it all goes well fits in somewhere in my week!

A couple of rules I have for keeping ontop of things:

- work early mornings: I’m lucky that Penny sleeps til 7.30-8am most morning so I get up an hour or so before that and do the most important work for the day then – that way, it’s out of the way and I don’t have it hanging over me all day! There are some things such as phone calls and checking references that can’t be done then so I schedule in specific time for this during Penny’s nap times.

- plan ahead: each Sunday I plan ahead for the week – exactly what I will be doing when; when my work time is, and what specific work I will be doing; and when my time with Penny is and what I will be doing (i try to organise outings or play dates). It sometimes takes the spontaneity out of things but I do try to leave a couple of afternoons open for spur of the moment fun!

- time for myself: this is never very much but I have been running 3 mornings a week, and going to a yoga class once a week for the past couple of months, and this has made a big difference as it gives me time to think out problems or issues, and clear my mind out before the day starts. I also feel energised and much more motivated afterwards!

Any other parents out there working from home and how do you cope? I would love to hear your views. Tweet me or Facebook me, or comment on this post or email me!

As a Mum of twins I find it hard to be inspired with ideas for activities and games when I am exhausted. What I wanted was a completely free website that you do not need to sign up to with ideas for games to play at home or in the park. So after numerous cups of tea and cake in the many Stoke Newington cafes I decided to set one up:
www.entertainingbabies.com

Here are some examples of the games we have:

Buttons – for babies 3-6 months

Babies love interesting shapes, textures and colours. You can make them a favourite toy as follows: Get a square of material – felt or even cut up an old pillowcase. Stitch a selection of large brightly coloured buttons on to it. Get hold of buttons that are different sizes and textures as well as having bold colours or being shiny.
Sew them on so that they are not to tight so your baby can play with them but not swallow them – at this age, everything will end up in their mouths!
This is a great thing to do with an older child – so they can be involved in making a toy for their baby brother / sister / cousin. If they are too young to sew, let them choose the buttons

Sponge Jenga!

This is a fantastic idea – especially if you want the noise levels to be kept down!

You need to buy some cheap cleaning sponges in different colours. These are an example – they are very cheap! You can usually find a great selection in a £1 shop or in the supermarket.

Once you have opened them you can choose whether you want to peel the scourers off or not – I usually leave them on!
 
Then cut them up into different shapes – or just rectangles and your little ones will have hours of fun building away. The fantastic thing about these is they don’t make much noise when bashed together and they cannot take chunks out of the wall or other baby’s heads when hurled across the room!

Tight rope walking – 2-3 year
This is a great game for improving co-ordination. Most 3 year olds find it really difficult to walk in a straight line. If you are inside cut a piece of string about 2 meters long and lay it on the floor in a straight line.
The aim of the game is to imagine that Carpet is a dangerous sea with lots of sharks that like to nibble little toes! Your child has to walk in a straight line along the string and gets a HUGE CHEER as he / she does so.
You have to use your imagination in this game but it does cause lots of giggles especially if when they miss the string the tickling hands (yours) come along the floor and tickle (gobble up) little toes!



I hope you like these suggestions- there are many more on our website.

Please do take a look www.entertainingbabies.com

We quickly realised that as a new, small business with very limited spending power, we just couldn’t do everything! We literally couldn’t find a Granny for every family’s specific need! Ultimately we wouldn’t be offering a professional service which is what we both feel very strongly about. So we came up with the idea of a babysitting service. Babysitters are often young girls with not much childcare experience, and we thought we could provide a better service with babysitters who were not only mothers but grandmothers, with years and years of experience looking after children and babies. And so our Granny Sitter service was born. It’s affordable at £10 a month for membership, and we have set rates of £8/hour for evenings which also benefit families. We have standard procedures that are easier for us to follow, and all our sitters also have specific guidelines to guarantee the best service possible. From a parent’s point of view, it takes the whole organising/screening side of things our of their hands – we do it all! From our point of view, selecting our Granny sitters is hard work but once we have built up our books the hard work will pay off, and we can use the same sitter for several families; you build a relationship with your babysitters and learn to trust them to do a good job.

We are still working hard to make ourselves known around London – although there are no Granny babysitter services, there are definitely lots of options our there! However I think we are doing well so far, and both my mum and I are excited about our business and the service we provide.

Fran x

Welcome to the fourth trimester, your new baby has just arrived and a new life for expecting parents has just begun. Adjusting to a new life with a newborn is not always easy, however with the right support system the transition into parenthood can be a lot smoother.

Preparing an after-birth plan can alleviate a lot of unnecessary stress.

How can we make the transition to motherhood easier?

Well realistic expectations are a good place to start. Learning to feed, soothe and care for your baby takes time. In the first few days and weeks after birth most mums are exhausted and emotionally raw. Recovering from childbirth, mastering breastfeeding and baby care is no mean feat but with careful planning you can alleviate a lot of unnecessary stress.

Make a plan.

Step 1) Build yourself a support network. You need to know other mums. Mums who have been where you’re going and have come out the other side. Mums who will be happy to discuss the colour of your baby’s pooh! Attend at least one Pre-Natal group be it ante-natal classes or yoga and keep in contact with the other mums.

Step 2) Know your resources, even if you think you don’t need them. It’s much easier to have the information before you find yourself in a crisis. Put any leaflets you collect into your bedroom drawer. We have a pre-natal breast feeding package which covers all the basics.

Step 3) Prepare your home. I’m not talking about the latest baby gadgets. I’m talking about staples and necessities. Think about  what you might use in a two week period. Stock your freezer and collect any take away menus. Chances are you will have less then 20 minutes to prepare any meal. If you’ve only got limited help you should look into possible cleaning services for a few months.

Step 4) Scope out your team. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a partner with paternity leave, you’re going to need help. If you have a friend or relative that can help out find out how much help they can offer. Delivering a few casseroles or groceries can be a lifeline. If no one fits the bill you should consider hiring the baby planners or a post-natal Doula who can help you with steps 1-3.

Step 5) Look after yourself. There might be some days when you don’t even get a chance to have a shower or brush your teeth! But, you have to make time to address your basic needs. You need to sleep more than you need to clean the house. You need to get out for a walk, visit friends, or do whatever makes you feel good. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of baby.

Step 6) Pace yourself. This is the biggest key and potential pitiful to post-natal  recovery. This is not a time to test your limits, take it slow. It’s ok to ask for help. Eventually, you will feel in control again. Right now it’s best to let go and accept life as it comes.

Step 7) ENJOY! Your baby will only be this small for a short time. If you watch closely you can almost see them growing. Motherhood is a learning process, yes you will make mistakes, you will learn on the job. If you can just relax your expectations and pace yourself you can truly enjoy your babies first weeks.

Post-natal services:

We offer a number of post-natal packages, our essential post-natal packages starts when you are 34 weeks pregnant and provides care for you and your baby. We’re here to answer your questions and help you and your family however you decide.

Find out more about our post-natal packages and breast feeding services on our website

www.thebabyplanners.co.uk/our-services

If you’ve read about us, you’ll know that we are Fran (me) and Grazia (my mum), and we came up with the idea for Granny and I after Penelope’s birth. We talked and talked and thought it would be amazing to have a babysitting service where all the sitters are Grandmothers! Experienced ladies who have not only looked after children, but also had children of their own, and who are screened and CRB checked. As a new mum, I would certainly feel more reassured having someone babysit who has also been a mum (and grandmother) herself. As a new mum it made such a difference to have a more mature person there to help out, someone who could guide me and support me through difficult times. We also thought it crucial for it to be affordable, and easy to use. So that’s how we came up with our Granny sitters service.

We also thought we could build an online meeting platform for Grannies all over the UK to make contact with families local to them and offer their service – paid or not! We are still at the very beginning of this, and we are hoping to build a large community of grandmothers that will be multi-skilled, talented, and interested in sharing their experience with families. You can search our Online Grannies for free, and it is also free for grandmothers to join us!

I guess that coming from Italy, where many families still live physically very close to each other, we realised how much this has changed, especially in London. So our mission is to repair this by finding local Grandmas for families who don’t have their real grannies or aunts around to help. We really believe that support of extended family is important for parents, but also for building those long-term relationships with children. We hope that our babysitting service and Online Granny website will provide this for families all over the UK.

We hope you enjoy reading our blog, whether you’re a grandma or a mum! We always welcome feedback or if you think you’d like to contribute in some way, get in touch.

Fran x

Our Online Grannies are grandmothers who live around the UK and want to find local families to work with or help out. Our Online Grannies work as babysitters, nannies, carers, maternity helpers, teachers or tutors, cooks, pet-sitters or house-sitters, housekeepers, and many other types of work! Once you are registered with us as an Online Granny, families will be able to search for their local grandmother – whether they are looking for a babysitter or a cook, or someone to do arts and crafts with their little ones! By becoming Online Granny Members they will then be able to contact their local Online Granny.

We believe that grandmothers have so much to offer younger generations, and we are hoping to build a large online community of grandmothers from around the UK, who are looking to work or spend time with local families. What you decide to do, or the services you decide to offer are completely up to you!

If you think you would like to be one of our Grandmas fill in our form with your details. We will take a look and get back to you to let you know whether you are registered with us. We do not screen or check our Online Grannies as they live around the UK, so we strongly encourage families to carry out their own checks, and we advise all Online Grannies to get CRB-checked and have 3 checkable references.

For any questions we are always available via email or phone!

If you haven’t yet heard about Grannynet and are a granny who loves her role as a grandparent then we urge you to come and take a look at our site.

Grannynet is the definitive site for grandmothers looking for trusted advice and friendly chat, combining modern knowledge with traditional values.  That’s what our homepage welcome note reads anyway, but what you’ll really love discovering at the heart of Grannynet is real grandmothers like you… whether chatting about holidays or health issues, blogging about their day-to-day experiences of being a granny or reviewing products which are perfect for you and your grandchild’s lives.

Grannynet was set up five years ago by Verity Gill, when she had her first child.  Her mum was a huge support for her in her new role as a parent, but ‘granny’ had no support network of her own. Grannynet was born and became the first social networking site for grandmothers in the UK.

Today, Grannynet offers its community a wealth of new ideas  on looking after their grandchildren, plus we have built a team of dedicated expert grannies who contribute daily to the site.  If you choose to become a member free of charge, you’ll also get the added benefits of exclusive discounts, being able to enter our monthly competitions and chat on our forum, joining our book club and receiving our newsletters about the latest gossip and reviews on the site.

Whether you offer care for your grandchildren or only see them occasionally Grannynet has something to make your life more enjoyable and easier as a grandparent, from recipes to ideas for things to do on a rainy day to quizzes.

Come and join the other 6,000+ grannies who are loving being part of their own special online community.

As our members put it:

“I just wanted to say how much I love Grannynet and the Grannynetters! It’s just like having a wide circle of like-minded friends and all from the comfort of your own armchair!”

“This is a lovely site, with friends you can trust. It’s nice and gentle, and non-threatening.”

“My first grandchild will be born during the next 2 weeks and as it’s been nearly 29 years since the birth of my last baby, I am feeling a little nervous. I am SO pleased to have found Grannynet! Big thank you.”

I have always known that I have wanted children. Once I had them I never thought that
the love I felt for them could ever be equalled. How wrong could I have been ! I
was privileged to have been present at his birth and from the moment he came
into our lives it was love at first sight. I have been lucky too to been have
welcomed into his life not only by his mother (my daughter) but also by her
partner (soon to be son in law) and apart from my trips to see my own mother
(yes he has a great grandmother or Bis Nonna as she is known) I have seen him everyday.

Lou with her grandson (one month old at the time)

My daughter and her partner run their own business and from the start asked me
if I would be ready to be a hands on nonna. Not a hard decision really ! I try
to work closely with his mum and dad but unfortunately he knows, and did from an
early age, that I am walk over ! I love to spoil him. If he wants a biscuit, why
not have two (one for each hand of course). If he doesn’t want what is on offer,
I give him alternatives ! If he doesn’t want to walk, I carry him, you get the
picture. I am of the opinion that he knows he gets away with it from me but does
not expect the same from his parents so it’s alright !

His development is a fascination. We are of the opinion that he is bordering on
being a genius (I can hear you all saying that that is normal),but he really is.
He is in training for the terrible twos in as much as he most definitely is
flexing his self assertion ‘muscles’. He knows what he wants and most assuredly
what he doesn’t want!! And what he does not want he will not have ! No is his
favourite word of the moment and he uses it with great enthusiasm ! We have had
many a disagreement recently which has normally ended in a victory for him my
being reduced to trying very hard not to laugh ! He gets so annoyed, frustration
making him frown and his feet stomp and I get NO nonna thrown at me !! He is one
determined little boy !

I am aware that my role (and that of any parent) is to teach our charges the
niceties that are expected from society. Manners being an important factor. What
we have no control over is character. Each being is a product of the genes
assigned to them. All you have to do is look into the eyes of a child to see
that. They are not called old souls for nothing !! So, for now I will continue to do
what I do best, love that little boy to distraction. I will be there for him where he
likes it or wants it ! This nonna is here for the duration !!!

I hope to share my thoughts with you each month. We grandparents are playing an
important part in our grandchildren life. Isn’t that wonderful ? Family is what
makes us strong.

Lou was born to an Italian mother and half English, half Egyptianfather, born in Cairo and came to the UK when she was 7 years of age. She met her future husband while working for a record company in London, and  Samantha was born followed 4 years later by Francesca. Both girls known as Sam and Frankie. Full names only used when mother gets angry and needs to prove a point! Now she is a Grandmother to Sam’s first child, and loves every minute of it. He has given her life new meaning, a purpose, a direction. A new lease in life. Lou looks forward to sharing her new journey into grandparenthood! Lou is also a blogger on Sam’s blog, and you can read more about her family and grandson’s adventures on Up All Hours Blog

• you can book a babysitter anytime; way in advance or at the very last-minute
• they will always find you someone to sit for you – even if your regular sitter isn’t available, most of the time they will be able to find another just as qualified babysitter for you so you’re never stuck for childcare!
• most babysitting agencies will have screened their child carers, so you know you will get an experienced, reliable babysitter (check that your agency is accredited by Best Bear)
• if your babysitter cancels at the last-minute you’re stuck! if you use a babysitting service they will most likely be able to send you another sitter
• hourly rates for babysitting are usually kept affordable by agencies as an incentive to parents
• membership is usually affordable too (we only charge £10/month!)
• you can try lots of different babysitters until you’ve found the perfect one, knowing they have all been screened and checked
• babysitting agencies usually have policies in place to make your experience more enjoyable; for example, we have strict guidelines for our sitters about time-keeping.
• you have a mediator: if something goes wrong you can chat to the agency
• some babysitting services offer added services, for example some of our Granny sitters will do your ironing while the kids sleep!

To find out why OUR babysitting service is so special, read this post, or contact us for a free trial!

Here are our top tips when selecting maternity help:

• you need to feel comfortable around her; this person is going to see you at your most sleep-deprived, worn out worst so it has to be someone you instinctively have a connection to, who won’t annoy you by being around, who you can trust and be yourself around. Make sure you meet them for a long interview in your home. Make a list of questions that are important to you, and go through their CV and ask about their previous experience

• make sure the focus is as much on supporting you as a new mum, as on caring for the baby, and that the person has specific experience of and understands the importance of this

• as hard as this seems at the time, decide what sort of person you are: are you all about on demand feeding and letting baby lead? Or would you be happier with a bit more structure, and are you relying on your maternity carer to help you with that? I think this is the most fundamental question when deciding between a Maternity Nurse (structure) and  Postnatal Doula (baby-led). Bear in mind your ideas on this may change once you meet your bundle of joy!

• when are you going to need help? All day, nights only, part-time? It’s good to be clear about this from the start.

• Specialisms are important! If you are planning to breastfeed or do mixed-feeding find someone with specific training and experience; if you are expecting twins find someone who has looked after twins before; if you’re particularly worries about colic it might be worth checking your maternity helper has dealt with colicky babies before.

And last but not least, remember that both MNs and PDs do not:

• professionally support breastfeeding: some will have done breastfeeding training but most are not professional Lactation Consultants. If you are really struggling with breastfeeding the best people to talk to are not maternity nurses or doulas. They will be able to support you but for particular issues look up an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). You can find one on the LCGB website, or through La Leche League.

• treat baby or mum for specific issues such as colic or PND. Both will do their best to support the family but you must seek medical advice for specific medical issues and neither practitioner is medically trained.