I love these occasional "gigs". I'm a full time nanny but if the kids sleep through the night I love the added money of an occasional overnight. Look for nannies in your kids playgroups, library story times and in the park - ask one (or two) who you see paying attention and playing with their charges if they would be interested.

Sure. I do this occasionally for a neighbor family of my full-time nanny position. I obviously couldn't do it if the overnight charge didn't sleep through the night but she does.

Of course. The easiest/obvious route is to go through an agency, but you could also ask around your neighborhood and see if someone has a nanny who would be available for/interested in some additional occasional work.

I am thinking of taking a job that involves a lot of travel - the problem is that my wife also has a job that involves travel, and our house is not really big enough to have a full time live-in nanny. Our kids are 9 and 7. We have a sitter at the moment who works 3-7, and we have some family in the area who can help out, but we couldn't call on them more than a few times a year.

Is it possible to find someone who can cover a few nights every month or two? does such a thing exist?