Do you have preschools or gym crèches nearby? They might have staff
who can help. Or, look for an older grandmother type person who would like those types of hours.

I agree and I am a college student. I literally have to drop everything for three days to prepare for a few midterms. If you go the college grad route, just hire two people. One to cover 3 days and another to cover 2.

College students are a crap shoot. Sometimes you can get a great and dependable college student but most of the time you get a flake.

You will definitely pay a lot for an afternoon nanny as they are in demand. We have a preschool teacher who is finished work at 3 pick up our children but she is $28 an hour and not available for sick days.

College students will be flaky. Professional nanny will be hard to find as that is the most in-demand time block. If you could up the hours to equal full time or allow a nanny to bring her own child that might help you find someone. Sorry.

Hiring a AU student means you may find yourself with someone who can only cover 2-3 days next semester when they had been doing 5 days a week. Of course you have a large pool but it means you may be searching through that pool quite often. Our experience with college student is that they are not very interested in the job, it's just side money and they are just keeping your kids safe at a minimum. Don't expect much from them. Also, keep in mind your family is their lowest priority and they will take days off to go to concerts with their friends, to drive across the state to see their parents often, and take long weekends whenever AU has no classes. Make sure you have backups.

Title pretty much says it all. Nanny would have to pick up the kids after school (walking distance from our house) and work until about 6:30 or 7. How do you find such a person? We live near American University so I'm wondering if looking for a grad student would be the way to go. Any war stories to share?