Babysitters in Surrey, BC: Planning Around the School Calendar

Ask parents in Surrey, British Columbia, when they need a babysitter and the answer is rarely "whenever." It is 3:00 on a weekday, a Friday in October the school has marked as a pro-D day, or the second week of spring break that nobody else's calendar seems to have.

Surrey Schools is the largest school district in British Columbia, and its calendar sets the rhythm of childcare for a lot of Surrey households. That makes the gaps predictable, and a predictable gap is an easy one to book.

The 3 o'clock gap

After-school care is the booking Surrey families make most regularly. A caregiver picks your child up, gets them home, makes a snack and helps with homework until you are back.

Through Puffin that is After-School Pickup & Care at $36/hr, with the same three-hour minimum as every other childcare booking. A 3:00 to 6:00 slot every weekday comes to $540 a week, or about $2,340 a month. The three-hour minimum is worth planning around honestly: if you are home by 5:30, you are still booking three hours, so it usually makes sense to set the slot to match your real end time rather than the earliest one.

If the pickup means driving, say so when you book. Transport is arranged in advance, not on the day, so the caregiver assigned is one with a licence and vehicle access.

The rate is the same whether the school is in Newton, Fleetwood or South Surrey. There is no zone pricing anywhere in the city.

Pro-D days and school closure days

A professional development day is a full day with no school, and it is booked as ordinary daytime childcare from the start: $32/hr for children 12 months and over, so an eight-hour day is $256. It is not an after-school booking, because there is no school run to make.

Pro-D days are among the easiest days of the year to cover, for one reason: the district publishes them in advance. Book when the calendar comes out, not the week before. Online bookings need 24 hours' notice, and a date you have known about since September should never be the one you are scrambling for.

Spring break in Surrey is two weeks

This is the part that catches newer Surrey families out. For both the 2025–26 and 2026–27 school years, the district calendar follows the spring break week with a second week of school closure days. Children are home for two weeks, while most workplaces give parents one week off at most.

Two full weeks of weekday care, 8:00 to 4:00, is $1,280 a week. Most families do not need all of it. A common pattern is a week covered by the family and a week covered by a caregiver, or a few booked days in each week around the ones a parent can take off. Since every Surrey family with school-age children needs the same fortnight, it is worth booking as soon as your plans are set. Check the current year's dates on the Surrey Schools district calendar rather than relying on last year's.

The days the calendar does not predict

A sick child does not appear on any school calendar. Online bookings need 24 hours' notice, but same-day sick care can be arranged by phone at (604) 283-2829. It is worth saving that number before the morning you need it. Occasional childcare: date nights, PD days and sick days covers how those bookings work.

Evenings are the other unscheduled need, for parent-teacher interviews, a school concert where a younger sibling cannot sit still, or a night out. A 6:00 to 9:00 evening is $96, or $114 with a baby under 12 months at home.

What you are booking

The caregiver is a Puffin employee, not a contractor and not your employee. We carry payroll, WorkSafeBC and insurance. Every caregiver has CRRP vulnerable-sector clearance before their first booking. Every child in the home is included at no extra charge. The only thing that changes the rate is age: if a child under 12 months is present, the whole booking is $38/hr.

Babysitter or nanny?

If you need care every school day for the whole year, you are describing a standing weekly booking, and hourly bookings handle that fine, with no membership or minimum commitment. If you would rather employ a nanny directly, nanny placement is coming soon, and we are not taking placements yet.