Occasional Childcare in BC: Date Nights, PD Days, and the Day Nobody Planned For

Most families do not need a nanny. They need four hours on a Friday, one Monday in October when the school is closed, and a plan for the morning somebody wakes up unwell.

Those are three different problems. Here is what each one costs and how it works — including the one this site cannot currently solve, said plainly rather than buried.

Date night

An evening booking is ordinary hourly childcare. There is no date-night rate, no evening premium and no weekend surcharge — a Saturday costs what a Tuesday costs.

Children 12 months and over: $32/hr. Three-hour minimum.

That 10:00 PM line is the only thing that changes an evening's arithmetic, and it catches people out. If your booking is going to run to 11, the last hour is billed at the overnight rate. It is not a penalty for a late finish — it is the same overnight rate that applies to any hours between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM.

If any child in the booking is under 12 months on the care date, infant rates apply to the whole booking: $38/hr daytime and $42/hr overnight.

**Multiple children in the same home are included at no extra charge.** Two children on a Friday evening is the same price as one.

PD days and school closures

The easiest booking of the three, because you know about it months ahead.

A professional development day, a spring-break gap, or an unexpected closure is a **daytime** booking rather than an after-school one. That distinction matters to the price:

8:00 AM to 4:00 PM: $256.

PD-day dates are published on school district calendars for the whole year. Booking one in September for a date in January is entirely normal and is the single best way to avoid finding out that the good caregivers are already taken.

The day nobody planned for

Your child wakes up warm at 7 AM and the daycare will not take them. This is the one that cannot be planned, so here is exactly how it works.

**Call (604) 283-2829.** Same-day sick care is arranged by phone, not through the booking form.

That distinction is worth understanding rather than working around. The online form requires 24 hours notice because that is the window it uses to match a caregiver automatically. The office is not limited to it — a person can look at who is actually free this afternoon and tell you straight away. If something can be arranged, we will say so; if it cannot, we will say that too, rather than leaving you refreshing a page.

Rates are the ordinary ones. There is no emergency premium and no short-notice surcharge: **$32/hr** for children 12 months and over, **$38/hr** for infants under 12 months, three-hour minimum, same as any other booking.

**Book tomorrow while you are on the phone.** Most daycare exclusion policies keep a child home longer than a day — 24 hours symptom-free is a common rule — so the second day is usually needed too, and it books online normally.

**Tell us what is going on.** Medical needs and care instructions are collected per child on every booking, so a caregiver arrives briefed rather than improvising. Caregivers are not medical staff and do not provide nursing care — a child who needs clinical attention needs a health service, not a childcare booking.

What applies to all three

**Ages 0 to 12.** Every Puffin caregiver is an employee rather than a contractor, insured through Puffin, and CRRP vulnerable-sector cleared before any placement.

**Three-hour minimum.** It is the shortest shift booked, not a minimum you have to use — a two-hour errand bills as three.

**24 hours notice**, and cancellation 24 hours or more ahead releases the hold in full.

**Your card is held, not charged**, when you book.

**First-time bookings need photo ID verification** reviewed by an administrator. Worth doing before the evening you actually need care rather than during it.