Everything we know, grouped by the decision you're making.

Cost & pricing

What care actually costs in BC, and what drives the number up or down.

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  How Much Does a Nanny Cost in BC?

  A nanny in BC costs $32/hr through Puffin — about $5,547 a month full-time. Nanny wages if you employ one directly: $45,000–$52,000 a year.

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  How Much Does a Babysitter Cost in BC?

  A babysitter in BC costs $32/hr through Puffin Services — $96 for an evening out. Babysitting rates by the hour, week and month, with no per-child fee.

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  How overtime works: why a 12-hour booking costs less than an 11-hour one

  Why a 12-hour booking costs less than an 11-hour one: how Puffin staffs long childcare, postpartum and senior care bookings, with engine-priced examples.

• What Does a Nanny Placement Actually Cost? (Placement Fee + Real Nanny Wages Explained)

  The placement fee is $500 or $1,000. The nanny's salary — $45,000 to $52,000 a year to start — is separate, and it is the number that actually shapes your budget. Here is how the two fit together.

• What Postpartum Support Costs in BC — and What Overnight Care Actually Involves

  Daytime postpartum support is $38/hr with a three-hour minimum. Overnight is $42/hr from 10 PM to 6 AM — $336 for a full night, during which the specialist stays awake and you do not.

• Infant vs. Toddler Care: What Actually Changes (and Why the Rate Does Too)

  Twelve months is the line. Under it, the booking is $38/hr instead of $32 — for every child in the home, not just the baby. Here is what actually changes about the day, and why.

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

  Three very different reasons to need a few hours of childcare, and what each one actually costs. Including an honest answer about the one Puffin cannot currently solve online.

• Holiday-Season Childcare in BC: New Year's Eve, Office Parties and the Two-Week Winter Break

  December puts three different childcare problems into the same few weeks. Here is what each one costs, what changes the price, and what does not.

• Visiting Vancouver, BC With Children? Booking a Babysitter at Your Hotel or Rental

  For families on holiday, a work trip or a night before a cruise: where Puffin can come to you, what to sort out from home before you travel, and what the hours cost.

• Spring Break and Pro-D Days in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley: Every School District's Calendar

  The 12 school districts from Vancouver to Hope, each linked to its official calendar, what holds every year, and what covering spring break costs.

• Summer Childcare in the Fraser Valley: Covering Nine Weeks

  Nine weeks of school holiday against three weeks of parental leave. How families actually build a summer that works, and where in-home care fits alongside camps.

• Managing Multiples: What Nanny Help for Twins Actually Costs

  Two babies is not two of anything — except the work. What in-home help for twins costs, why the rate does not double, and the honest conversation about when one caregiver is enough.

• $10 a Day Daycare, the Affordable Child Care Benefit, or In-Home Care? How BC Families Decide

  Three things BC families weigh against each other, which mostly aren't competing for the same job. What each one is, who it's for, and where in-home care actually fits.

• After-School Pickup in Maple Ridge, BC: What a Babysitter Actually Needs to Do It

  After-school pickup is one of the most useful ongoing childcare bookings in Maple Ridge, and one of the easiest to arrange on optimistic assumptions. Here is what it actually requires.

• Babysitter in New Westminster, BC: Short-Notice Care in a Compact City

  New Westminster's size is an advantage families rarely think to use. Here is what a compact city actually changes about booking childcare — and the one part of it that sits across the water.

• Babysitters in Surrey, BC: Planning Around the School Calendar

  In Surrey, most babysitting questions are really school-calendar questions. Here is how the after-school gap, pro-D days and Surrey's two-week spring break each translate into a booking, and what each one costs.

• Travelling to a BC Wedding With Kids? Booking a Babysitter as a Guest

  Every guide to wedding childcare is written for whoever is hosting. If you are the family flying in with a two-year-old and an invitation that says adults only, none of it helps. This one is for you.

Agency vs. marketplace, and how to hire

Who ends up as the employer, and which arrangement fits your household.

• Why Families in Surrey, BC Are Choosing On-Demand Home Care Over Traditional Agencies

  The traditional home care agency model is slow, inflexible, and often expensive. Here is why families in Surrey, Abbotsford, and across the Fraser Valley are switching to on-demand platforms like Puffin.

• Nanny Agency vs. Nanny Marketplace: What You're Actually Paying For in BC

  A marketplace listing looks cheaper because the vetting, the payroll, and the WorkSafeBC registration are still on your list — just not on the invoice. Here is what each model actually hands you, and who ends up as the employer.

• Live-In vs. Live-Out Nanny: Which Is Right for Your Family?

  Live-in works if you have a genuine private room to offer and need early mornings or late evenings covered. Live-out works for almost everyone else. Both are matched through nanny placement — here is how to tell which you need.

• Nanny Taxes and Payroll in BC: What You're Actually Responsible For

  Hire a nanny directly and you are an employer — not a customer. Here is what that actually means in BC, what changes if you book hourly care instead, and where to get advice that is worth relying on.

• Childcare Marketplaces vs. a Full-Service Agency: An Honest Comparison

  Marketplaces are genuinely better at some things — price, choice, speed. Agencies are better at others. The difference is structural, and knowing which you are buying matters more than which is "better".

• Returning to Work After Mat Leave in BC: The Childcare Decision

  The childcare arrangement usually has to be settled months before the return date, while you are least able to think about it. What the realistic options are and when each needs deciding.

• Back-to-School Nanny Checklist: What to Settle Before Week One

  The school year runs on a hundred small logistics, and the ones that go wrong are almost always the ones nobody wrote down. A checklist to work through before the first week.

• Nanny Placement Agency in British Columbia: How It Works Province-Wide

  Puffin's hourly care is licensed in 16 municipalities. Placement is not — it runs province-wide, on one flat fee, from a BC-wide candidate registry. Here is exactly how it works, what it costs, and who ends up as the employer.

• How to Check Out a Nanny Placement Agency in BC: Seven Questions Worth Asking

  A nanny placement is one of the larger decisions a household makes, and the agency market is not regulated the way you might assume. Seven questions to run against any agency in BC — including this one.

• How Fast Can a Nanny Placement Actually Happen in BC?

  Profile reviewed in one business day, matched candidates in 7–10. Here is what happens on each of those days, the four things that reliably make a search longer, and the honest answer about smaller communities.

• Finding a Babysitter or Nanny in Chilliwack, BC: Why Local Beats Everything Else

  Most Chilliwack childcare arrangements do not fail because the caregiver was wrong. They fail because the caregiver lived an hour west. Here is why that matters more here than almost anywhere else in the Lower Mainland.

• Babysitters and Nannies for Acreage and Rural Addresses in Abbotsford, BC

  A Clearbrook townhouse and a Sumas Prairie acreage are the same booking at the same rate. They are not the same match. Here is what actually changes, and what to say up front.

• Babysitter in Langley, BC: It's Two Municipalities, and That Changes Your Search

  An address in "Langley" could be in either of two separate municipalities. It confuses forms, filters and search results constantly — and it matters much less than it looks, for one specific reason.

• Early-Start Childcare in Mission, BC: Babysitters and Nannies for Commuting Households

  Plenty of Mission households leave before sunrise. That makes a 6:00 AM childcare start an ordinary request here and an odd one elsewhere — and it has some specific consequences worth knowing.

• Babysitters and Nannies in Ladner, Tsawwassen and North Delta, BC: One City, Three Searches

  Delta is three communities that do not touch, split by a tunnel and some farmland. It makes almost no difference to what you pay and a real difference to how long a search takes.

• Babysitter in Burnaby, BC: Booking Care Into a Tower, and Why Transit Widens Your Options

  Burnaby is towers and postwar houses in roughly equal measure. One of those differences is purely logistical and easily solved; the other quietly makes your candidate pool bigger.

• Booking a Caregiver Who Speaks Your Family's Language in Richmond, BC

  Where the booking form asks about language for childcare, postpartum and senior care, how to ask for a language that isn't listed, and what a language request can and can't promise.

Caregiver safety & vetting

What a real background check involves, and what to insist on.

• What Is a Vulnerable Sector Check? A Parent's Guide to Background-Checking a Caregiver in BC

  A vulnerable sector check is the police check for people who work with children and vulnerable adults. It is not the same as a general criminal record check, and the difference matters.

• Employed Nanny vs. Contractor Nanny: Who Is Actually Liable?

  The word on the invoice decides who carries the risk when something goes wrong. What "employee" and "contractor" actually mean for a family hiring in-home care.

• Is Your Nanny Insured? WorkSafeBC, Explained for Families

  Household insurance, liability insurance and workers’ compensation are three different things, and families routinely assume one covers the others. What each actually does.

• What Happens If Your Nanny Is Injured On the Job?

  A slip on wet stairs, a back strained lifting a toddler. What follows depends almost entirely on one thing decided before it happened: who the employer was.

• What a Background Check Costs in BC — and What It Actually Covers

  "Background checked" covers different checks with different scope. Why the police vulnerable sector check is the one that matters for caregivers, what sets its cost and wait, and what to ask.

• How Puffin Vets Every Caregiver

  The full process, including the parts we cannot do. Written so you can compare it against anyone else’s.

• Why Puffin Doesn't Take Cash — Tipping, Extra Time, and How Payment Actually Works

  Puffin does not expect tipping, and a caregiver should never be handed cash — not as a tip, not for extra time. Here is what cash actually costs the caregiver, and why every dollar goes through the same card the booking did.

Autism & pediatric support

Home-based support, respite, and how the funding works.

• Why In-Home Support Matters for Autistic Children (and What We Are Building)

  Not because home therapy outperforms a clinic — the research on that is genuinely mixed. Because of four things a home setting is structurally better at: the parent is there, skills are practised where they are used, nobody has to transition anywhere, and coaching happens in front of the person carrying it over.

• Home-Based vs. Clinic-Based Autism Therapy in BC: What's the Real Difference?

  Not which one works better — the research on that is genuinely mixed. What actually differs day to day: what a centre gives you that a house cannot, what changes when the session comes to you, and the one question worth asking any provider.

• Respite Care for Autistic Children in BC: What It Is, and How to Arrange It

  Respite is care for your child so that you can stop being on duty for a few hours. Here is what a shift actually covers, what it costs at $42/hr, how it relates to MCFD Autism Funding — and how to reach a person today if you need it before online booking opens.

• In-Home Speech Therapy in the Fraser Valley: A Parent's Guide

  What in-home speech support actually involves in the Fraser Valley, who delivers it, how it differs from a clinic appointment, and the questions worth asking before you commit to a provider.

• What Is an SLPA, and How Can One Help My Child?

  A Speech-Language Pathology Assistant delivers the plan; a Speech-Language Pathologist writes it. What that division actually means for your child, your waitlist, and your bill.

• Pediatric Occupational Therapy at Home: What to Expect

  Occupational therapy for children is about the ordinary work of being a child — dressing, eating, writing, coping with a noisy room. What in-home OT support involves, and what it does not.

• What Is an OTA, and When Should You Consider One?

  An Occupational Therapy Assistant delivers an OT’s plan week after week. When that is the right fit, when it is not, and what to check before you engage one.

• OT for Sensory Processing: What It Means and What Helps at Home

  Sensory processing is how a child organises sound, touch, movement and light. What it looks like when that system is working hard, and the ordinary adjustments families make at home.

• In-Home Behaviour Intervention and ABA in BC: How It Works

  Who does what in a behaviour intervention programme, why the supervising clinician matters more than the interventionist, and how BC autism funding treats these hours.

• Supporting an Autistic Child at Home: How Respite and Intervention Fit Together

  Respite and intervention are different services doing different jobs, and families are often offered one when they need the other. How to tell which you need this month.

• Private Speech Therapy vs. the Public System in BC: How to Think About It

  The two pathways differ on referral, cost, scheduling control and what is covered. What each involves, and why the honest answer for most families is "both".

• Combining Childcare and Therapy: What One Provider Actually Changes

  Families coordinating a nanny, a therapist and a schedule are doing unpaid project management. What consolidating actually solves, and what it does not.

• Care for Children With Additional Needs: What Families Should Know

  Finding childcare for a child with additional needs usually means explaining your child to strangers, repeatedly. What to ask, what a caregiver can and cannot do, and where therapy support is different from childcare.

• On a Waitlist for Speech, OT or Behaviour Support? What to Do Meanwhile

  The referral is in and the answer is "we'll be in touch." Here is what is worth doing with that time, and what is genuinely arrangeable while you wait.

• What Actually Happens at a Pediatric Assessment in BC

  Most parents arrive at a first speech or OT assessment with no idea what the hour consists of. Here is the general shape, what to bring, and what happens afterwards.

Senior & adult care

Choosing between levels of support for a parent or partner.

• Health Care Assistant or Companion Care? How to Choose for a Parent

  If your parent needs help getting out of a chair, that is a Health Care Assistant at $42/hr. If they are managing fine but alone too much, that is companion care at $38/hr. The $4 gap is the smallest part of the decision.

• Franchise or Independent? Choosing a Home-Care Agency in BC

  Home care in BC is split between national franchise brands and local independents. Both models work. They differ on things that matter more than the brand — and a couple of them are worth checking before you sign anything.

• Respite Care in BC: For the Person Doing the Caring

  Family carers book care for their parent constantly and for themselves almost never. Respite is the service that exists for you — and the reason it goes unused is not cost.

• Choosing Senior Care in Surrey, BC: What to Sort Out First

  Surrey is large enough that where in it you live changes the practical questions, and small enough on rates that it changes nothing about the price. What to settle before the first visit.

• How Many Hours of Senior Care Do You Actually Need?

  The rate is the easy part and it is published. The question families struggle with is how many hours, which nobody can answer from a price list. Here is the arithmetic.

• How Do You Know When a Parent Needs Help at Home?

  Almost nobody decides this from a checklist. They notice something, dismiss it, notice it again — and then something happens. Here is what to look for earlier, and how to say it out loud.

• Public or Private Home Care for a Parent in BC? How the Two Fit Together

  Most families assume they have to choose between the health authority and a private agency. Usually they are not choosing — they are working out which part of the week each one covers.

• Coming Home From Hospital: Arranging Help at Home for a Parent in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley

  A discharge plan often comes together in a day or two. What the hospital and health authority arrange, where private help fits, and how to book around a date that moves.

Postpartum & newborn

The first months, and what overnight support actually looks like.

• What Does a Postpartum Doula Do? A Guide for New Parents in Surrey, BC and the Lower Mainland

  The weeks after birth are beautiful, exhausting, and often overwhelming — especially when family is far away. Here is exactly what a postpartum doula does and why Surrey families are booking them before baby even arrives.

• Preparing for a Newborn: Deciding on Support Before the Baby Arrives

  Most families arrange postpartum help after they are already exhausted. What the options actually are, what each one is for, and the decisions worth making while you still have the bandwidth.

• Booking a Postpartum Doula Through an Agency vs. Hiring One Privately

  Hiring a postpartum doula privately is a completely reasonable thing to do, and plenty of excellent doulas work that way. Here is what actually differs, stated without pretending one option is obviously right.

• Questions to Ask Before You Book Postpartum Support

  You will be booking this while pregnant or exhausted, which is exactly when nobody asks enough questions. Eight worth asking any provider, with Puffin's own answers.

• Doula, Night Nurse, or Newborn Care Specialist? What the Titles Mean in BC

  "Night nurse" is the phrase almost everyone searches and almost nobody means literally. Here is what each of these titles actually denotes in BC, and why the difference is worth knowing before you book.

• Can One Postpartum Support Worker Handle Twins Overnight?

  The rate does not double for twins — but the real question is not price, it's whether one pair of hands is enough at 3:00 AM. Here is the honest answer, including when it isn't.

• What Happens If Your Postpartum Support Worker Is Sick?

  You have not slept in four days, tonight is the night, and at 9:00 PM your support worker calls in sick. Here is exactly what happens next — including the part we cannot guarantee.

Event childcare

Staffing children at weddings and events.

• How Many Nannies Do I Need for My Event? (The Staffing Formula, Explained)

  Two infants need as much coverage as four school-age children. Here is the exact points system Puffin uses to staff an event, so you can work out your own number before you book.

• Wedding & Event Childcare in BC: What to Know

  Childcare at a wedding is a staffing decision, not a favour you ask of an aunt. What event nannies actually do, what it costs at $40/hr per nanny, how the overtime threshold works on a long wedding day, and the questions worth settling before you book.

• Corporate Event Childcare in BC: Staffing a Family Day, Party, or Offsite

  Company family days and holiday parties fail on the same detail: nobody staffed the children. What corporate event childcare costs at $40/hr per nanny, how to size it when the headcount is a guess, and who is liable when the caregiver is not your employee.

• Conference Childcare in BC: What Organisers Need to Arrange

  Offering childcare is one of the cheapest things a conference can do to change who is able to attend. What it costs across a multi-day programme, why the overtime threshold resetting daily matters, and the logistics organisers underestimate.

• What to Expect From Event Nanny Staffing in BC: A Shift, Start to Finish

  Not the pricing and not the formula — the shift itself. What happens in the twenty minutes before your guests arrive, what the 6 PM stretch looks like with small children, and how handover works when there are fourteen of them.

• Booking a Babysitter or Nanny for a Birthday Party in BC

  A children's birthday party is the one event where every guest is a child and the host is outnumbered. What a party nanny actually does, how many you need, and the mistake about entertainers.

• Childcare for Large Family Celebrations and Cultural Gatherings in BC

  A hall full of three generations is a different childcare problem from a wedding — every age arrives at once, the event runs long, and nobody RSVP'd a headcount for the under-fives.

• Childcare at a Corporate Retreat in BC: What Makes It Different From an Offsite

  A retreat is not a longer offsite. It is residential, it runs across days rather than hours, and the children are there for the whole thing — which changes the staffing arithmetic considerably.