So you've moved to Germany, everything is sorted with the house, the car, the cat, insurance - and now both partners wish to work.

The home truth is, working will be very difficult before your kids have settled in.

And a second fact: both kids and parents will settle in more easily the more you know about the way that locals deal with daily life - such as work, schools, day care, etc.

Here are the available choices available as you ponder what to do with the children while you head out to work:

Child minders (Tagesmütter)
Babysitters
Au pairs
Day care (Kinderkrippen, Kinderhorte, Kernzeitbetreuung)
Toddler groups/nursery schools (Kindergärten)

Child minders in Germany: Tagesmütter

Everybody in Germany who feels qualified to do so and who loves children can start a job as a child minder. There are day-mums; Tagesmutteren, day-dads; Tagesvateren, and sometimes day-grannies; Tagesgroßeltern, who take care of other people's children in their own home and get paid for this service.

Day-mums cost between about DM500 and DM850 per month, are hard to come by and are mostly found by word of mouth or via Tagesmüttervereine.

Many dual-career-couples take up their services when the little ones are still too young for Kindergarden (under three years old) or if the family needs somebody to look after a schoolchild in the afternoon - after all German public schools are only half-day-schools.

Some child minders may advertise in the regional newspapers. Let your personal intuition be your guide when you choose a child minder. Meet her with your child at her home. If you like her, try to find out if she follows the same principles in how to feed/entertain/educate a child.

Do child minders need a licence?

In principle, not. But good day-mums have done courses at the Jugendämter, Familienbildungswerke or Müttervereine. They should at least have done First Aid for children and babies.

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