I take on one of my past clients for some weekend work when she needs it. She's a full time student and bartends on wknds, so I take the little girl over night on Sat nights. It's a couple hundred extra bucks, but truthfully, I hate working weekends. She's an awesome 6 yr old kid and no trouble to take care of, but she's still a kid. If you don't mind giving up wknds to a degree, you could try that. I think your other ideas are good ones too. I'd be a bit leary of them only because of having to deal with separation anxiety on a regular basis...plech! But if you're cool with that, then anchor's aweigh!