Orlando

About Me

Hi there o/

I’m Orlando Timothy Fletcher, a temporary constant in many children's lives.

I’m a professional childcarer, writer, songwriter, and creator.

Already a decade of being the person who steps in and the person who steps out.

I walk into homes that aren’t mine, stepping into routines already in motion. I meet children where they are. Sometimes cautious, sometimes curious, sometimes unsure what to make of me at first. I wasn't booked by them. They didn't make the plans.

Some children see me for just a moment. A single night, a few hours, a brief stop in the timeline of their lives. Others grow with me around, and more will, their newborn cries turning into laughter, their hesitant steps and bumps turning into confident strides, their little hands reaching for mine until, one day, they no longer need to.

I’ve been working with children in the UK since June 2016, starting as an au pair at 25 and going into it head first. My first childcare role was with a single parent raising four children. Since then, I’ve taken courses and gained qualifications, and taken on roles as a live-in and live-out Nanny, Babysitter, and Volunteer as an Independent Visitor, with close to seven years of living with the families I worked for. Some of my roles included proxy parenting from short stretches to multiple weeks at a time.

I’ve mostly cared for newborns, babies, and toddlers as older ones are usually at school, but also for school-age children, teenagers, and children with disabilities, special needs, and medical needs. I've worked for families needing anything from one day or evening of care to longer-term support. My work includes meals, naps, school runs, nappies, playdates, buggies, sometimes hotels or weddings, toys, solids, outings, a ton of baby wipes (or two), play, bottles, contact naps, bath, bed, potties, emotional storms, holidays, practical routines, training pants, sensory needs, disabilities, playgroups, medical care, parent handovers, homeworks, public transport, and the thousand small things that hold a child’s day and night together.

I've also completed over 600 bookings for over 200 families with 100% rating through other platforms (and I have something to show for that, the stats and reviews just live somewhere else) together with some booked directly through my self-employed childcare business (Big Hearts & Little Steps®), and with emergency childcare bookings through an agency, since I started babysitting more regularly a few years ago, alongside working as a nanny.

I like to take children out and about, help them explore the world, and meet people at their pace. Even if it means them needing to be held in my arms for the first 7 weekly visits to the library rhyme time session until they feel confident and comfortable enough to join in at the 8th, eagerly show others that they can also sing and dance with glee, knowing that I am still there for them even when they let go of me. A child can be brought back to the same group again and again without being asked to prove it is working by joining in quickly. I can hold them while they watch, nudge them gently towards the other children, and pick them back up when the invitation came too soon. The watching was part of it. So was being held. So was returning to the same place without being shamed for needing longer. They were encouraged, but their sense of safety was not traded away to make them look independent.

Across libraries, playgroups, playgrounds, soft plays, public transport, museums, cafés, and ordinary community life, a child meets many different people while getting individual help in learning how to approach them. Some walk straight into a new room. Others need time, and time is something I can give too.

With the current little one I regularly look after, just like with many of the other children I cared for before her, we're often out and about for full days in parks or woods, museums, soft plays, playgrounds, playgroups, libraries, feeding ducks (no bread, but a proper waterfowl feed), splash pads when it was warm enough, swimming pools, nearby events and festivals, a model railway big enough to ride, and other places, depending on what's on and how things are, with naptimes in a buggy or on a blanket under a tree. Some days we stay in and paint, bake, play with some of the toys, including those I bring with me, or with my accordion that I bring along, or do other stuff. Some days we stay in because the illness hits, or because I see that taking it low and slow is the only thing that doesn't feel like too much, with walks to the park when staying at home becomes too much. Sometimes the whole of the day's success is that we all got through it, together. But given the range of things we can do outside and having only two days a week, we're more out than in.

I'm also the creator (Whisper from the Hollow®) and publisher (The Blueprint in the Hollow Publishing®) of "The Babysitter's Lullaby Family", which grew from the work and the care itself.
It started years ago with what I called "Your Babysitter’s Lullaby" because it belongs to all the children I happen to care for, and it came from me, their babysitter. Sometimes nanny, depending on the arrangement. But always the temporary caregiver in that moment.

I wanted it to do a few very clear things.

I wanted it to tell the truth.
Your parents have gone out.
They will come back.

I wanted it to preserve the child’s connection to their primary caregivers rather than make them feel like I am going to replace them.

I wanted it to reassure them that while their parents were away, they were still being held in safety.

I wanted it to say, in effect:
I’m here.
I’ve got you.
You won't be left alone.
You are safe.

I wanted the child to be able to feel that in their body even before they fully understood it in words.

That was the purpose.

I also The Babysitter's Lullaby for you.
It does not need you to be "gone out."
Take it, claim it, use it, if you like it and what it does. I simply keep the copyright.

You can find the lullabies on YouTube as well as on Spotify and in other places. More creations will come.

< The practical bit >
I am not looking for afterschool or wrap-around jobs as I didn't find them sustainable for the long term.
I am currently looking for a new part-time role for 1-2, perhaps even 3 regular days a week (except for Sundays and Tuesdays, which I am already taken for by my current nanny family) to have alongside my current nanny family, as well as more ad hoc and babysitting jobs.

< Qualifications & Certifications >
Some of the relevant qualifications and certifications I already hold are:
- Level 3 Diploma in Childcare & Development
- Level 3 Maternity Nurse Training (Babyem)
- Certificate of Higher Education in Psychology
- Paediatric First Aid
- Safer Sleeping for Babies
- Moving & Handling People with Special Needs
- Enteral (PEG) Feeding Training – including NG feeding and medication administration via a G-Tube
- Common Core Skills & Knowledge for the Childcare Workforce
- Managing Behaviour in the Early Years
- Supporting Children’s Emotional Well-being
- Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma
- Level 2 Safeguarding Children (my Child Safeguarding Policy can be found on my website)
- Equality and Diversity
- GDPR
- Clean Enhanced DBS on the update service
- A voluntary Ofsted registration certificate (families may pay me through tax free childcare, or claim some of the cost through Universal Credit, if eligible)
- Full UK Driving Licence
I also hold a Data Protection Registration Certificate from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Public Liability Insurance, and Professional Indemnity Insurance.

< A bit of philosophy behind my care >
(It may not be as boring as the title suggests)
My approach to childcare is deeply personal, built on a core philosophy: I believe that all behaviour is communication. Their behaviour, bodies, and reactions tell me something about how they are in that moment, whether tired, frightened, overwhelmed, excited, unsure, or something else, and what they might need. And often, behind their behaviour, lies a question, about the world, about themselves, or about me. My role is to listen to what a child is truly saying, not just by what they say, but especially by what often goes unspoken.

This philosophy comes from me paying close attention to children, noticing what settles them, what makes them dysregulated, and what makes trust between an adult and a child either strengthen or collapse. How to provide security, connection, and warmth to a child is something I've built through reflections on my own childhood, practice, observation, training, and repeated reflection on what actually helps the actual child in front of me, rather than following a method, training, or recommendation regardless of the situation.

I also know that childcare can get messy emotionally, physically, sometimes both at once, and I stay caring and steady without shaming a child for having big feelings, having accidents, testing boundaries, or for any effects of their play, behaviour, or curiosity. Sure, things can get exasperating some times. But I'm not forgetting that I am the grown-up in the room and have a pretty good idea about what reacting badly may leave with the child. I can also reason things through and see them from a different perspective to the child's, which is only one part of what being the grown-up means.

My job is to be a temporary constant in children’s lives. Sometimes I’m there for one evening, sometimes for a full day, sometimes for a season, and I don’t treat short care as “lesser”.
Childcare isn’t just “keeping routine”. It’s stepping into a day that changes the moment parents need to step out (for work, appointments, or life).

Children live in the now, and what happens in that now counts: trust built, fear eased, confidence gained, and the reassurance that parents return. I step in when needed (present, warm, and reliable), then step out when the booking or contract ends. That carries weight, because even brief care can strengthen a child’s sense of safety in the world.

< A Summary of My Core Skills >
>> Attachment-Focused Care <<
This is about being a temporary constant in a child’s life. It’s more than just being present; it’s about being there for them, providing an attuned, responsive presence that builds a sense of safety and trust.

I meet children where they are, rather than where people think they should be, understanding that a secure attachment is the essential foundation from which they can feel safe enough to explore and build something new.

A lot of the time I am a person a child moves through the world with. A crowded train, a big museum, a room full of children they have never met. The places keep changing and I stay the same. That gives a child who knows me a wide world without asking them to begin each new part of it from nothing because I already know how they approach new situations. That they like to watch before joining, that noise reaches them more when they are tired, that being carried through the first part is what lets them explore the rest. They can go off, look back and find me, come back, be held or carried if that's what they need or want there and then or just have a cuddle, and go again, or take me with them. What makes this possible is a continuous relationship, and the latitude a family gives it.

It’s also in the quiet truth behind a small hand slipping into mine. Not out of habit, but out of trust that we built, together.

>> Agency in an Adult-Sized World <<
Children spend most of their day inside decisions we as adults make: when they leave, where they go, what they eat, who they meet, when it ends...

I look for the places where a child can take part in what happens.

The button in the lift, at the crossing, the bell on the bus, the turnstile at the train station... Which way we walk. Which song. Whether they sit next to me or on my lap. Whether they want a bath with younger siblings or shower on their own. What to wear. Where we go next. Whether they want to stay somewhere a little longer.

Small things, but the doors open, the light changes, the crossing says Time to go, the bell rings, the turnstile lets us in once they tap my debit card on it. A very small person affects something in a very large world. These are small, repeated experiences of influence: I did something; something happened; it was noticed; my preference had a place here.

The journeys add to it, too. A child learns routes, waits for trains, moves among other people, sits somewhere unfamiliar, waves goodbye to buses and trains, and grows more at home in a world not built only for them.

>> Trauma-Informed Practice <<
My approach is grounded in the lived understanding that what is often labelled “misbehaviour” can be a physiological echo of past experience, overwhelm, fear, tiredness, sensory load, unmet need, or a child testing whether the adult in front of them is and remains safe.

I believe that all behaviour is communication, and my role is to see beyond the surface-level action to the underlying need, recognising that I may often be answering a silent question the child cannot quite put into words: “Am I safe with you?”

Children might not always think that in words. Their bodies may still ask it.

This understanding comes from years of hands-on practice across a wide range of children and families, formal training in trauma-informed approaches and adverse childhood experiences, and paying close attention to what actually helps the specific child in front of me and not a method applied regardless of the situation.

>> Emotional Co-regulation <<
When a child is overwhelmed by big feelings, my role is to be their calm anchor, the calm they can borrow.

This can be quiet, like helping a tired baby to calm down and rest; it can be playful, like the times I did an exaggerated, silly tumble at a soft play centre to break through toddlers’ fears with a moment of playful vulnerability; it can also mean providing steady, physical containment for a severely autistic child in the midst of sensory overload, holding them gently but firmly until the storm passes, if that is what's needed to keep everyone safe.

>> Compassionate Boundary Setting <<
I understand that when children look for reactions and from time to time stress-test boundaries and the foundations of our trust, sometimes by flicking food, biting, scratching, or even kicking me, that it is not malice.
It can be just an overwhelming feeling. And, sometimes, it is a question.
“Are you safe enough for me to fall apart with?”

I take it as a question about me rather than about them. Whether the safety is real, or whether it turns into punishment or shame once it is tested.
My answer is always the same.
It holds.

Setting limits does not require making children feel like a burden, a problem, or a bad child.
I use clear boundaries, calm repetition, natural consequences, repair, humour where appropriate, and the understanding that a child testing a boundary may also be testing whether the adult remains safe.

>> Rupture and Repair <<
I am not perfect.

There are times I make mistakes, misread a cue, or simply get it wrong.
For me, the most important part of building trust is what happens next, which has an effect on what it leaves with the child.

Sometimes I have to do things the child might not want to, or when they might not want to. A wet nappy may wait for a little while, a soiled nappy not so. The buggy straps have to be clicked in. The car booster seat has to be sat on. The teeth have to be brushed. It's time to go...

My commitment is to own my mistakes or explain the situation and my reasons while trying to accommodate them as much as I can, apologise genuinely, and actively repair the connection.
At a rhyme time session at a library, that can be as simple as: “I’m sorry. I thought you were ready. I can see you’re not yet. Here, I’ve got you.”
And then we try again the next week.

This process teaches a vital lesson: that relationships are resilient, that it’s okay to be imperfect, and that a child’s feelings are always valid enough to deserve a sincere and heartfelt repair.

So yes. Sometimes I mess up.
Perfect opportunity for practising Rupture and Repair.
Step 1 nailed already.

>> Play, Confidence & Development <<
Planning, joining, and adapting play, and then letting it go where the child takes it, or in a way that comes into either of our heads (within reason, obviously). Paints, playdough, blocks, stepping stones, a kite, musical instruments, cereal, jelly, screwdrivers, torchlights, robots, RC cars, a vacuum cleaner, a mop: the activity does not have to stay in the shape it started. Stepping stones meant for stepping become drums. Blocks joined with playdough can be built up, pulled apart, and remade, expanding a child's idea of what can be made. Puffed rice can be scooped and poured between pans, measured, tasted, counted, and then chucked all over the playmat before being crushed by feet big and small.

Some children take to mess straight away. Others are wary of getting wet, sticky, or dirty. My job isn’t to make them like it, but to make it approachable by digging in, showing the stuff is manageable, having spare clothes, enough time, water ready. A child gets the freedom to explore because an adult has already thought about the consequences. A child can help with cleaning up too, and show they can do some of the things grown ups do, with mixed results, but their results were never the plan to begin with.

I also allow play to just be fun. Children don’t need every good moment turned into a lesson. The learning tends to come along anyway: how materials behave, how a body moves, what happens when something falls, how the adult reacts, whether they can try again, whether I can share the fun without taking it over.
This can also mean reading, crafts, baking, music, drama, playgrounds, museums, soft play, swimming, parks, child-led play, quiet play, rough-and-tumble, or simply noticing what the child is ready to try next and when to step back.

I let children explore and be independent and encourage them to do things, while staying close enough to be there when the world becomes too much, without making them feel like too much.

>> Responsive Routines <<
That's about following family routines while understanding that children are not computers, nor running as precisely as Swiss watches. I hold the shape of the day (meals, naps, school runs, bath, bed, outings, medication, activities) while responding to the real child in front of me: hungry, tired, dysregulated, excited, unsure, overstimulated, bored, poorly, or simply not where the routine expected them to be.

In practice, that can be like lunch coming earlier, a nap happening in the buggy outdoors, leaving somewhere because it has become too much, or staying longer because the child has only just warmed to it. An activity can be put down when it stops being right. The day does not have to keep the shape I imagined for it that morning.

Beyond direct childcare, I provide practical support by keeping children’s spaces neat and tidy, managing their laundry, and ensuring a comfortable environment for them to thrive. Parents can rely on me for steady, understanding care and practical insights. My approach is built on warmth, reliability, and the belief that every child deserves to feel valued, supported, and encouraged to grow.


I love watching children discover their own abilities and realise they are capable of more than they thought, and to build or bolster the scaffolding allowing that all. I know I am making some difference and giving them something that will stay with them, even if they may not consciously remember me years later. I help children through everything, the neat, the messy, the in-between, when I am with them. And I love being there for them.

Alongside many other things, families have trusted me with newborns, babies, toddlers, older children, safety, acting on children's best interests, nappies, intimate care, bath, bed, sleep, distress, disability, special needs, medical support, proxy parenting, their privacy (including a few NDAs), twins, triplets, a weeks-old little girl and her older sister with complex needs far from home, and children who had never before been alone with a caregiver from outside their family.

Some parents chose me as their first babysitter or nanny.

Their child’s first caregiver from outside their family.

The person they chose when going out for the first time in years.

The stranger from an app they decided to trust with the child they hold dear.

Some parents told me they had never seen their child bond with another nanny or babysitter so quickly, or in the same way.

Some parents book me when coming to London with their children from the States after one family in their network found one of my profiles on the Web, got in touch, asked me to care for their children during their stay, and shared their experience.

Some parents called me a unicorn.

I was once told I was the best thing that happened to one autistic child that year.

And by seeing children's smiles; their extended arms; their calmness after distress; their excitement; the glint in their eyes; enjoying themselves, activities, and stuff; their progress and development; their confidence that's not pretend; being comfortable to just be themselves; children feeling safe and trusting me enough to talk through their fears with me at bedtime, the monsters, the dark, the opinions of their peers, the things they’re afraid of; that some children shriek with excitement when they see me in the door, but still wave Bye bye and even get my boots ready when their parents come back; and so much more, I see that I must be doing something right.

A baby, who would only settle for their parents, drifting off to sleep in my arms.

A toddler, reluctant at bedtime at first, reaching for my hand from under the duvet.

A child who once watched from a distance, pulling me into their play as if I was always meant to be there.

A child, whose parents couldn't make it home early because of work, lying beside me and holding tight after having been washed and changed after vomiting for the third time that day, later asking to go to the playground for a swing for a bit.

A child, wary of the water, just sitting by the pool’s edge next to me at the beginning, then throwing balls and sinkies to me in the pool, splashing with their hands and feet, and eventually taking the leap to jump in, knowing I’ll be there to catch them.

I may not be permanent, but for them, in all those and other moments, I am.

And I know what I do matters.

So this is me: Orlando Timothy Fletcher. A childcarer, creator, writer, songwriter, publisher, a psychology student, a play therapist wannabe, and someone still building from what I know, what I’ve lived, and what I’ve come to understand.

Temporary and constant.

Always present, yet never permanent.

A familiar face to some, a passing figure to others.

And outside of their world, some people never quite know what to make of me.

I'm still choosing to listen to what is spoken, and what is not.

And still choosing to answer.

Again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

I know you already give your children much of what I have described: the outings, the play, the comfort, the introductions to people and places, the noticing. What I can add is another adult's time, attention, and resources on days you cannot personally carry every hour of, while also working, resting, and living the rest of your lives. Sometimes that means a place you haven't been to with your child yet, or a material you hadn't thought of, or simply the time to return to the same session over and over while your child slowly becomes ready to join in.

If you think I may be the right person for your family, you can contact me to tell me about your children, the care you need, your routine, and what you are hoping to find in a nanny. And then, we could all meet in person and talk things through, ideally out in the park or playground. That way, everyone would get something out of it, and no one would feel left out.