A friend does the 'kid swap' thing once a month, so they take it in turns to go out. They did just an hour at a time during the day to start and built up from there. I would love to do this too, but can't find anyone who is interested...

Another friend used her daycare lady who wanted extra work, and another used her neighbour.

I agree that FDC is awesome for this if you want a break during the day. Some carers are really flexible with times and days (our ex Carer would do one day a fortnight if we wanted, and would do nights for extra $$ if we wanted, not that we ever did).

We have this dilemma too - we just don't go out!