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Original poster

What happens about nannies when kids start school?

31 replies

ImagineJL · 13/10/2012 08:10

Im a single parent, and I have a live-out nanny 2 days a week. Currently she takes DS1 to school, looks after DS2 all day, and looks after both of them in the evening until I get home from work. In school holidays she looks after them both all day.

Next September DS2 will start school, so after dropping them both off she'll have 6 hours until she has to pick them up.

Obviously I can't formally reduce her hours because during school holidays I'll still need her all day.

She says that in previous jobs she's done general jobs around the house while kids have been at school, and she's very flexible, happy to do pretty much anything.

The problem is, I'm not great at delegating, and in my experience people never get things quite how I'd want them. For example, the kids toys could do with a massive clear-out, but I wouldn't trust anyone else to know exactly which toys I was happy to get rid of. And supermarket shopping - you can write a detailed list, but no-one else knows exactly what sort of thing you want do they. So the things I'd be happy for her to do are fairly minimal, and wouldn't take long at all.

So, what do other people do? Do you just accept that in order to have before and after school childcare, and childcare in holidays, you have to pay your nanny to do lots of sitting around drinking coffee and reading magazines during the school day?

What have other peoples' experiences been?

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nannynick · 13/10/2012 09:27

Is the job one that could be covered by other forms of childcare - childminder, holiday club?

With 2 children I would have thought it is worth looking at other options. If you had 3 or more children then a nanny may still be the lower cost option but with 2 I suspect a childminder doing before and after school plus most school holidays would work out cheaper.
Also think about the schools - will both children be at the same school? If so, for how long?

BardOfBarking · 13/10/2012 09:24

My lovely nanny agreed to reduced hours as he wanted to pursue some other interests too - so I pay him from 7am-10am (time after school run to come back, make children's beds, clear breakfast things etc) and from 2.30-6.30pm He works full time during the school holidays.

I have been incredibly lucky that he has been able to afford to be so flexible.

nbee84 · 13/10/2012 09:15

In all my previous nanny jobs once the children have started school I have been made redundant. Parents just don't want to pay for that 30 hours a week while their children are at school and they don't need childcare. They have mostly gone on to using breakfast and after school clubs and holiday clubs to meet their childcare needs and cover inset days and sick days themselves or with the help of friends.

I completely understand this - 30 hours is a lot to pay someone for a bit of housekeeping and availability in case of sickness. Any nanny friends that I have known to keep their jobs when the children start school have worked for wealthier families who don't miss the money - most average working Mums are looking forward to the day when their childcare bill is reduced.

Original poster
ImagineJL · 13/10/2012 08:51

Sadly there's no-one I know who needs or will need a nanny, and to be honest I'm not sure my nanny would want a load of extra kids to look after in the school holidays anyway.

OP posts:
TantrumsAndBalloons · 13/10/2012 08:38

Yes, I was going to suggest a nanny share. Do you know any other families locally who have younger DCs that need a nanny?
Is there anyone at DCs school?

ApuskiMcClusky · 13/10/2012 08:26

I'll have this situation in a year, and I'm wondering about nanny sharing with another family who have a baby or preschooler, and maybe an older child at school. It would be a bit more manic in school holidays, but as the children get older, having more people to play with seems to make things easier in some ways.

It helps that I think my nanny would infinitely prefer this to doing general jobs around the house while kids were at school.