I'm considering giving up the job hunt and working elsewhere

Sorry it took me a while to reply, I have been out all day. Yes please pm me when you have time...

I expect that it may be quite difficult to split a nanny job.

Clearly, there will be good and bad nannies, but a good nanny is worth her weight in gold. She will be a lasting influence in children's lives, whereas most au pairs will stay a year at best, have no understanding of child psychology (most being still very immature themselves) and first aid, child development etc. Clearly this comes at a price. Quality costs money.

I would personally not leave a baby or very young child witha Polish nanny (or other non UK trained nanny for that matter). Most Continentals speak pigeon English (yes, I know THEY think they speak fluent English, but it is not my experience). I think that it is important for young children to be exposed to very good and varied language from somebody who cares.

Yes, English nannies may be demanding, picky whatever, well, so I am in my own work, so are the majority of highly qualified professionals.

As another poster pointed out, a nanny is not a cleaner. A nanny is there for the kids, not somebody to offload all kinds of other jobs onto.

Hi IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece, would you be interested in a full-time nanny job from the 17th of February in South East London? I return to work on the 24th and need someone from 8-6 Monday - Friday for my 8mo and 7yo ds's. Please pm me if you are and I can send you the details.

Lovely I work within a large and varied nanny community and I am accurately reporting the problems experienced by those nannies. I'm not sure how that can be 'unfair'?

It's wonderful that you've found two part-time jobs that work, but surely you understand the difference between one specific example and a general pattern/feeling amongst nannies?

'This really annoys me with English nannies. We will only work full time for 30k a year.'

I wouldn't have someone with racist tendencies looking after my children, no matter how flexible they were with their part time hours.

when i work full time i earn a lot more then £30k lol and yes as an english nanny i expect to be paid more then polish/european etc nannies, and if by saying they go the extra mile, you mean cleaning, then thats up to them, if i wanted to be a cleaner i wouldnt have trained as a nanny!!!

i went to college and studied hard for 2 years to become a nanny - many of the above have no formal quals

seriously leeds make good points about 2/3day jobs and joining them together - many of them valid from friends i know who have co joined 2 jobs

but who lnows speed nannying may catch on

She has but they are really pointless. That's why Eastern European nannies are beating you all hands down

Outraged I don't think you are being fair. I have found two part time jobs. One 3 second one 2 days.It was easy to fit them together.All your excuses are rather silly especially if you have not been working for 3 month.This really annoys me with English nannies. We will only work full time for 30k a year.Those days are gone.Especially when polosh and eastern European nannies are cheaper and willing to go the extra mile. I im sorry but this is just my opinion.

3/4 days would be my ideal as well but at the moment there seems to be very little about in my area. There are some interesting ideas on this thread.

I find it hard to take on board that anyone has to go down a different childcare route because they can't get a nanny to work part time.

I have found when job hunting that parents you take the trouble to contact and leave phone number's/email addresses with often cannot be bothered to get back to you. even if you don't think a nanny is ideal for you would it hurt to give them a call just to check it out. You might be agreeably surprised.

oh and being paid from two different sources and families disagreeing about paying for things like Ofsted registration, first aid training, annual passes etc.

It's a great idea if you could make it work.

I'd say the main problems for nannies are;

holiday
one family pulling out and then needing to find another job to fit
more parents to please/more job related problems
harder to become part of a nanny community if the jobs are far apart
harder to bond with the children
harder to deal with children, it's so much easier to get them into a routine/used to your rules if you have them 4/5 days.

If you can sort some of these it would be great and very popular!

You would, but would it be a requirement at the speed night?

Royal nannies seem to have hundreds atm

That's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it would eradicate the problems of doing two part-time jobs.

Would the families have to agree to take holiday at the same time? Would they be matched in terms of how long they're looking to employ a nanny for?

Stick it out. As an employer I always avoid recruiting in December as people are too busy to be looking for jobs and attend interviews. The job market will probably pick up in January x

See I want to wk part time - 3 days is my ideal and in a row

Seem to be more ft nanny jobs In my area

Maybe you all need to move to blondes land

It's a real problem at the moment. Nannies don't want to work part-time and mum's don't want to work full-time. Resulting in a real lack of full-time nanny jobs and part-time nannies!