How much is one day nanny expected to do on the chores side?

Our nanny often has a morning free one or two days a week while lo at school. She will go shopping for me but the rest of the time she has free (paid). On a daily basis she does the childrens' laundry and tidies up children's mess and washes up for the children only. She does zero cleaning apart from wiping down surfaces and hoovers the children's playroom at the end of the day.

I would never expect her to clean or wash dishes for us or do any of our laundry.

I think your boss needs a cleaner as well as you!

if you'd prefer to go home for those 2 hours then you need to suggest that?

but to be honest, as a working mum, having a flexible nanny who was prepared to do some chores each day really helped. She did all the sorts of things you are mentioning except the bed changing. And as kids started going to playschool and then school, she increased what she did in the home without being asked.

It worked really well for all of us and meant that we could afford to keep her on as the kids got older.

If chores are really not for you then maybe it's even time to move on to another family ?

I hope so Flustered. Everyone who does anything for me (cleaner, nursery staff, builders etc) is treated with respect and paid fairly. My mother was v clear on it when I was growing up. One of my proudest moment as a parent was when my 3 year old unprompted asked our cleaner to join us for dinner. People stay with me along time- our cleaner at least 8 years now. I can understand how intelligent people can't manage to be fair and reasonable.

Hang out clean washing lol

If a child is out of the house and nanny isn't in charge/had time off and goes shopping/gym/coffee with friends and child needs picking up as been sick/fell over banged head etc / if not being paid she is not likely to stop what she is doing and go and collect child

Could you suddenly leave work to collect?

This is why nannies still get paid do they are on call

Nannies look after children. Yes I'm happy to hang out a load of dirty washing if mb put it in and unpack dishwasher etc

But I am not there to clean up after the parents - that's a cleaner or nanny/hk role and not going to wash their dirty dishes

I never expected my nannies to clean up after me, only after my kid. I employed them to look after my child, and any tidying-up or anything else was a bonus.

I think for nannies who don't want to take on a housekeeping role then working in families where they have at least one child under full-time school age is the solution.

If you have at least one child at home for most of the day there is enough to do with childcare and nursery duties to keep you busy without becoming a cleaner/maid/general dogsbody.

Putting the odd thing in the dishwasher is fine, coming in every morning to last nights dinner things would be unacceptable to me, and I think to most nannies.

So is the solution to only care for babies and toddlers?

Or maybe only doing before/after school care for older children and not be oncall during the time they are at school?

I have to disagree and say that the nanny is not the family dogsbody. If she clears up after the parents and does general housework/cleaning it's a slippery slope then to becoming a full time cleaner with a little bit of childcare on the side! Value your nanny and her child-related skills, you don't want her exhausted from all that drudgery!

"We pay you, so you do what we say" - isn't that the case in all jobs? The employer has control over what happens, if they choose to micromanage rather than let employees decide for themselves what is reasonable to do.

Nanny becoming nanny-housekeeper I feel is what happens as children get older. Pay does not tend to increase but there is still pay for all hours, regardless of children being present. So isn't that better for all, rather than trying to work out when nanny is on unpaid break, when they are oncall, when they are working?

If nanny has an unpaid break, what happens if a child needs to come home from school at that time, such as they are ill? Would nanny say, "sure I can come once my break is over". I don't see that working well. There is an "on-call" element to the job when older children are involved.

Not doing parents dishes I feel is petty. Nanny is not there just to do things for the children but to help with whatever the family needs in my view.

I have a nanny one day a week for a 3 year and 1 year old. My two DC are in nursery for the other three days. I expect no household work at all. She cooks for the children and cleans up any food related mess, stacks dishwasher and occasionally cooks a cake as an activity with my eldest ( while younger sleeps). That's fine. She's good and engages with my children. I'm happy with that. In your situation I would pay you for your time while the youngest is pre school and give you one manageable task a week that would take about an hour. I would not expect you to complete all my household tasks for a week in that time...

I don't think nanny is one of those jobs where you take an unpaid lunch hour. I have never, ever heard of parents dropping their nanny's wages for 30mins because the nanny had the audacity to sit down and eat a sandwich! I can't imagine any nanny agreeing to that. It's more of a give/take relationship than 'you were sitting down for 30 mins we need to dock your wages'.

If that is what you would prefer then say it! If they want a cleaner for 2 hours then they really should get a cleaner. I doubt that anyone goes into nannying as a backdoor route into cleaning. I am also aware that the rate for "nanny-housekeepers" is higher than for nannies, but this is what they are trying to turn you into. I think that 10phg would be pretty low for a nanny-housekeeper.

I get that nannies don't have lunch breaks when they have children with them all day as they are responsible and on duty for the whole time. But when the child is out of the house and you have a genuine 30 min or 1 hour break for lunch during which you do no work, why would this be different to other jobs where you don't get paid for your lunch break? I wouldn't pay for someone to sit in my house doing sweet FA for an hour in the middle of the day - it doesn't make any sense. But I don't think that you should be expected to do non-nanny work either or more than reasonably fits in the time available.

sue nannies dont have lunch breaks as such, but they do/are allowed time to relax either when kids asleep/at school/nursery etc - or if at home then to play by their selves by nannies feet while they sit and have a cuppa

and i would leave employers dirty dishes for them to wash up

I'm not a nanny, but I have to say it would piss me off if the parents left their dirty breakfast dishes around for me to deal with.