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Original poster

Am about to change from live out nanny to au pair plus.... am I being a bit ambitious?

28 replies

orangina · 16/11/2009 11:22

Hi there.....

Currently we have a live out nanny who works 4 full days a week (monday-thursday), who is leaving us at Christmas because she really needs work for 5 days a week. From January, dd (4.5) is going to reception (9-3:30) and ds (nearly 3) will be in nursery 2 mornings and 1 afternoon a week. It seems slightly mad to be spending all that money on a nanny who will have rather a lot of time with not much to do, and so dh and I have decided to probably move to a live-in au pair plus (up to 35 hours/week), on the basis of the au pair plus being able to do some additional holiday work (for extra pay of course).

Apart from the whole issue of having someone living in with us, does anyone think we would expect too much of an au pair plus (who will need to have been in this country for a few years, have decent english and 2 checkable references.....) to be in sole charge of either or both of them for 4 days a week? We live in London, have a pretty good community of nannies and au pairs around us, established playdates, etc, etc, so from that pov, it wouldn't always be "sole" charge....

It's just that once you start doing the sums, it makes so much sense...

All this childcare stuff is doing my head in. All happy positive stories of au pair pluses being marvellous gratefully received. Though of course if anyone thinks it's truly too much to ask/expect, I'd like to hear that too....

Thanks

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Bonsoir · 16/11/2009 12:50

I agree with HarrietTheSpy that your expectations are a bit ambitious. I'm not sure that someone with the experience and skills you describe will be happy with an au pair "pocket money" type remuneration.

Original poster
orangina · 16/11/2009 12:47

Thanks for answering HarrietTheSpy (my favourite book as a child!).... unfortunately no, I can't increase nursery hours for various reasons I won't bore you about. I am working and studying part time, and thought that AP+ hours could be something like 2 half days on the days that ds is in nursery in morning, another half day after his nursery in the afternoon, and perhaps a full day (plus a bit of help in mornings and evenings to make up hours). So may be not too much sole charge.

Interviewed lovely live out nanny to do about 35 hours/week last night, but she will cost about 3 times as much, once tax and ni taken into account. Times are a bit credit crunchy just now.....

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HarrietTheSpy · 16/11/2009 12:23

That's still quite a lot of sole charge of the 3 year old. Au pairs who have been in the country some time with a lot of experience tend to call themselves nannies and expect a salary to match. Can you increase the nursery time? So it's more like pick ups for both? Will still be much cheaper than a full time live out nanny and I suspect will cause you fewer headaches in the long run. Probably wider pool of suitable candidates too.

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