Nanny/parents

[Lucy93mac]

Wondering if any other child care providers or professionals are treated this way?

I’m a registered nanny with many years of experience in a variety of settings, DBS checked, first aid trained, insured to work in people’s homes and carry children in my car. I pay a lot of money to have these checks and qualifications each year. I like to think I provide an excellent child care service and I thoroughly enjoy my job. I charge £10 an hour for my services.

I frequently come across parents who not only want to pay peanuts for child care but actually have the cheek to make comments about my rates.

AIBU to think this is extremely rude?! I always see threads about cleaners who charge to much etc. Fair enough if people don’t want to pay these rates but why do they feel the need to put people down and question how much they charge?

I recently had a lady contact me and brazenly say on the phone “why do you charge so much I don’t understand”. If you can’t afford a nanny or simply don’t want to pay then don’t have one!

Hmmm sorry just needed to vent, when did people become so rude?!!!

Tiddler nannies who work for 3 or more families can register as self employed. It's not really in their interests usually, and they also have to register as a childminder, blurring the lines and potentially contributing to the problems and misunderstandings OP is encountering. The op talks about her OFSTED registration and all her expenses, which is why I thought that she's self employed.

Ha, it is blurring the lines, and yes, I forgot about 3+ families. It boils my blood when I read ad saying"looking for self employed nanny, as we can't be bothered with paying taxes"

£10 net for daytime nanny service is good. OP I assume you aren't self- employed for your regular jobs though, they would require you to be employed.

I won't pay that much for evening babysitting when the children are in bed.

Are you in London? If so, then £10 is a bargain - around here it's £6 per hour per child for a child minder, we pay our nanny £12 per hour net, and are also generous with extra paid holiday when we go away, don't expect housework etc... And we need as well as want to do all this because good nannies are so hard to find!

I think a lot of people only think in terms of how much of their own salary goes on childcare (which is definitely enormous - you mention tax credits, but surely few people who can afford a nanny are also eligible for these) and forget that they are actually a proper employer with a proper employer's responsibilities. You see threads on here by mums who are horrified that their nanny wants to be paid for public holidays - even though the woman's own employer isolating for her day off too, or who want to break the law on maternity leave, even though they've just enjoyed their own paid leave.

Where are you advertising? Our current nanny found Facebook hopeless but parents on childcare.co.uk/nannyjob much more professional.

Is paying not isolating! Autocorrect fail...

£10 is good value - and def not overcharging. If parents aren’t able to afford it ask them to explore other options. They will probably call back when they realise!

No one who employs a nanny will be getting 70% tax credits (and its only 70% to a max of about £175 a week anyway). Anyone with a household income over about £30k probably doesn't get any childcare tax credits. They might get £20 through tax free childcare.

I still think, from all the details (OFSTED registration, references to a lot of families, tax credits, reference to advertising) that the OP is offering a hybrid service which looks to some parents like childminding in the child's home, or even babysitting. Being a qualified nanny doesn't mean that you won't potentially at some stage work in a nursery or register as a childminder...

Most people's idea of a nanny is a full time employee for one family exclusively. Most people have heard of a nanny share, employed by two families. This doesn't sound like either of those scenarios though.

Are you self employed and registered as a childminder, but look after children in their own homes Lucy ?

I am employed by both my nanny families (this isn’t who my thread is about) and I am “self employed” with my ad-hoc babysitting families. I don’t come across many families who aren’t willing to employ me, but normally when they ask what salary I’m expecting etc and I say £10 an hour they seem to make these rude comments.

I sometimes get babysitting families as well who make comments.

Jeez what area of the country are you in?! I have a horrendous time finding childcare, if I found nanny with your description that could look after my child at home for £10 an hour I'd lashing £50 notes at you left right and centre!!

Have just seen it's Leeds & now heartbroken!

Sorry to hear civicxx, that’s such a shame. Where are you based? Have you tried child care.co.uk?

Sounds very cheap to me!

I had this all the time when I was a nanny. A couple of years ago I applied to do a nanny share job looking after two toddlers - I charged £13 p/h (relatively cheap as I had only been nannying 4 years by this point). The parents came back to me and said they had been thinking more £8 an hour (for a sodding nanny share!) it took all my strength not to be seriously rude. I just said, right well this definitely won’t work for me but good luck with your search. I worked for a wonderful family for a couple of years, was well paid and treated like a member of the family, but sadly (in my experience) most parents seem prepared to scrimp on something they should be prepared to pay good money for :(

Also, to add insult to injury, I worked in an affluent area of SE London. They just wanted a cheap deal.

A lot of people are caught out by the 70% thing as well. Yes it’s up to 70%, but up to a maximum of £175 a week for one child or £300 for two or more.

Friends of mine fucked up with that when they signed their DD up to a seriously expensive childcare place not realising that the 70% has a cap (and didn’t think to wonder why nome of us sent our kids there!)

Employment is on a per job basis, anybody working permanently should be employed not self employed, how many families a nanny works for is irrelevant.

I was in a similar set up when I worked down south op, employed by my two families and self employed for various ad hoc/babysitting families and other childcare work. People do take the piss. I'm now a childminder, I have a daily rate that makes my hourly 50p cheaper per hour than all other childminders in the area (similar rate to the nurseries) and I include everything bar nappies and formula, and but I have still had people asking for 'sibling discounts' and saying that I charge too much I also live in an area with a high amount of people on tax credits so a massive percentage of my clients and potential clients costs are covered.

I get tax credits towards the Nanny I am forced to employ to keep my NHS career going (I work on the wards and don't have any choice about working long shifts as every hospital local does them). I'm a single parent with 100% responsibility for my children. No family help.

It kills me to have to pay for it, even with getting 60% from tax credits (my salary means I don't get the full 70%).

I pay my nanny a pension (I don't have one). I have to pay employers NI, along with her NI and tax. I have to pay for a payroll service. I have to pay for a pension service to run "my company's pension scheme".

I am in NW England and pay £8 ph ( but it costs me more than this with pension and other contributions).

Sorry you feel people have been rude, but for many other parents like me, who need the kind of childcare not avaliable from childminders or nurseries, £10ph is far too expensive. It's not your fault. It's not their fault. Its just the way it is.

The nanny I currently employ quoted £10ph when she responded to my advert. I replied thanks for the response, but unfortunately that was much more than I could pay.

However she wanted the job as the days and hours suited her, she wanted an employed position, and she gets 8 weeks annual leave. So it was worth the lower pay for her.

YANBU

In fact you should charge more. I understand some people are on a tight budget bit we all have to make a living.

YANBU, at all.

What is possibly unreasonable is your rates. You sound like a really committed, dedicated professional nanny who is serious about her career.

Start the new year with rates of £12 an hour, and if any cheapskate comments on it, say: ‘Yes, those are indeed my rates. Quite the bargain, for someone with my level of expertise, don’t you think?’

Have you thought of looking for a family of HNW? They will expect you to work very hard, but would accept that they must pay you a decent salary.

I was once a nanny and people wouldn’t be late all the time, but not pay me. Every day, 20 mins plus. I was too embarrassed to ask to be paid accordingly. And some cancelled me short notice without pay, then, each year, year in year out, when I bought birthday and Xmas gifts, no hint of an Xmas bonus.Honestly, some people are so cheap. Especially when you’re caring for something so valuable to them (you’d think!).

• would be late

Nanny of 20+ years here.

• The amount of hours bumps it up to a lot, parents IME see it as a lump sum rather than an hourly rate

• It’s ‘disposable’ for want of a better word. Parents don’t necessarily see all the slog, blood, swear and tears nannies put in on the daily grind and as such, they sometimes resent the salary.

Totally outing....after being with one employer for 6 years without even an inflation-related payrise, I asked for one.

Her response was that as she could get someone just as good as me, she wouldn’t meet my request. I resigned with a months notice and she didn’t see me once in that timeframe. She texted as she pulled onto her driveway that she was about to enter through the garage door so I was to leave through the front door so she didn’t have to see me!!!!

YANBU about your rates but try to show some consideration for the hardworking parents who are not rich but need good quality childcare. It is normal for parents to try to negotiate a lower rate when they are facing increased costs themselves. No one wants to work for free but some of these parents will be doing just that to pay your rates. Obviously you don’t have to reduce your rates at all and can charge what you like but try to have some compassion.

I cost less than you and I constantly have comments about my rates from people, I’m a one man band looking after multiple children so piss off with calling me expensive!

It’s not the people who actually pay me who have problems btw, though I am happy to negotiate my rates. I know it’s a big cost but at the end of he day - don’t want to pay for a nanny don’t hire a nanny