I'm a childminder but aibu to not do all I'm asked to do.

[Missymoo71]

I mind 3 children from 7.30am to 5pm, 4 days a week. All in Montessori and school so free from 9.30 to 1pm. I have been doing jobs in the house as asked. Exp: change the bedsheets, wash and dry. All washing for the house hold wash and dry. Then I have to iron everything....I do their weekly shop for them also. Clean out the fridge, clean out the food presses and giving the playroom "a scrub ' I also make dinners, drop and pick ups for Irish dancng have swimming clubs for the 3 and have to stay while class is on. Now, here's my AIBU. They have a cleaner, she gets paid a lot more than me and yet it seems I'm doing a hell of a lot more than the cleaner. She has actually told me she used to have visit them twice a week, until I started. I'm feeling a bit used. I know I should be helping as I am paid while they are in school. But just feel like she is taking the absolute piss expecting me do the cleaners job as well as caring for the children who are my priority. At the interview, she specifically stipulated that she had a cleaner so I wouldn't be asked to do much. Wwyd?

Here (UK) a childminder looks after children not necessarily from one family, and usually in the home of the childminder. They are paid for childcare only and follow the same curriculum that early years settings do, and are monitored by Ofsted.
What are you registered as/with?

What was agreed when you first started this post?
I love working with children. I despise housework. I wouldn't be staying in this job, but then I wouldn't have taken it in the first place!

It's interesting that someone can charge/earn more for cleaning privately, than looking after children privately- you'd think the higher responsibility would be worth more!

What do you want to do between 930-1?

I would say that you should take 12-1 as your lunch break, so you have 2.5 hours to fill. I would decide what duties you want to do and feel are reasonable (kids rooms, tidy up from breakfast, children’s laundry, perhaps batch cooking kids dinners?) and sit down with the parents and tell them you are a childminder and want to do childcare and duties relating only to children, the cleaning and laundry aspect isn’t what you signed up for.

Or could you take the paycut and go home for those hours?

Sounds like you’re a nanny-housekeeper, although called a childminder - are you in Ireland as agreed this is normal there. Yo me your duties are entirely normal and what I would negotiate with my minder when the youngest goes to Montessori. Otherwise what are you doing for 20 hours a week? Assuming you’re getting paid a reasonable hourly amount for those hours of course. It would always be up to my minder to refuse, of course at which case I would need to find another solution (can’t justify paying out of my after tax salary someone to sit on their bottom for 20 hours a week!)

Apologies, 17.5 hours.

Also meant to say it’s a crazy world where we pay more for someone to clean our house than to take care of our children which is why she’s using you and dropping the cleaners hours.

That sounds a massive amount of work. What do you get paid OP? I pay £5.50 an hour for each of my children and she doesn't even do pick ups.

Also meant to say it’s a crazy world where we pay more for someone to clean our house than to take care of our children which is why she’s using you and dropping the cleaners hours.

I do think that cleaning should be a well-paid job, but I'll never understand parents who try to negotiate better rates with nannies or maximise their workload. What are they thinking?

I assume the OP has to take and collect children from nursery 9-1pm, so realistically by the time she is back its probably 9.30am, and aims to leave 12.30pm to collect.

That leaves only 3 hours. 1 hr is realistic for a break seeing as she starts 7.30am-5pm. Leaving 2 hrs to fit everything in. In that time I would only expect child related work ie prepping lunch or dinner, child laundry, room and toy sorting, clearing up from breakfast, picking up items for children in town, etc.

I would sit down with your employer and mention how much is expected to fit in 2 hrs is very hard. And that actual cleaning isn't your job.

Why on earth is the cleaner paid more than you? You are obviously doing a better cleaning job than she is, hence being given half her work - why would someone pay more for a cleaner when they have a mug like you? Is it normal in Ireland to pay cleaners more than childminders? Especially when childminders in Ireland appear also to be cooks, cleaners and supermarket delivery workers?

WalterIris. Completely agree with your points. It's not four hours and OP you should only be doing the child+related stuff. Fair enough to tidy their rooms and do their washing and ironing but not clean the whole house, wash and iron for the parents and cook for the whole family.

Sorry, but the OP sounds like a gloryfied 'House Elf'. The parents can't believe their luck in having someone who will do so much, for so little.
I'd tell them to F off and find a better job.

And people who are going on about cleaners being paid more. It's normal to only get paid £5 an hour looking after a child, but it's over a longer time. Cleaners sound like they get more, but it's a shorter time and they have lots of clients.
I used to be an Ofsted registered childminder for over 7 years, but gave it up to start a cleaning company and earn a LOT more, for less time and stress!
Too many people get cleaners and housekeepers mixed up.
Cleaners clean only! And housekeepers do everything else!

You're not a childminder or even a nanny, but a maid of all work.
Is all this in the job description/contract (whether oral or written)?

"It's normal to only get paid £5 an hour looking after a child, but it's over a longer time. "

What? You think it's normal to illegally pay someone under the minimum wage?

I agree that people who work for just a few hours sometimes get paid more per hour though, as this might be a way of compensating for travel time and travel costs if these are not paid separately.

Sorry OP but this is quite confusing - a registered childminder has to undergo training and extensive legalities to gain their registration and to be able to give childcare specifically in their own home/setting such as public liability insurance, an inspection of your home/setting, risk assessments etc. As a registered childminder who has gone through this process why on earth would you accept a job in the parents home? So they have mistakenly advertised for a childminder - why is this even relevant? From what you have described you are working as a nanny who also has household duties - how did you write up your childminders contract if you are not working from your own home but in the parents home?

...also, childminders are NOT employed by parents!! They are self-employed!

Can't you mind children in your own home?

YANBU - they are taking the piss, and your job should be limited to child related duties (cooking their meals and tidying the playroom in their absence, fair enough, but scrubbing out the fridge is not).

I think there is a lot of confusion on this thread and people talking about "£5 per hour" are talking about what a UK self employed childminder would charge per child on a self employed basis. Minimum wage would not apply.

Minimum wage in Ireland would apply to the OP but she will be being paid in Euros. It's also not outrageous that the cleaner might be paid more, either on a self-employed basis or on the basis of more/shorter engagements.

What is relevant here is partly the going rates for "nannying"/"minding" where the OP is and partly the norms for each job. I'm of the view that, as in the UK, childcarer and cleaner/housekeeper are two separate skilled jobs and if you want someone who does both you bloody well pay a premium for someone with both skills. IMO childcarer should be regarded as a skilled job and if you employ someone wraparound, like this, you either don't pay or employ them during the school hours or you agree that they complete child-related tasks during the school/nursery period. They are not a skivvy.

I've got to say, Laurie, a lot of people being paid cash in hand for unregistered home childcaring sounds like a recipe for exploitation of poor and immigrant women to me. Does that happen?

You should be paid for the hours of work you do and at a reasonable rate. While the children are there, it is not reasonable for you to be doing any housework outside of cooking for them and keeping the things they are using in order.

In the time that there are no children around, it is up to you and your employer what you agree for you to do in that time.

It is completely possible that your employers are not really thinking about how long these things take and while they are being done out of sight it is easier to think they can add things to the list. Oh and could you 'just'...

I would suggest you sit down with your employers and review the week and the list of tasks that you actually do.

You should be allowed to take a break during the day so assume this is from 12 to 1 so you have two and a half hours each morning 4 days a week.

The daily tasks of preparing meals, putting a wash in, running the hoover round the playroom, clearing up after breakfast and putting away dry clothes are likely to take at a minimum an hour and a half. So at most, you have one hour in which you could either.. do some ironing, clean the fridge, spend a bit longer cleaning the playroom or change the children's beds.

Getting to and from the supermarket, doing a full weekly shop and putting everything away would take me the full 2.5 hours!!

If your employer asks you to do anything above this, you can say, this must take the place of some of the other tasks and not be in addition to.

Good luck, it does sound like they are taking advantage of you and not appreciating the jobs that you do and just seeing that you have 'all that time when the kids are at school and you could 'just' ....

You aren’t a childminder for starters. I’m a childminder and I work from my own home, I am registered with Ofsted (not sure what the governing body in Ireland is called?) and I set my own hours, rate of pay, and contract terms. I am also self employed.

I appreciate laws may be different in Ireland but unless you are self employed and working from your own domestic property you are not a childminder.

I think, and I’m sorry to say, they are fully taking advantage of you. You are a nanny housekeeper and that’s not what you agreed to. Ask for a contract review and go over what they expect you to do, and let them know what you feel is right. You are entitled to do this. I nannied for years and found that I just wasn’t suited to it because it gave me no autonomy, but I have some wonderful friends who are fantastic at it and they love their jobs. It does take a lot of clear communication though. The family you are working for aren’t mind readers. If you don’t tell them, they will assume you are happy with the arrangement.

I'm guessing the next thing will be to dispense with the cleaner and get you to do it all.

You need to speak up now. This is way more than you should be doing as a childcarer, whatever you'd call yourself.

Checking on-line for Dublin: nanny agencies are quoting €13-€15 per hour for nanny/nanny-housekeepers (higher rates generally for part-time) and cleaning agencies seem to be quoting €14-19 per hour. So entirely possible cleaner getting paid more even if OP is being paid properly (which she may not be - some families try to do it on the cheap unfortunately).

OP can you confirm that you’re a registered childminder in the UK? If so, you would be charging per child, per hour so in theory you could be looking up to 6 children. If you charged £5 per hour you would be earning £30 per hour - but this would be in your own setting.

In the uk it is my belief that:

Childminders = are paid per hr per child in their own home. So £5 example above could be per child, and they have 3-4 children to look after from various families, maybe extra before or after school or in school holidays, which would be £15-20 per hour. Obviously, they have to pay for all bills related to childminding from that also so not rolling in it. They are self employed so decided their hours.

Nanny = work for one family, in family home. Paid per hr per family. So £15 per hour could be 1 or 5 children. They also help with day to day running of home related to child such as booking activities, organising events, buying new pants, sorting through outgrown clothes, cooking for child, homework etc. They are employed by family. They are generally more cost effective if you have more than one child, and provide an easier option as parents don't have to get child ready and take to and from childcare

Both of the above do not do general cleaning of the house. They clean up after mess has been made during the day by them and children ie from lunch, food prep and playing. If a child spills coco pops everywhere, then of course the hoover and dustpan comes out like a parent would. But they don't dust, mop, hoover, scrub bathrooms or similar.

A cleaner cleans everything. A housekeeper may clean, but also often does laundry, cooks, household errands, arranges plumber when problem etc.

Unfortunately, the Op here seems to be doing a full on cleaners job, with full housekeeping included, whilst also being a nanny to 3 children, but being paid the same as a childminder would for one child.

If you charged £5 per hour you would be earning £30 per hour - but this would be in your own setting

Yes, but only for a few hours a day, and you'd be paying tax, NIC, and running expenses out of it, plus covering your own sickness and maternity etc. A childcarer in the parents' home is (or should be) an employee and the employer pays pension, tax, and sickness. You can't do a direct comparison of pay per hour.