To think nannies are overpaid?

[Fr0thandBubble]

Inspired by another thread about how much people earn. Plenty of nannies earning £50-£60k per year apparently and one on £120k!

Our nanny has just left us (youngest about to start reception, thank goodness) and we were paying her nearly £50k for 8:30am-6:30pm Mon-Fri. She would also pick up quite a bit of extra money babysitting evenings and weekends L. She didn’t even have to do anything from 9-12 each morning while my youngest was at nursery - and then only had my youngest to look after until school pick-up time when she had my eldest too. And nannies these days are very reluctant to help out with any cleaning or ironing so she really was doing nothing much at all in those hours.

She was lovely but has no qualifications and is in her early thirties.

It seems wrong to me that nannies are getting paid more than most teachers when they don’t need any qualifications. What do you think?!

It's fairly well documented that babies have raised cortisol levels in day nursery, indicative of a stress response. I found this a fairly decent summary

One guardian article, where the author of the original study, himself says

“Whether we are talking about the good news or the bad news, these are small effects," he says.”

I was right about the quality of that research then.

Oh should have said 1 child 6 months to just turned 4

No, you've misread it @MintyMabel. He was talking about the long term effects being relatively small.

He continues: "There is now overwhelming evidence that daycare causes children to have abnormal cortisol levels, probably increasing the risk of behavioural problems like aggression, fearfulness and hyperactivity."

"If daycare is as distressing to under-threes as many researchers believe, it would not be surprising if it affected their cortisol levels: when distressed we usually secrete the hormone."

Compared to:

For children under two, the effects are small: the child might be slightly more bossy, more argumentative – something we might not consider to be negative. In some cultures it might be seen as a good thing," she says.

It's sort of like the controlled crying thing. We know it stresses babies out, but we don't know whether that causes any long term impact. For me, the stress aspect was enough of a black mark against it for me to choose other childcare, even if not accompanied by longer term impacts. There is a tendency for people to get defensive about this- honestly, I'm not judging those who choose to use daycare. But someone asked for reasons for nannies, and that was a factor in my decision. If I couldn't have afforded a nanny, I'd have gone for a childminder.

I think it’s more than other kinds of childcare workers (nursery workers in particular) are very underpaid.

^This. I'm really grateful to my DD1's childminder. I'm a SAHM, but DD1 (now 11 and about to start secondary school) has SEN and adoption related attachment issues and was being violent to me and DD2. She's done an amazing job, picking her up 2 afternoons a week to give me respite when we really needed it.

I'm really grateful and think she's underpaid rather than nannies being overpaid.

I also would never dream of slagging her off on MN like this OP. Very unkind.

Personally I think that it depends on the nanny. I had a professional job with long and unpredictable hours so I had a nanny - they earn well but in practice they really do earn it. Mine did all the cleaning of the DCs rooms and all their laundry, fed them (and usually made enough that DH and I could finish it off for supper). SHe had the usual nanny contract rule of half her holiday at my choice and half her holiday at her choice and she was often able to find me holiday cover amongst her friendship group.As she lived in was expected to babysit for free 1 night a week but got paid at the weekend.

Like most she had a post 16 qualification in childcare but wasn't an all singing all dancing Norland/Princess Christian nanny.

I've always found this to be a sensible resource for checking what a nanny should be earning.

imperialnannies.com/candidate/

£50k seems a huge amount to me. Surely only lawyers and husbands at Barings banks etc, stockbrokers on £200k+ can afford this?

I think the OP has left the thread like she said she was going to do. She obviously didn't like the fact that posters weren't telling her what she wanted to hear. Not surprising.

Why does your daughter only get that paltry amount a month for a 40 week? Did you mean that is her weekly wage?

@Ilovecranberries.
Most do 12 hours pediatric every 3 years many parents do zero.

I’m signing off now as this thread has got weirdly nasty

No, it started off nasty!

Talk about goady AND smug.

Nannies are 'only' looking after the most important thing in your life, your DC!

If you entrust your children to her on that wage then a) she is worth it and b) you must be on sensational combined? wages to pay her that amount, especially missing out on many important stages when growing so quickly early on... Like a lot of working partners do!

That must be the nett pay not the gross pay

@nannykatherine
I've been employing nannies for a couple of years (interviewed dozens during that time), I can see for myself what the average candidate has to offer. I even paid for a couple of them to take the course to get them ofsted registered (in the good auld days of childcare vouchers, when it made financial sense).

As a nanny who is qualified and has over 40 years experience , I know no one on that money . Also you should have employed someone from pick up time if you begrudge here doing nothing.!!! If that was the case . I myself never stop in the couple of hrs the little one is at nursery. I tidy up parents mess, wash, iron , empty dishwasher ,empty bins, change beds prepare meals etc . Then when the children are there I can spend quality time doing things with them . Plus I’m there in case either child is sent hone from school for any reason . I don’t have a lunch hr nor t breaks , I don’t sit in front of the tv , I never stop.And I know I’m not the only one I know lots of other nannies are the same

Ops grasp on market economics wasn’t great.

I am an NNEB qualified nursery nurse, until 15 months ago I worked as a Specialist Nursery Nurse for the NHS looking after children with complex health needs. Many of the children were on home ventilation and had oxygen therapy as well as having complex epilepsy, complex drugs regimes and many were fed via tubes. As a team we provided care so that the rest of the family could do the things that most of us take for granted as the children on our books were too poorly to even leave the family home, we also worked nights so mum and dad/carer could sleep. For that I earned the princely sum of circa £23k pa. It seems mad that I could earn double that as a nanny.

It’s not a massive wage when it’s 25% higher than normal working hours

Tbh, I just think it's bad taste for the OP to come on here and complain about how much she was paying her nanny, who wasn't qualified. I would never dream of complaining about someone I was paying to look after my DDs, because I'm always very grateful to them.

@EmpressoftheMundane

Nannies aren’t over paid. Mothers are under valued.

THIS WINS THE INTERNET!

YABU for choosing to employ a nannie who wasn't "qualified" and then moan about it.

Don't come on here BOASTING about paying a teenager 50k to look after your sprog, and then say, don't you think they're over paid ... You chose to pay her.

Obvs you are loaded, and obvs care more about earning more money than raising your own children ... That's free, and a wonderful experience for both.

I find posts like these fucking nasty.

I can't afford to buy a piece of medical equipment I really need, because the govt decide that an amount is the MINIMUM REQUIRED BY LAW TO LIVE ON, except you can't live on it, especially when you're disabled.

Probably loose cash to you, but £750 to buy a decent walking frame, is a month's money on disablity benefit for 2 (my fiancee has cancer)... Not everyone gets 1,300 a month plus rent paid, and free meds. Yeah, I don't have to pay for meds or rent, but I do have to find £15-20 to go see my Dr, because it's the only one in my area, but I can't walk there from where the last bus stop is.

So yeah, I hate posts of people complaining on spending a decent amount of money, that would last us a few years.

So yes, you are being TOTALLY UNREASONABLE

@RaininSummer nope per month - it's her best friends child and she wanted to help them out. I think that she should have had more (and to be honest we have supported her a lot financially) but it was her choice and we offered the help. The husband thought that was a lot!!!!! until friends started saying how much they were paying for nursery places for their young children. He soon realised what a winner he was on.

I am confused. If you pay her that much, you must earn more or it would be worth your while staying at home to look after the children yourself instead. If not, why are you doing it? And if you do earn more, do you think her job is less important than yours?

I'm a nanny with 9 years experience and I earn £34500 working 7.15-18.15 either 4 days a week or 5 days a week (it alternates) its the best wage I've ever had nannying. I'm based in quite a nice area of Kent. If I worked in Central London I would expect to earn around £40000/42000.

I'm NVQ Level 3 qualified, first aid, dbs etc. I wouldn't expect to earn £44000 if I wasn't qualified and I would be doing nursery duties - children's washing and ironing, cooking, keeping kids areas clean and tidy etc.

My job is bloody hard. I love the kids but it's tough, I don't get any breaks, can't even go to the toilet myself without both of them coming in lol. That was fun today when I came on my period whilst we were at the beach 😂
Also as people have pointed out, we have very little job security. Most jobs are over after 2/3 years as kids go to school etc. It's rare to find a nanny that's been in their job for years.

So I don't think nannies are underpaid.... However I do think you have overpaid your nanny

@FourPlasticRings

I have a child in nursery but did seriously consider a nanny (and still may do if we have another child, because the cost of having two in nursery isn’t far from the cost of a nanny). But the thing that really put me off was the risk. Surely all the benefits of a nanny that you mention only apply if you find a good one who stays with you? And surely if you have a bad one, or a string of ones who don’t work out, that will cause your child more stress than nursery would have done?

Lot of my colleagues have nannies and the stories I’ve heard are horrendous. The one who turned up to work drunk from the night before and was supposed to drive the children to school. The one who they found rifling through their jewellery box and looking at their passports. The colleague whose son kept wetting himself at night and showing signs of massive anxiety, then it turned out the nanny had been driving him around in her boyfriend’s car without a car seat. The one who kept dropping a little girl off at school late and in her pyjamas. The one who didn’t come into work because she was feeling ‘fatigued’ and the one who kept having breakdowns at work (in front of the children) over relationship dramas.

Admittedly lots of my colleagues now have nannies they’re incredibly happy with. And in fact I was looked after by a nanny when I was young and I adored her, we’re still in touch. But it seems to me like a huge amount of trust to put in one person. And you have limited insight into their work. They’re completely unaccountable. No Ofsted inspections, no oversight from anyone but your child. And they can resign at any time. Just the thought makes me nervous!