Does anyone on here actually have a mother's help?

[goingbacktowork]

so I can have a chat about what they actually do as opposed to other kinds of childcare help? Many thanks

I do.

From your name I take it you're looking at childcare when you're at work?

They tend to work alongside you rather than look after dc's when you're at work. Usually without, or with fewer qualifications than a nanny and without as much experience in childcare, but cheaper. If you want the qualifications and experience you will need to pay for a nanny

I have 2 dc's with special needs and a baby so It works for me as I have her to help out generally with housework and dc's with some childcare involved when I'm at hospital appointments etc

When deciding to hire someone, I got lots of advice on here from people who have a mother's help so there are people out there!

I was a mothers help when I first started out nannying. Basically you work alongside the mother - exactly as the title suggests but mothers slave can be substituted in some cases. A mothers help does more housework and egneral errands than a nanny would. They are often newly qualified NVQ (or whatever the current qual is) starting out on their nanny career or have no qualificationa and limited experience. Sometimes you get mature ladies doing it as well.
If you are going back to work and require a lot of sole charge then you are probably looking more towards a nanny. I had sole charge as a mothers help but that was circumstantial rather than by contract design.
It really does depend on who you hire as what they will be capable of doing. The bottom line is don't hire anybody you don't feel entirely comfortable with just because they are cheap.

tavvy I totally agree with your sentiment. I am looking for someone (minimum 3 days a week) to take my daughter to school (15 miles from our house) for a 8.15 am start and then to collect my daughter for 3.15 pm (again a drive) and then my son from nursery say at 4.30pm and feed and look after them ideally in our house until one of us is home probably at 6.45pm.

Several people have said what I need is a mother's help hence the question. I believe loking at several sites that depending on qualifications sole charge is fine for set amounts of time (they are not going to be sole charge all day) in the same way we had an au pair once who looked after one of the children when they were small for the odd morning on their own as she was very confident with lots of childcare experience but maybe I am wrong. Ideally you see I am after someone that will do routine housework (not a huge amount), put the washing on etc and not sure nanny's generally want to do this.

Yes, I do. During school holidays I have people come in each day to help me get out and about (eldest son is severely autistic and have 2 other young boys).

Occasionally I give them errands (ds3 was ill the other day and rather than have my helper in catching whatever he had I asked her to run a few errands for me then gave her the rest of the day off), but generally they literally provide another pair of hands for trips out.

I tend to go for postgrads or undergrads studying for something like speech and language therapy because I've found them the most reliable- but I can offer them CV points (working with a severely autistic child) and so people who want to work in the area can find it a useful introduction.

Occasionally I leave them alone with the kids whilst I pop out to the post office or something like that.

I pay mine pretty well though. More than average care work.

I have a mothers help who does what you describe in the morning, and occasionally afternoon/evening.

We advertised in the job centre and wrote exactly what we wanted (immaculate references; experience with small children more important than qualifications; happy to muck in and do what was needed around the house etc) Job Centre Plus were very helpful - really easy to post an ad and we got lots of applicants (and this is for a job that starts at 6 20am!)

We have now had a lady for a year who is in her 50s with 2 grown up daughters. She had been working as a dinner lady so was CRB checked, and is a fully trained 'First Responder' so trained nearly to ambulance paramedic standards. DD loves her and has been over to her house for dinner etc

Very happy all round.

could you clone her please? She sounds great. DO you mind me asking what her wage is?

We pay her £80 (in cash) a week. Her hours fluctuate so some weeks she only works 5/6 hours so she will be making an excellent hourly rate...other weeks 10 hours. We are increasing it to £100 in September as she will be working an extra 30 mins a day (4 days a week - I don't work Fridays!) to walk DD around the corner to school for 8 45.

We don't have a cleaner, as the couple of jobs she is able to do for me each morning before dd wakes up mean I don't feel I need one. She does stuff like washing kictchen/bathrom floors. Cleaning sinks/showers and dusting. Puts recycle out/waters plants. Nothing noisy!

like others say

a MH will do housework and childcare... although its not normal to leave them in sole charge for long periods of time... perhaps while you nip to the gym or hair dressers or similar as opposed to while you go to work

as well as mucking in with all the child-y stuff (that a nanny might do) she will do housework as well...
so family laundry (as opposed to child) and will run the hoover round, mop the floor, wipe around the bathroom, change the beds etc .

more day to day cleaning as opposed to deep cleaning that you might expect a cleaner to do.

hope that helps

I would need care for minimum 3 hours in the afternoon 3 days a week though an hour of this would be physically collecting kids.