Any Nanny / Housekeepers out there willing to share details of what they do?

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Hi,

Looking for some information really. Both me and DH work and have 2 children in full-time care. we currently have a lovely nanny who has been with us for 2.5 years. However, with both the children at school our needs have changed andI am now considering changing things a bit. Current nanny still does nursery duties and everything to do with the children, plus runs a few errands for me. We have separate cleaners.

I am now considering a nanny / housekeeper which would allow to ditch the cleaners but then also get more stuff for me and DH done - more week night meals cooked, shopping, our washing and ironing, etc. etc. But to be honest, I'm not really sure of what really is or isn't in scope for this kind of hybrid role.

I would massively appreciate anyone who currently does this kind of thing, providing me with a bit of information and managing my expectations.

Thanks in advance.

I have a feeling you have not got many answers because people who do nanny/housekeeper jobs are not (in my experience) people that you'll find contributing on websites ... there will obviously be exceptions (and I hope some come along) but the families I've seen who employ nanny/housekeepers (to the extent no separate cleaning help is employed at all) have eg live-in Filipinas, doing a very long-hours job which includes all the cleaning/dog-walking/school runs/family cooking/laundry. It is in truth a difficult role to make work outside that kind of arrangement.

We did try once, with a nanny who was happy to be paid more to take on the housekeeping role too - but it didn't really work (she eventually quit, and is the only one of our nannies who has quit like that). The received-wisdom is that, unless you are really really lucky, you get someone who is only good at one side of the job - so good with children but not good at cleaning, or great at cleaning but not going to be able to oversee homework - and it ends up as a bit of an unsatisfactory compromise.

What does work for us is an after-school nanny - an ex-au pair with loads of childcare experience and her own graphic design business, who can support the slightly up-and-down earnings from her business with a few hours a day with us in term-time plus full-time in the holidays - and a separate cleaner. (With a separate cleaner, you can also get a childcare safety net - someone else who knows the children to be able to step in in an emergency.) I should say, it is not that easy to find after-school nannies - but easier, I think, than finding a nanny/housekeeper who is all you'd hope for.

We had one for a bit. She did around 30 hours a week, 7.30-9.30 and 3.30-7 with most Friday afternoons off, £800 net a month. Her tasks were:

School run
After school care
Organised children's diary, letters from school and so on
Organised online grocery order and menu planning
Cooked a simple family meal each evening
Washing and ironing
Cleaned each room in the house once a week
Weekly bedding and towel change

TBH I had a couple of au pairs who did this as well, even better than the nanny housekeeper, for £80 a week, but they are rather rare beings IME.

One of my friends has a live in (english) nanny who does housekeeping in the morning between 9 and 12.30 whilst the youngest is at nursery.
In the school holidays they employ a ad hoc cleaner to cover.
She does everything, washing for the family, cleans the bathrooms, vacs, everything a cleaner does. She only cooks for the children. She doesn't do much ironing, Mark takes his shirts to the cleaners.
The nanny seems happy - she's been there for 2 years or so.

Hi, I employed my nanny as purely a nanny but because of the hours I work, for a couple of hours in the morning she ends up doing housekeeping type things. We didn't expect it so its been a great help to us. She basically sorts things out that we don't have time to sort out. Roughly:

• sorts out all our laundry, ironing and taking things to/from dry cleaning
• additional shopping that we need in the week (I do the online weekly shop)
• she cooks extra for DH and I so our meal is waiting for us each evening.
• she hoovers downstairs at the end of each day (we have a cleaner)
• runs errands etc for us
• makes sure the cleaner, gardener and window cleaner all get paid and passes messages between us. (we went for months without seeing the window cleaner once!)

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Worked as live-in for triplets - shared care.
I helped with them, feeding, bathing, dressing, etc.
Bit of hoovering, emptying the dishwasher, bit of dusting (downstairs only), occasionally cooked.

This was because I wanted to, was never asked.

I work as live in mother help
years ago
did all the cleaning
dont think I clean the parents room but cant remember.
all washing clothes and washing up
all ironing
all food shopping without a car
care care in morning
getting child breakfast
school run morning afternoon
fed child and myself dinner
babysitting some nights

but I never cooked for the adults in house.
in job one the adults did not eat together as dad worked away alot.
amd in job mum used to like to cook.

on job 2 i had to look after the builders as they were doing up house.

the children were school age in job were in private school so much longer holidays

I had to do all my chores in holiday and look after the children too.
in 1st job mum was teacher so not a big deal in second job child did get fed up with me cleaning even though he did help.
houses were not big and were easy to clean.

my job is part-time nanny/housekeeper and this is what i do

10 hours over mon-wed but can choose how i do my hours as long as i do school run each morning

then i clean entire house and cook on a tuesday for whole family

i dont do any washing as they dont want that
and i dont change the beds as there isnt enough time
i empty bins, dishwasher and sometimes do ironing

the house is over 3 floors and has 5 bedrooms + 3 bathrooms

I look after three under sixes who are now all at school.
since they have all been at school .,In the holidays when I have all three I do nursery duties plus family wash and ironing,If I am cooking a meal I may do an extra large spag bol,shepherds pie etc for the parents also .
When the children are back at school and I have more time I will run the hoover and dust ,empty the dishwasher ,occasionally change the parents beds,In the past I have taken pets to the vet,walked dogs,looked after elderly relatives,I think its a case that if something needs doing within reason I dont mind doing it if it does not interfere with my main jobs which will be concerned with the children.

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful.

To be fair to my current nanny, she does run a few errands for me now when the children are both at school but limits the rest of her role to just the children's stuff which really means there are large parts of the day when she is not doing an awful lot. I realise that I could maybe ask her to do more. Equally though, I feel that she could use her initiative and ask for more stuff to do.

If I'm very honest, I'm just not sure she is up to doing the extra bits and pieces and therefore if I were to make the role of a nanny / housekeeper more 'official', she would not be the type of person I would be looking for. Don't get me wrong here, she is absolutely fantastic with the children.

I have now also spoken to a local agency to get their advice and thinking also of looking for wrap around care (before and after school) coupled with a housekeeper a couple of days a week. I would clearly offer the wrap around job to my current nanny but I suspect the drop in hours and therefore pay will not be suitably for her.

Very keen to keep hearing of people's experiences though either as employers or of nannies / housekeepers.

Thank you.

tbh i have found that a nanny/hk doesnt often work

you either find a nanny who doesnt want to clean etc

or a great hk who is crap with children

rarely the two mix

yes you get nannies who are happy to help out and do more household stuff/cooking/washing/poss ironing but rarely will they want to do the whole house cleaning so dont get rid of your cleaner as well

• Black bins out
• Recycling taken to local centre
• Liasing with tradesmen as to what needed doing/what time they could enter the house etc
• Opening post
• Changing all bedding/towels weekly
• Collecting & dropping off dry-cleaning, getting keys cut, posting letters, collecting papers
• Drafting letters to the childrens schools/ completing school consent forms
• All house cleaning, laundry, ironing & putting items away
• Sweeping front of drive to make it look nice
• Making online purchases at parents request
• Foodshopping / gift & card-buying
• Cleaning inside windows *Water plants

I did all of this + a whole lot more....

We have a Nanny/Housekeeper and she does the following:

All cleaning
Ironing for whole family including bed linen
Laundry for DS + occasionally for us if she's looking for things to make up a load.
Changes towels & bedlinen once a week
Cooking 4 weekday meals
Prepares DS's packed lunch
Collects DS from nursery occasionally
Takes DS out for the afternoon once/twice a week
Supermarket shopping if necessary

DS sleeps for 2 hours in the afternoon though which gives her a bit of time to get the housework done.

I think I have been really lucky to find her though - she has relocated from a city to a rural area where noone I know has a nanny and she would have struggled to find a full time position. She also has expereince working in a kitchen so can cook really well.

Hi everyone,
I currently have a Maternity Nurse but now looking for a Filipino Nanny/Housekeeper to live in 6 days a week to help look after a 1 month old baby. Does anyone know of any good agencies to go through to find one OR recommend a Nanny/Housekeeper (doesn't have to be Filipino)??

Thanks : )