Son starting school full time - what to do with nanny?

[chebbo]

We have had a great nanny for three years. We have two sons, aged 6 and 4. At present the nanny works four days a week, 7.30am - 6pm. My eldest son goes to school from 9am to 3pm, the youngest at pre-school from 9-12 three times. He starts school full time in September. I travel a lot for my work , so having the nanny really helps in the early mornings, evenings and school holidays. I am concerned though that when our youngest goes to school full time, she will sit at home all day doing nothing! At the moment she does our and the children's laundry and ironing, but this obviously doesn't take four days. The question is: do you think I can ask her to take on more housework, or try and reduce her hours during the weeks outside of school holidays? We're a bit stuck. Thanks for your advice!!

this is the problem many employers face when children are at school - do they pay someone to do not a lot but are there 100% of the time as 3rd parent on call, or do you pay as and when you need someone but then may not find a nanny and take time off yourself to cover ill children etc

can you take to school and pick up?

the nanny will still need enough money to live on so again may not want to reduce hours

you can ask her but she may not want to do cleaning

so may decide to leave, or tech you are making her redundant as her job doesnt exsist any more

you need to weigh up whether you can manage with a before/after school nanny but no help during the day if dc are ill/insect days etc

or if you pay someone in thoery to be there incase

you say you work and travel alot, is there an oh/dp/dh about who can be home if you cant?

do they do any after school activites/have a late stay/homework club at their school?

Possble nanny share?

Could she help out at your children's school? I work as a nanny and when all the children are at school I go and listen to children reading, help in child's class. The children loved it when I was at school and it gave me something to do. I also did more housekeeping, getting shopping etc. For family

PMSL at insect days!

This is the point at which many families 'downgrade' to a live in au pair type arrangement. It may be worth keeping nanny on even if she doesn't want to do additional housework for a few months to ease the transition.

You options are basically:

Keep nanny on same terms (expensive but reliable)
Keep nanny on with additional housekeeping duties (justifies the expensive but she may not want to do it)
Reduce nanny's contracted hours (cheaper, but she may choose to leave)
Investigate a nanny share with someone who has younger DCs (reduces the cost for you and you keep nanny but you need to juggle a share)
Get another, cheaper, nanny or nanny-housekeeper or mother's help, possibly someone with their own child, with a new job description including housekeeping (potentially cheaper and you can rewrite the description to reflect your changed needs but involves recruiting)
Have an au pair type arrangement (definitely cheaper and they'll work the split shifts but means having someone live in and you may have to be a little flexible on experience/language requirements plus accomodate their need for English classes so not bomb-proof inset/sick cover)

iphones fault

Many thanks for all your suggestions. I need to sit down and find the courage to discuss the options with her ! An au pair arrangement is not possible as we do not want anyone to live in with us. I'll broach the 'housekeeping' duties and see how she feels about this many thanks again