Non Sole charge Nanny suggestions?

[justlookatthatbooty]

Am self employed (personal trainer) with 2 DC whom I care for full time at home. I work before the butt crack of dawn and get home in order for my partner to go to work at 0930. I'm with the kids all day til he gets home and then either back to work with a client or two or the whole bedtime ritual. Neither kids are great sleepers so I"m up at night a lot. I do this because I love my business and the work itself and I love being with the kids and it hasn't worked out with nurseries that we've tried.
I need to address the overloaded schedule before I burn myself out completely and am thinking of a part time nanny so that I can go out with one child at a time to cool activities, or go out on my own to a yoga class or somesuch. Am thinking of nanny 4 days a week 6-8 hours a day. But will she get in my way? Do you have suggestions on how to schedule such a set up? Any tips anyone?

I've had a shared care nanny since DS2 was born.
It seems to work best for us if we're not both in the house at the same time. If I want to be in the house she goes out and vice versa.
Its also important that you always back the nanny up if you are in the house together ie at bath time, so that they don't play you off against each other!!
The nanny also needs to have fun activities scheduled with her child, so that they don't feel left out.
I suppose the only other thing is to make sure you employ someone who you think you can get along with. I chose my nanny over some other better qualified candidates as I liked her personally and I thought we could work well together.

thanks for the tips Karoleann...
Just met a really lovely Phillipeno girl who was very sweet but also clear. Language wasn't great but since are a bilingual family with English being the weaker language I feel fine about her not having perfect English. Some extra English is better than none and it will be good for the kids to have someone who hasn't a clue what they are saying in Dutch!
It feels like a big step to have someone around 4 days a week 6-8 hours a day but I"m hoping we can still be spontaneous and still feel like a family? I plan to have some structure to the week but be a little spontaneous around that.
Is all your time structured Karoleann or do you find yourself deciding to go off with one of your children etc when you feel like they need more of you etc?

When we originally started doing it I would use the time to spend with my older child as I had time with the little one when the elder was at nursery. So usually we had a planned activity in the morning and then I'd have some time to myself in the afternoon.
Now they're older I probably spend half a day with each child, expecting number 3 in a month so I'll have more help again in a few months.
I usually let her know in the morning what the plan is for the day.
Personally I think 4 days may be a bit much but you can see how things go - hope it all works out.

Op - I had a shared care nanny 4 days a week for just over a year as I was trying to study at home. It did work out quite well most of hte time - as she didn't need to be highly qualified I hired one of the staff from DS1's nursery who didn't have nannying experience and included a few light housekeeping duties as well.

It gave me the opportunity to do 1 on 1 things with the DC, and made other things easier. Unlike Karoleann I didn't work it so that one of us was always out of the house. There were a lot of times that we were all in the house at the same time, and even did outings together. 2 adults taking the DC out and about certainly made life easier for me!!!! I think what helped make it work was that the DSs knew who was 'in charge' at any given time as it were. So if I wanted to 'run' lunch, I made that clear to the nanny and I took control. Otherwise I would let the nanny 'run' lunch and I would join them, but backing her up if they played up and she had to discipline them.

I guess generally if the nanny was there, she was in charge of them unless I said otherwise, and on outings I would generally be in charge - but obviously you need someone fairly easy going because there will always be times that you step on each others toes, you just have to work your way through it (and not be precious, let the nanny do things a little differently to how you would!)

I also found 4 days a bit much for me in the end as the DS2 got a bit older.

Also, because I was around a lot I chose someone without a driver's licence thinking it wouldn't matter, but in the end it did start to matter as I became resentful that I had to always interrupt what I was doing to do the nursery runs, etc. I had asked her - and she agreed - to get her driver's licence as soon as possible when we first talked to her about the position. It didn't happen and we were stalled in that routine without being able to change it so think carefully about how your needs might alter and try to choose someone who would meet any altered needs.

Also as Karoleann said, as you will be around a lot - definitely get someone that you get along with. That is VERY important. Even now, having stopped using my nanny I still use her for occasional babysitting and we catch up every now and then because I liked her as a person and loved the way she interacted with my DC.