What do do with Nanny once DS1 at school full time

[74slackbladder]

Not sure what would be the norm in this situation..
We have 2 x DCs, DS starts school full time in sept (currently 2 mornings pre-school) and DD currently 14 months.
Nanny works 4 long days per week
We have been looking forward to the day that DS starts school as our childcare costs would potentially go down. However, as neither mine nor my DH's working situation will not really allow us to do drop offs every day, we will still need the wrap-around bit for him.
We also love the convenience of having a nanny for lots of reasons and we have no complaints at all with her. But, we are wondering if we can justify the expense of a nanny for just looking after DD and doing school drop off and pick up for DS.
I have wondered if it would be reasonable to ask her take on additional tasks that she does not currently perform...eg assume more responsibility for shopping and cooking the children's meals (mostly she does simple meals eg cheese on toast or she re-heats food I have pre-prepared - I do all the planning, shopping, and majority of cooking), laundry for the children, light cleaning/tidying?
Anyone got any thoughts ?

Anything child related is fair game. If you would take 14 month old on the errand i.e. grocery shopping) no reason she can't do the saem.

• sew labels on clothes
• meal planning / purchasing
• nanny diary (if you don't already have one)
• arrange playdates, after school activities.
• could do children's ironing during 14 month old's nap time
• buy all the stuff school will require on a day's notice
• respond to and buy present for birthday parties
• tidy the kids toys and clothes

You can ask for the above child-related chores but i'm not sure about the 'light cleaning' - unless you mean 'tidying up the dcs's room', which is fine imo.

Tbh her day is not changing that much as she still has the 14m baby all day (plus the school run and probably more playdates now with the school).

Having said that i don't see why you do all the cooking, she should make pasta, rice, shepherds pie, fish etc.

When I did that job my boss discussed with me that my pay was based on 2 kids to look after and when it went down to 1 I did more around the house and with meals etc.I was also able to do a lotmore with the youngest that was age appropriate

I think it depends a bit on your younger child and what you want from your nanny. We have a nanny for ds who is 2.9, he is extremely demanding and it is very hard to do anything effectively whilst he is around. I felt that I would rather she spent the time really focused on him rather than trying to do household tasks as well so although I wrote in her contract that we could ask her to do child-related housework in practice all she does is cook for ds and tidy up after him. I felt that one of the advantages of a nanny was that she could be really focused on him and that has paid off in that they have a great relationship and he does some fantastic playing with her. He will be starting school at some point and I'm hoping she'll stick around for pick ups for him and full time with dc2 - due in 3 days!
Also, even if you look into other forms of childcare your costs may not go down as don't some childminders charge for the whole day if they have to do morning and afternoon pick-ups since they can't find another child for just school hours? or have I got that wrong?

She still has a 14mo to look after and if she has to do the school run twice a day tbh she probably won't end up with that much extra "free time". It is likely that she will end up with just as much work, but different, if she will be taking the school age child to after school activities, playdates (or hosting at yours) etc. As others have said anything child related is fair game, tidying their rooms, their laundry, their meals etc. (and I would certainly expect a nanny doing four long days to cook proper meals from scratch, maybe doing a bit of batch cooking to have something in the freezer for days she can't rather than heating up what you have made). I don't think it's reasonable to expect a nanny to do cleaning and tidying up for anyone other than the kids tbh.

It is very hard work taking a small child to school, IME, especially with a baby in tow. Your nanny may find her life more tiring, not less tiring, when your DS is at school all day.

But I think it is reasonable to ask her to do all your children's laundry and ironing and to make meals, nonetheless. And maybe take your DD swimming and to gym or music class?

Also remember schools have lots of holidays/random days off. My eldest is just finishing P1 and the number of short notice days/half days off for various reasons has surprised me.

A nanny is also very handy if a child is sick with the usual bugs that go round classrooms.

I think we are sold on keeping her because of the massive convenience factor but I think our general feeling is that she may have to pick up some of the slack that we have taken whilst she is finding her feet as this is her first nanny position and we werent sure how things would pan out.
And I do appreciate that the school run will be a mission in itself, especially with DD in tow.
My feeling is to get her gradually more into the habit of cooking meals rather than re-heating what I have prepared. Gradually edging her towards that. Currently, I seem to spend most of my evenings and a good chunk of weekends preparing food which is time I would much rather spend with the DCs doing fun stuff.
Likewise, I would like her to assume responsibility for the kids laundry - I'm not a big one for ironing so it would just be wash, dry, put away.
when I refered to cleaning, i meant really things like perhaps giving the dining room floor a quick sweep after meals, and ensuring toys are tidied away and the DCs bedrooms are tidy-ish.
thanks all for the input!

It's all wrong for you to be cooking for the nanny and the children!

Is she not doing the things because you have said its ok i'll do laundry, food etc? why is she not doing it? As a nanny i find it a bit strange that she doesnt do any nanny related jobs, I do the childrens clothes, beds, food, etc I like doing it, its part of my job. Does she take the children out alot and is always busy with them?

she came from a nursery, not that that is an excuse but, the emphasis when we took her on was on taking care of the children rather than the peripheral stuff, and she asked for a pretty 'modest' hourly rate so i think we have probably felt that we didnt want to take advantage of her!