Nanny/Housekeeper

[NewNannyM]

Hello all,

I'm a new nanny just having started work this summer. I've done a lot of childcare previously - from teaching to after school care - but this is my first ful time nanny position.

I've been finding that my employer has been asking me to do a lot of cleaning and tidying, in fact so much so that I feel my time with the children is extremely limited. There were originally two children but she has actually put one into nursery because she felt that I wasn't getting all the household chores done with them both in the house.

This has completely thrown me off balance as I'm unsure whether this is a normal state of affairs or something specific to this family. If it is the latter then I would feel a lot more comfortable about approaching her and asking if we can review my priorities and duties, but I wanted to find out from other nannies and carers, or mothers/fathers/family members what exactly the break down of time is for them.

At the moment I would estimate that 30% of my time (this is a generous estimation) is spent solely with the children, and about 30/40% is keeping an eye on them while either cooking or cleaning. The remaining 30/40% is just household chores such as ironing, cleaning, hoovering, cooking, dusting.

Is this the average breakdown??

I know it's quite a specific question but I would really appreciate some feedback so I know how to approach my employer. Being new to this I don't want my inexperience to stop me from bringing up something that I feel should be addressed, but equally don't want to jump straight in with demands and requests when I am unsure of what the average nanny would get done for them in a day.

Thanks a lot :)

Nannys dont do housework, other than that which specificaly pertains to the children (childrens meals, washing etc). What does your contract say? Do you have a job description?

Are you a nanny or a housekeeper? Maybe you are a bit of both.

As a nanny I would typically do:
A dishwasher load and unload
One or two clothes washing loads
I may get opportunity to fold and put away some clothes
I may vacuum once a week (or get the children to do some of it)
I will typically cook a meal once a day

I care for 3 children ranging in age from 8 months to 6 years old - so much of my time is childcare related rather than housework.

Do you have a contract? It should state what your duties are... if you have been hired as a nanny, I would say you've been given WAY too many household chores to do, but if hired as nanny/housekeeper it seems about right.

I care for two children, a one year old and a four year old. I do things like empty/load the dishwasher, cook meals, and obviously tidy up after myself and the children. When I've got the time (with younger one napping and older one at nursery) I might do some laundry and/or fold and put away clothes. I've occasionally been asked to do things like drop off dry cleaning... but NEVER to do any full-on cleaning in the house, that isn't what I was hired for.

So, I would say about 80% of my time is spent just on childcare, and 20% on other tasks while keeping an eye on the children or children are at nursery/napping/playdate. In the school holidays it's more like 90-10 as we get out and about quite a lot so less time to do anything other than the essential stuff!

I agree that if you've been hired as a nanny it's too much. If you're a nanny/housekeeper that's probably a little generous on rye household side but within reason.

It depends on the ages as to how much time you spend doing household stuff related to the children. With a baby I would maybe vacuum twice a week, with a toddler it would be more like every day!

IMO anything related to the children is fair game as a nanny. If you have a picky boss with high standards that can mean you spent a large portion of time doing chores.

Golly I never expected my Nanny to do anything at all other than care for the children, make them a decent meal each day and insist that they (kids not nanny) picked up their toys etc.

This said she did do lost which was outside of that, but I suspect thats because it wasnt expected....

My nanny is only child related housework - washing and ironing, keeping the playroom and DD's room clean, cooking meals and clearing up after DD and NOC. I would say less than 5% of her time unless they 3 of them have demolished the house!!

Windy

Windy - I think you are grossly underestimating the time it takes a nanny to do only child related chores.

I work 30 hours over 3 days. I strip 2 beds, remake them and wash and dry the sheets. I dust and hoover their bedroom once. I do one wash load of childrens clothes and dry them (don't iron) and one load of towels and dry them. I tidy the playroom daily (with childrens help) and hoover it once. I tidy any garden toys used daily. I clean the childrens bathroom. I also prepare/cook breakfast, lunch and dinner each day - so 9 meals.

All chores are child related and all normal (though not all nannies clean the dc's bathroom if there is a cleaner) and there's no way that I could do them all in less than 5% of my working hours - 5% is only 1½ hours.

I don't forget that preparing meals means that you are loading the dishwasher, washing saucepans, wiping work surfaces, wiping dining table, sweeping floor under dining table. I unload the dishwasher once or twice a week as well.

I agree with nbee84. It takes an amazing amount of time to do just the basic things - which I suspect you already know, as a parent, and also assume your nanny does these things as it would be ridiculous for you to come home to a complete mess in the kitchen at the end of the day!

Just preparing a picnic lunch for an outing - then cleaning up the kitchen so it's not a mess when we get back - can take me quite a while... especially if the kids are a bit too excited to leave the house!

nbee - I must admit I did exclude food prep from my estimate, but I reckon on top of food she probably does about half an hour a day. Hoover maybe once a week in the relevant rooms, quick clear up at the end of the day, a couple of loads of washing a week and the bed changed once a week (if time allows). I do quite a lot myself, I do dishwasher, most of the washing and the cleaner does the rooms once a week. This is in the holidays, school days are different as she only works 4 hours and has no time to do any of the housework, just tea and activities, I wouldn't expect her to do anything else and pre-prep meals so she doesn't need to. childcare is her priority.

Windy