Who am I looking for?

[artyjools]

Okay, this is a bit of a stupid question, but what I really need is a part time wife!

I work from home and I need someone who can do some basic cleaning and ironing for me once a week, but who will also be able and willing, on an occasional and flexible basis, to pick up kids from school, cook them a meal and be around for an hour or two (they are older so don't need "looking after" as such), babysit and walk the dog.

I can see on another thread that it is not considered acceptable to ask someone who is looking after kids to do some housework too unless you are paying them double. Really? Perhaps it is because that post was advertised as a babysitting job.

Can anyone advise me as to what role should I be advertising for and how much should I be offering per hour in Surrey?

Ta

Don't try to fit a job to a particular job title. These days, adverts are not so limited as they were in the past, so you can include a huge amount of information in an advert to describe the duties the person would be expected to do.

Babysitter is I feel someone typically working in the evening 6pm-2am looking after children whilst those children are in bed, ideally asleep.

A nanny cares primarily for children, usually whilst parents go out to work.

Neither of those job titles sound suitable for what you have in mind.

How about putting in the advert title something like: Person required to help mum around the home - YourVillage/Town

Cost wise, very hard to know. National Mimum Wage for someone aged 22+ rises to £6.10 in October, so I'd say at lesst that amount.

Would you be offering 16 hours a week? That is often the magic number of hours someone may be wanting to work.

Thanks Nannynick. No, can't offer a regular 16 hours, but I am expecting to pay more than £6.10 per hour. I used to have a wonderful lady who sort of grew into the role, but I have moved to another area and am worried she was a one off!

It sounds like its a mother's helper role to me... but I think it'll need to be regular hours per week to interest anyone, otherwise they won't know whether they can rely on the £ or not.

If there is a way you could work out exactly what you will need on a weekly basis, then it will be easier to put it into a job discription.
A student would be ideal for this job!

That's a housekeeper - mothers help would generally be pre-school kids. £6-£8ph. It is much easier t ask someone who is doing housework to look after the kids too than the other way round .

Have you thought about school holidays?

A student might be okay, but I would want someone who is completely reliable and also someone who is a very safe driver (not saying students aren't, but you can probably understand where I'm coming from. I can offer some standard weekly hours for cleaning, but the other duties would arise on an unpredictable basis. I don't think that school holidays make much difference now. My eldest son is able to look after the other two for short periods of time, so in some respects holidays are easier than term time for me.

I have found one lady who is advertising a flexible service, so I'll interview here and take it from there.

Thank you for your advice.