What to encourage Nanny to do now both children in Nursery

[thaliablogs]

We have an abolutely lovey nanny who we really want to keep. My daughter is 4 and will go to primary next september. My son is 2 and is about to start nursery, he will go to primary in Sept 13.

Our nanny is very baby-focused, and is already making jokes about what she'll do with herself for the 2.75 hours between drop off and pick up at nursery. She is also very social and loves the playdates/classes that the children do, which will obviously drop off once they only have the afternoons to use for these activities.

We have suggested to her that we are happy for her to use the time to go to the gym, or take a class, and to perhaps run some household errands for us. I know that the latter is not her preference so don't want to overload her. We are keen for her to stay at least until the winter of 2013 so that both children can be settled at school before we move to a different support model.

So the question is - what have others done in this situation? How do you continue to make the job interesting for your nanny when there is less direct childcare to do? What should we suggest she does with herself?

We will not reduce pay, by the way, if she chooses to use the time for herself.

The time children are at nursery goes by very quickly. Won't she have enough washing, cooking, tidying, dog walking, getting things from the shops for the nursery school Christmas play, to be getting on with to fill the hours?

Very nice of you to let her go to the gym - lovely idea, I'd take that up but then that's just me, your nanny may not fancy the idea.

I have been in a job in that position and I don't recall it being a problem finding things to do during the time. I seem to recall it was mostly housework type things - stacking the dishwasher, making the beds, laundry, tidying the toy boxes. Also time for a short sit down with a cup of coffee without being disturbed - valuable time.

She will be on-call should there be any problems at nursery. Nursery may even like her to help out on occasion, so encourage her to do that if she likes. She may like to help run a local toddler group if there is on near by - groups can often be after volunteers.

I had a job where at the end the youngest was at nursery..by the time I had got back from the school drop off, done the food shopping/ prepared lunch/ tidied up/ put the laundry on/ hung a load up/ loaded dishwasher from brekkie it was pretty much time to go and pick her up...ok so I did sometimes sit down with a cuppa and watch tv for a bit but my bosses were ok with this

tbh 2.5 hrs goes quickly - as others have said by the time you have put some washing on/strip beds/tidy playroom etc and a cuppa it will be time to collect

i did go to the gym and back to my house but also happy to do food shopping and pick up clothes from dry cleaners etc

tbh happy to do most things apart from cleaning and ironing

have you told her that her job is safe till 2013 providing your job is safe

Thanks so much for all the replies. Yes we have said we want her to stay at least til autumn 2013 and she has said she is fine with that, it's just that she is also clearly missing her time with the two of them - to be honest she missed my daughter when she started school, too.

The nursery teacher told me she heard our nanny talking to some other nannies outside the school a few daya ago and apparenty they were all encouraging her, saying there was plenty to do etc., so hopefully it will be ok!

thanks again for all the ideas!

The nursery teacher shouldn't be gossiping about your nanny's private conversations.