Nanny question: What do you do when your youngest goes full time at school?

[Screwballmuppet]

When your youngest child begins full time school what do you do regarding a full time nanny.

We are currently interviewing at the moment doing the round of 2nd interviews and just thinking about the not to distant future when ds2 goes to school ft.
We would hope to keep the same nanny, providing she would want to stay with us, but not sure how this would work as in what the nanny can do for the time they are at school.
We would still need someone as I have early morning starts and evening finishes so would prefer to have the continuity of care for the kids.

What have you done when your youngest goes full time?

Hi screwball, I think it depends on your needs, and what she is willing to do. You migh reduce her hours. Or you might pay her to pick up some of the house cleaning or other chores (running errands, whatever) but only if she is willing to do this.

If she is not on a fixed term contract, and you have employed her for at least two years, you might have to pay her redundancy when the job she used to do is no longer available.

When does your youngest enter school full-time?

September......only 9 months away really. We've been so focused on sorting out the childcare situation as it is and dh father has just had heart surgery that we hadn't given a second thought to whats going to happen months ahead.

When I was in this situation as a nanny, with help from my employers I found another family who wanted p/t care for their 2 children. I looked after both families 2 days a week (1 child in daytime, 4 children after school) and my original family after school on the remaining 3 days. The extra after school income and the fact I only worked 2 days f/t made up for the loss in income from the first family.

Then, when my second family's children were all of school age I found another family who just wanted a few mornings here and there, and kept replacing this 3rd family as necessary. At times I worked in a nursery as well. It was complicated but worthwhile in the end, and meant I was able to stay with my first family for nearly 10 years, and my second family for 7.

You would need to be very flexible to enable your nanny to fulfill her duties to the other family if you choose this route, and pay more than you would for other forms of child care pro rata.

You could also hire her on a nine month fixed term contract and then see what suits you when your DS heads off to school. It might be in your interest to ask now in interviews if she would be willing to take on a bit of housework (assuming that is something you might like her to do while the kids are at school.

Or cooking... might be nice to have a meals prepared for you when you get home.