Do you work full-time away from home? How many hours does your nanny work?

[PaddingtonBearLondon]

We've got a toddler and an infant. When I return to work from maternity leave next summer I have to be full-time for the first few months before being allowed back onto a part-time contract. My job involves irregular shift-work and nights away from home and I'll be working about 20 days per month. DH works long, late hours during the week and likes to have perhaps half a day or so of child-free time to himself at the weekend.

What I'm finding hard to gauge is how many hours of (nanny) childcare a week we'll need whilst I have to be full-time. I was thinking maybe 50. DH reckons 60 hours a week minimum, based on 5 x 12 hour days. That seems quite high to me overall and a 12 hour day seems long. DH thinks he'd need that though to cover work and commuting whilst I'm away.

I'm worried that the average nanny might think 60 hours too much. Also, I obviously don't want to pay for more hours than we'll actually need.

So, to those of you working full-time, what's realistic? How many hours of childcare per week have you found to be comfortable? Do you manage with less than 12 hours a day? If so, how?

What would happen after the initial few months - not sure how many nannies would do say a 60 hour week for 3 months, then drop to doing less hours.

"I obviously don't want to pay for more hours than we'll actually need."

Maybe a nanny isn't suitable for you if you are only seeing them as providing childcare for the hours you are not at home. Yes having a nanny work whilst you are not working is a luxury, it does mean you get some time to do things you want/need to do. Nannies don't just do childcare, they also do work around the home (depending on their contract) such as children's laundry, general tidying up.

As a nanny I do 2x 12 hour days, 2x8 hour days.

You may find that you need to employ a temporary nanny for the first few months whilst you are full-time and change childcare when you move to part-time.

Would you consider a live-in for the first few months? - they would be more amenable to changing hours each week (and a 60 hour week can be quite normal for live-in, they also have no commute time), maybe even doing an evening babysit when you have a week where you need them for less daytime hours. You would still pay them a set weekly salary rather than a salary based on what hours they have done.

Hi nannynick and nbee84, thanks for replying.

Sorry, I should have said that we'd want a full-time nanny for a year, not just the few months when I'm full-time, as I'll need to do some work-related studying once I'm part-time again.

We're weighing up live-in v liveout. The more hours that we're asking for the more it makes sense for a nanny to be live-in to avoid them having to commute (as well as to be more affordable for us of course). So you think 60 hours is quite normal nbee84?

Nannynick,

What happens to the children on your 8 hour days? Does one of the parents get home early?

tbh not many nannies like doing 5 days @ 12 hours - it is knackering as what many parents forget is that although you may do a 12hour day, we have to add on travel either end and may end up actually doing 13+hrs depending where we live

i generally do a 11 hour day but also do 12hr days and recently 17hour days but thats as mb is in hospital :(

what hours does your dh do at the moment - ie does he leave at 7am and arrive home at 7pm - hence maybe needing 12hrs when you are away but maybe doing 10 when you are not

55 is apparently the average for live in so 60 would be fine. Live-out generally expect to do around 45 IME.

If you want Childcare on a Saturday then live in also makes sense.

For a few years my dh and I both had jobs that were difficult to fit into a fixed routine - sometimes one of us would be away from home, sometimes we'd have to host a client dinner or go to an evening meeting at very short notice, and inevitably we'd end up with late evenings on the same day. If you think that is the likely scenario for you then would very strongly recommend a live out nanny combined with live in au pair. the extra £80 or so it costs a week gives you flexibility to cover periods when your nanny is off duty, and if you don't need all the spare hours then the ap can do ironing etc.

Blondes, Live-in might be the way to go then. Do you think 8am-8pm 5 days a week would be reasonable?

DH is generally out of the house for 10-11 hours.

StillSquiffy, I hadn't thought of having both! Sounds very extravagent!! Surely though a live-out nanny would charge much more than a live-in? Maybe £100 pw more than a live-in would be (on top of the au-pair's wages).

Works out the same cost for the nanny - 45 hours x £8 per hr live out, versus 55 hours x £7 live in. So the extra is just the ap wage. Which ends up being worth it's weight in gold if you need flexibility. Otherwise you will forever be paying overtime and having a v unhappy nanny who can't schedule her own life. But of course if you can schedule your hours with accuracy you don't need that kind of cover.

Varies of course depending on where you live and level of experience you are looking for.

Definitely worth considering, thanks.

I wonder what most full-time-work parents do? (Assuming there're no grandparents to help out.)

We're in SW London, zone 4

DH has just said that live-out nannies here are up to £12 ph.

I think most live in nannies would prefer 7am - 7pm rather than 8am - 8pm if that would work for you. Finishing work at 7pm means you still have a chance of being able to get to classes or clubs starting at 7.30pm, 8pm finish makes it quite difficult to have a social life during the week.

I've always done around 60 hours a week, at the moment I'm doing 11 hours 15 mins, I'm live-out, though I do live just up the road from my work. When I was live in I was given the option of doing 7.30-7.30 or 8-8 and I chose the latter- a bit more time in bed!

My preference is a longer working day but each and every nanny is different. I have a nanny friend who does 3 long days, one short then Fridays off and another who prefers afterschool nannying. One thing I hated doing was working weekends, I found most of my friends had weekends off so lost out on meeting up.

My boss decided to offer me a weekly net wage which works out at less than £10 gross per hour (am in Greater London) but at the time I was just grateful to get a job!

I am live in and do 5 days 7.15-5.15 which is a 50 hour week. However my boss can often go away for work or has to stay at work overnight too so sometimes I do 7.15-5.15 the following day - this is usually with notice. Plus I also then do 24/5 or 24/7 if my boss is away for a couple of days/weeks.

However I also get lots of days off, finish early, have the ease of being live in so it's all ok :)

tbh a live in may work out better for you esp as many bs twice a week including in wage, so dh could be late/go for a beer etc

I just wanted to agree with Nanny R ,I work from 7 til 6 -6.30 ,I would not take a job of 8 til 8 five days a week ,I do work one late day til 9 but I wouldnt want to do it 5 days a week.

Agree I like to be able to get to the gym during the week or out for a drink/meal or even just relax on my time so am glad I finish at 5.15ish. When I do the odd late night I prefer finishing at 7 to 8 as I still feel like I get free time at the end of the day instead of it only being an hour or so.

NannyR, 8-8 works better for us but we could change if it meant a more appealing job.

SOSP, I do shift-work so the nanny would have to be flexible. What do you think would be a reasonable range of wages for flexible hours?

I mean flexible on which days we'd need from week to week.

8-8 is horrible as by the time youve eaten and showered theres no time to go out/meet friends etc and its bedtime

if you can be flexible then 7-7 is nicer and again with days,, having a long weekend rather then a spilt week is attractive

I've got to go now but thanks everyone.

7-7 def better than 8-8. If I finish at 7 I can go to the gym. Not sure I would go to the gym if I finished at 8.

Explain the flexible days. Will you be getting lots of advance notice? Would it be a regular rota type arrangement, so for example week 1 nanny works Mon-Fri, week 2 works Tue-Sat?

I get shorter hours on two days as some parents get to work from home, or work part-time and have study days, or work shifts which differ a little week to week.

Dad can also help out with childcare, that can help to reduce nannies hours/days.

"DH works long, late hours during the week and likes to have perhaps half a day or so of child-free time to himself at the weekend."
That's Sunday sorted then. Could he do childcare on the Saturday?

Whilst he works long hours, could his hours be different to your own, so for example he leaves home early, then comes back earlier and thus could do childcare early evening?

What other things have you looked at? Combination of Au-Pair and Nursery, Au-Pair and Childminder?

Sorry not to reply sooner - it's been a busy few weeks!

nannynick, I get a month's roster mid previous month. DH frequently needs to work late so I can't rely on him for evenings. Saturdays might be okay.

We're now looking at combining nursery (for our eldest) and a nanny (for both), although we're still not sure whether they'd be live-in or live-out.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.