Slave labour

[Annabelle5]

I saw this job advertised by My Travelling Nanny and was not only horrified that parents would leave 3 young children, including a baby, with a complete stranger for a week, but also that the agency thought it was acceptable to pay some poor girl little more than £1 hour for a very tough job! It should be illegal. Shame on you!!!

"Parents in need of a holiday without their children would like a temporary nanny to be a proxy parent for their children aged 7, 2.5 and 9 months in their home in Tring, for 1 week, in termtime, before the end of May.

They have not left their children before, so are a little nervous! Ideally they would like to have a potential nanny for a weekend trial, when they are there for part of the time, so that they can have peace of mind.

They are happy to plan their holiday around when the nanny would be available.

Please respond asap if you are interested.
Pay would be around £250 - £300 for the week."

Sickening.

That is terrible, cannot imagine leaving my DCs with anyone unless I knew them very well and would expect to pay a lot more than this for 24 care for 3 DCs!

That's madness. I pay our nanny more than per week to look after one 18mo from 8-6, 4 1/2 days a week. And she has her own flat.

I seriously wonder who they would have replying to that ad.

What world are they on?
Who on earth would leave such young children with a stranger like that.
We also pay our Nanny more than that for a 50 hour week rather than a 168 hour week. If they do get anyone mad enough to do it, I can't imagine that they would have any experience/ qualifications.

I have PPd for children that young, although not for a week, but charged significantly more than they're paying!

Hopefully they won't have any replies

And yes it is shameful

If my nanny has to do an over nighter she gets double pay (not done one yet)

I would count that between the hours of midnight and 7 pm plus her normal daily salary

7 am ...

"We are a family-run business that provides high calibre Temporary Nannies and Travelling Nannies to accompany families on their holidays, in their family home, or a mixture of both."

No high calibre nanny would work for that money.

yep, that would be about right for my 24 hr rate

perhaps it;s a misprint? (forever hopeful)

*it's (obviously)

Surely they missed out a zero...

Sadly this is more common than you would think. My nanny told me a story of turning up on the first day of one job to meet the parents waiting for a taxi to take them to the airport. They had just had baby number 3 and decided they needed a holiday. My nanny was dumped with the two older kids for

Damn phone!

Nanny was dumped with the two other kids for a week! The parents went long haul away. She didn't even know where their schools were!

Could it be a typo £250-£300 a day rather than as a weekly wage?

doesnt surprise me I met a family several yrs back they lived an hr from me and wanted me to proxy parent for 7 days at the grandmas - grandma would be around but not caring for the children - she lived 4hrs away and I could travel there with them or on my own. Agency knew my rates at the time were £160 per 24hrs (now £200) and so off I went agency arranged interview lovely family, told mum there how much etc she seemed ok, was 2 little ones under 2.5yrs.

Anyway agency rang and said oh they loved you but only want to pay £300 for the week but would pay £450 for you - I was sooooo annoyed I said you know how much I charge per 24hrs and this is 7 days and they were unlikely to get anyone with any experience to do it for £300- she said oh we have others on our books who would do it - so I said well why the hell did you send me!! (have never dealt with said agency again) - annoys me.

I reckon they've just looked at the lowest cost for a normal live in nanny and used that on their ad. Can't imagine they'd get any responses. Both my children would have a been a nightmare being left with someone they didn't know for a week, even if that person was the most amazing nanny ever!
I feel bad leaving my nanny with all three children just for a day.

So is the agency really wanting someone to:

Go to the parents home, working 24 hours a day for the duration of the parents holiday (presume 7 days)?

That the person providing that service is not going to be self employed, but is rather going to be an employee of whom (agency or parent) - as they are dictating the salary, rather than asking individuals to name their price?

The parents want the nanny to go for a weekend trial - for which there is no mention of payment.

There could be several potential issues here I feel... who is the employer or is the nanny self employed? Working hours without any rest breaks. Would any nanny be actually wanting to do the work for the money on offer?

If we were to assume that the agency was introducing a self-employed childcarer to the parents and the parents were deciding to use the services of that childcarer - would it not be up to that childcarer to decide on the charge made for providing the service? Surely that charge would not be in the £250-£300 range, given the amount of childcare involved in this case.

If the nanny was going on holiday with the parents (all expenses paid), so accompanying the family on a holiday, then I could see that the salary may be more suitable, subject to reasonable working hours. However this looks to me to be more like 24/7 proxy parenting, which carries a far higher price tag.

Note that unless you are already living with the family national minimum wage applies for proxy parenting so MINIMUM for 24x7 is £1,022.

These people have advertised today -
www.gumtree.com/p/jobs/looking-for-a-reg-babysitter-and-a-babyaitter-for-two-weeks-in-sep-while-go-abroad/96796343

They want to pay £300 for TWO weeks

iluvkids...

i like the photos just so the applicant knows what they will get!

i am speechless....

It's very common.

I can't believe that link that iluvkids has posted... those poor poor children... "we don't mind if you have them at ours or yours"

Am I wrong in thinking that Social Services would/should be interested in something like this?

And also - I am always so so wary of giving away personal child-related details on websites - let alone photographs... who on earth would do that?

I was horrified to read this advert. I share your concerns and feel this is definately a social services issue. Here we have parents who prioritise their own wants above the needs of their children. Sounds irresponsible and neglectful.