Family expecting baby number 4! Advice needed.

[pinknanny]

Hi all,
I have been with current family part time for 2 1/2 years looking after their 3 children.
The mum informed me early on that she was pregnant again and did say they would be keeping me on.
The problem is i havent been told anyting sinse. I know that i am going to have to approah them with regards to what the plan is once baby is born as cant see them telling me anything otherwise!
I'm not convinced that i really want to stay in this position( I have been thinking this even before news of number 4, and do have many reasons).

So, what i am really looking for is advice on what questions would be appropriate to ask so that i will have a better understanding of the situation once baby arrives.

Some things i have thought of are:
How much maternity leave will be taken?
What will my duties be whilst she is on maternity?
Transport (i can only fit 3 kids in my car)?
Pay increase?

I know there must be alot of obvious questions, i just cant think at the moment. Any help would be much appreciated.
Sorry for rambling on so much.
Thanks Again

The mum informed me early on that she was pregnant again and did say they would be keeping me on.

Well that's the good news then. The worry in this situation I would have thought is that mum would decide that she no longer needed a nanny.

Perhaps you could ask mum how her pregnancy is going. Is there a due date? Would it be useful to start preparing the other children for the arrival of their new sibling?

I'm not convinced that i really want to stay in this position
Why would you want to leave a job at this time of high unemployment? Your reasons for leaving are what? (send me a PM if you feel able to share). Consider what your reasons are and if they are really vitally important. At a guess I would say they are not, as you have not at this time left the job (or have you already given notice?).

How much maternity leave will be taken?
Mum may not know the answer to that. Though she may well have some plan of action, so may know roughly when she is likely to go on maternity leave (all being well) and when she would be aiming to go back to work again.

What will my duties be whilst she is on maternity?
Sure it's a question to ask, though I would expect that your duties would not overly change, as you are presumably currently responsible for the other 3 children and the house during your working day. I would imagine that would continue... the difference being that mum is around at home.

Transport (i can only fit 3 kids in my car)?
That is certainly something to raise sooner rather than later. It is a problem if you will need to be taking all 4 children out and about in your car. It may be possible to resolve, if you don't currently use your front passenger seat and you have a passenger air bag that can be turned off via a key switch.

Pay increase?
Why? A pay rise because a new baby comes along is not something that would automatically happen in my view. Nannies are paid to care for all the children in the family, not on a per-child basis. Do you expect an automatic pay drop when the eldest child goes to school?

I've been in this situation twice and I can't think of what questions I asked. I expect I didn't ask very many and just went with the flow.

I think you will have to go with it. They are keeping you on that's the main thing. She probably will need an extra pair if hands. I work for two families one with two children and one with four the one that has two pays me more as nick said you do not get paid per child it's per family.

It's not really in their interests not to discuss this with you, after all if you did leave they'd probably be really stuck without you.

In the early days things may not change much, if the mother is taking care of the newborn, so they might not see any reason to discuss things at the moment.

You both need to have a chat about what you expect from each other. Going from 3 to 4 is a big difference IME, and its the practicalities of things like transport which are the issues.

Good luck :)