Is hiring a NANNY really expensive?????Need Help as Brain has gone on strike!!!!

[drosophila]

I am really slow today and can't work out the best childcare for my two when I go back to work in April.

I will be going back to work 3 days a week. I live in London. I have one 13mth old and one 6yr old. If I use a nursery I will pay about £540 a month and I will have to pay for after school club for DS which I believe is £300 a term (DP works at home so he will rarely go to after school club but we need it as an option incase DP has to go to office).

I will also have to pay for someone to look after DS during school holidays (maybe a mothers help or baby sitter as Dad will be working at home)

Really gratefull if anyone has any ideas on the best childcare in my circumstances. If I can't get my head around this then how on earth will I be able to work. I am wondering if a nanny would be much more expensive than the alternative of afterschool club and nursery.

Thanks, thats exactly what I wanted to see. WIll have to do my sums.

Another option could be a nanny share...
Either with another family, which may be hard to find given you're part time, or a nanny who has their own child/ren.
Not every nanny adjusts her/his fees when they bring along their own child, but many do.
I certainly wouldn't dream of charging the same as i used to before I had children.
I don't know figures but I'd have thought you'd at least be able to knock a third off....
Good luck

ok im a full time nanny... and i know by the time my employers pay all their taxes associated with me (as well as my own) i cost them over £25k per year.... thats is off couse for 5 days rather than 3, so i would imagine a 3 day a week nanny costing abit nearer £15k, rather than £13k...

then of course theres expenses on top of that... music / tumble tots / swimming / gym, outings in the holidays, + MY car expenses + food for all of us + costs of heating the house etc etc

However us nannies have extra benefits as well... such as coming home to a tidy kids rooms / play rooms, childrens laundry and most things associated with the kids you can expect a nanny to do... + we are available if / when your children are sick which nursarys and most childminders are not!

Ok I phoned a few today and the cheapest I was quoted was £60 a day with the average being about 70-80. I would be working for very little money but am tempted by the less stress argument.

As a nanny do you decide what activities the child goes to?

Also how would you feel with Dad working at home in a communal part of the house? Would you feel spied upon?

Its up to the mum and the nanny what they do...

tho generally its up to the mum to decide if she wants to let the nanny decide IUSWIM

As a nanny "mum is boss". You as a mum have a right to decide what you do and do not want your children to do, and if you do / dont want them to do something that should be it! No proffesional nanny should do or not do reasonable thinsg that you specifically request...

however its not very exciting (for the nanny and the child to sit at home all day every day so most nannies like to slip a few regular / structured activities in throughout the week...

At the moment me and my charges do Ballet / swimming every week, and tennis at the weekends with mummy / Daddy

In the past we have had Tumbletots / gym / adventure play / swimming / Music as regular pay up front things...

Thanks NannyL.

Drosophila,
If you are prepared to have a live-in nanny, will consider experience over qulifications, I think you can get one for a bit less than the figures quoted here. You might look at ascension countries or someone who currently works in a nursery. I think nursery workers are good because they have the exxperience, some level of qualification, and they are not paid very well at the nursery so might find your job more attractive.

advanatages of a nanny is that you also get someone at home to feed cat/ tak ein parcels etc. Plus mine is great at running the hoover round and washing ds clothes etc. I don't expect her to do our stuff but she normally just shoves a load in then folds and puts away his stuff leaving ours in a clean washing heap for us to sort out.
She takes him to one palygroup session (theres 3 available locally and I leave it up to her to choose which day suits her best) plus swimming once a week. I work from home quite alot and study as well so i'm often around and i think she's fine with that. I am sorting out the study so its a seperate part of the house but for now I owrk in the living area.

Sorry forgot to add, we got round the expense thing by hiring an experienced but unqaulified girl of 19 for her first sole charge nannying job- she is brilliant actually and far better with my ds than some of the older qualified nannies i itnerviewed. Very friendly, fun and happy. We pay £5 an hour and that will go up to £5.50 after a year. Thats in Hull so if I was in somewhere pricaier i'd expect to pay about £6 for the same level of experience.

I'm in a similar position - one child at school one in nursery, and have just taken on a nanny instead..we are able to share our nanny (on some days with nanny's own child and on others with another family with one child) and salary-wise it's cheaper than the nursery for one. I expect there will be some extra expenses (food, power bills, nanny-training (first aid cert. CRB) ) so it will work out about the same.
We're two days in, and dh is in raptures about how much easier it is in the morning without having to do a mad dash to nursery.
Good luck.
OH, and I recommend the sharingcare website (there's a link at the top of the page) for finding families to nanny share with.

an unexpected benefit for us of our present nanny is that she cooks our evening meal -fantastic when me and DH both stumble home around 7-7.30. She either makes a bit extra of whatever she cooks for the DCs or she cooks something adult for us. we hadn't planned this, it's not in her contract, but she likes doing it, and as and when she moves on I will definitely consider trying to recruit somebody who can do the same.

Yes it is a VERY good idea to find someone who is happy to help out around the house. We basically came to an arrangment where I expect her to take a MINIMUM of a half hour lunchbreak plus a 10-20 minute sit down with a cuppa in the morning during his naps. But she says she gets bored if she just sits there fore 2 hrs at lunchtime so she helps out in the house.

She has to make sure he has bottles ready and clean/dry clothes but after that she will do any little jobs around the house.

I work pt (20 hours over 4 days) and ds goes to a nannyshare round the corner to a family who employ a nanny for their 3 kids, 2 of whom are school age so mostly it's just ds and their daughter. Costs us 400 a month. Heaven. I think we are extremely lucky, however.

Our nanny gets to choose most of the activities, but we're keen on Tumble Tots and ColourStrings.

We expect there to be library trips and swimming, but she schedules them in consulation with us.

We first went for a live in nanny because we had really unpredictable hours, working in the City.
Nurseries are often quite hostile and punitively expensive if you turn up an hour late. Worth figuting that into your calculation.

A side benefit is that there is better interaction between the nanny and the kids than the other options we looked at.

I now work at home like drosophila's other half, so new nanny will be partly employed by the company to help with general admin whilst kids are at school/nursery.

But it's all horribly expensive, I guess we have to earn >50K to pay for nanny, school and groups.