Keeping nanny during maternity leave

[NewRowSees]

Hi there – I’m considering what to do with our nanny while I’m on maternity leave, and am hoping to hear some experiences from nannies / employers of nannies.

We currently employ a lovely nanny for our son. I’m expecting DC2 in January, and will be off for around 6 months, maybe more. We can probably just about afford to keep our nanny on during this period (if we start saving now), but I’m wondering if it would be necessary to have her around full-time.

I’d be at home with the baby most of the time, so will definitely appreciate the help with my very active toddler. But I don’t want us to get under each other’s feet, especially if my family / friends are visiting in which case it might get a bit cramped / awkward - so I was thinking about perhaps cutting her hours so we still have some family time to ourselves, even if it’s just a few hours a day.

But I have mixed feelings about this, morally – cutting her hours (and therefore pay) just doesn’t seem fair. What if she can’t find another job to make up the extra salary? I wouldn’t want her at a disadvantage, and also wouldn’t want to lose her permanently as she’s so good with my son.

What would you all do?

Talk to the nanny and see what she thinks.

Does she know you are pregnant yet?

In the past when I have done it, my working days and hours have changed. No need for me to be doing 12 hour days. However the total number of hours worked each week has not changed - so no changes to pay.

Changes to pay is a significant change to the contract, so will need careful handling. What if your nanny can't afford to take a pay cut?

Look at how much holiday your nanny has not yet taken... you may be able to get them to take some holiday during your maternity leave. You may even be able to agree with them to take that holiday as a couple of hours a week, rather than full days.

The key thing I feel is that you keep your nanny informed of what it is you are considering and involve them... if they are happy working for you, they will want to try to make things work over your maternity leave so that they remain in your employment and have a job once you go back to work.

Your nanny will be able to spend 1:1 time with your son and will also enable you to do so as well, as knowing baby from birth, your nanny will be able to care for baby for varying periods of time.

It is going to be costly but also it should make things easier. Is your nanny already doing laundry, cooking, general housework?

Speak to her but if you want her to go back to full time after you go back to work then you should expect her to say she needs to work full time during your maternity leave.

If you are planning on taking 6 months I think it could work out ok -
the last month you will want her there to start to settle in with new baby and toddler anyway
the first few weeks it will be helpful for your DS to have her there as continuity is helpful and she can still take him to classes etc
You could ask her to take as much of her holiday as possible in that 6 m period so when you go back to work you have a clear 6m not needing to worry about childcare
You could ask her if she is willing to do other stuff eg take on more chores at that time
It will give you the opportunity to have one on one time with each child

If you are able to give her a defined period and flexibility in the hours she works for you then she may be able to find a short term part time job.

I think it depends really on how keen she is to stay with you. I think you would be very lucky to find a nanny who is willing and able to take a 6 month pay cut.

My MB has just gone back after 9 months maternity leave, during which I worked my normal hours/normal days. If she had asked me to work fewer hours I probably would have done because a) I can afford to and b) I've been here a long time and they're fantastic employers. So fantastic, in fact, they didn't ask me.....

Thanks for your suggestions, they're all very sensible. I'm comfortable with continuing to pay her full-time salary as it's only fair, but hadn't fully considered flexible hours.

We haven't told her that I'm pregnant yet, but are planning to later this week once I've had my 12 week scan.

I'll need to sit down and work out how many of her holiday days are left, and what impact they would make if applied during my maternity leave instead. But I'll do it with her in case she has other ideas.

Nannynick, when you say your total hours didn't change, what hours did you work instead? Would you go in on weekends?

We kept our nanny during maternity leave and kept her hours almost the same - I didn't feel it was fair to ask her to reduce them but still remain available to increase again after mat leave. It has been odd sometimes having someone else in the house and i did sometimes wish ds went to nursery so I could have a bit of time in the house just with the baby. However for the children it has without doubt been a good thing, dd never had to settle with the nanny as she knew her from birth and ds has has continuity. It was very expensive and I felt guilty about not looking after the two of them all the time, but for them it was worth it. I am just about to return to work properly (went back 2 days at 6 months but now going back 4 days) and last week I had a full day with ds whilst the baby stayed with the nanny. Since 6 months I have had individual time with each of them which has gone down very well with ds. Our nanny cooks for the children but does no other household work - that is just not the kind of relationship I want to have with her.

I work 40 hours a week over 4 days, so changing that to be over 5 days meant less hours each day. No weekend working.