Live-in nanny night duty?

[MummytoLO]

Two working mums, two live-in nannies, completely different attitudes.

My friend's nanny thinks it's part of her job to look after her charge at night occasionally so that mum can get a good night's sleep before the working day.

My nanny's day stops 5.30 sharp and she would never dream of looking after LO at night unless I pay her £££ extra.

What do you think is normal / reasonable?

I would expect the latter to be more normal. There may be more flexibility on start/finish time but once nanny has clocked off, then they are free to do as they wish. Otherwise a live-in nanny could be on-call 24/7 which I doubt you would feel is reasonable.

When living with a family there does need to be some give and take... if your friend's nanny does a night on occasion, do they then get some time off during a day?

How long have the nannies been in their respective jobs - maybe they have been there many years and have settled into what they find works best given the situation.

I think you should pay your nanny extra if you want her to get up during the night.

I had a little chuckle at letting the Mum have a good night's sleep before the working day. Is the Nanny not working the following day then?

Most nannies have to be quite clear about finishing at a certain time, otherwise boundaries can get blurred in live-in situations.

Normal is definitely that you pay extra if you want the night covered.

mummytolo - I would expect our nanny to be more flexible than that to be honest, in terms of doing occasional overtime - leaving at 5.30pm on the dot every day, come what may, would not work for me. However any overtime she does would be paid. So if I wanted her to do an overnight I would pay her extra.

It depends on what the agreement is and the nanny's feelings on the matter.

As a nanny I have done and been paid for 24/5. I have also worked set hours with as defined start and finish.

As an employer I have never asked my nanny to get up at night however my former nanny (bless her heart) use to be able to hear if we'd had a bad night and volunteer to take over after she'd been for her run at some unearthly hour even though she wasn't officially on duty (slightly odd working pattern). She said it wasn't any bother to do a little extra breakfast and I was so grateful for an hour or two extra that I didn't mind what they did in that time so sometimes he played while she skyped or they went into town so she could get something.

I think it depends what included in the contract, and what the overall pay is. But it should be stated upfront. (In reality, with live in nannies ,I think people find out what works as they go along).

A 5.30 finish sounds like an early finish time for a live in, so I would presume you are not paying mega bucks.

Some mums are strict about DC not going into the nanny's room, others don't mind if the DC climb into the nannies bed in the night (and might covertly suggest it to the DC if they aren't too keen on being kicked by a wriggly 3yo).

I think it's about finding a middle ground everyone is happy with. I once had a nanny job which paid mega bucks, but I was expected to be on call 24 hours a day. The only time I wasn't happy with the situation was when the DC decided to sleep out in their tree house. Not the best night of my life.

I think with live in nannies there is no one hard and fast rule.

How long has your nanny been working for you? You might find that over time she relaxes a bit and is not quite so precious over 'on duty' and 'off duty' hours. It could be that she has had a bad previous experience - or it could just be that she is not being particularly flexible.

One of my first live in jobs had specified hours of 7 til 7 but turned out to be quite different - expected to eat an evening meal with the parents at 7.45pm Mon - Fri so that I could run through their babies day (5 months old!) and to start work when baby woke - usually between 6 and 6.30 as Mum was getting ready for work . The straw that broke that particular job was when I had a night out for a friends birthday and arrived back at 12.30am. I was told I was not to be out later than 11.30pm as I would not be at my best for their baby the next day! It did make me careful to spell out start and finish times in my next job.

Reasonable is whatever you agree at interview and in contract

Generally live in nannies will babysit twice a week but not do overnights

Rare to have a live on in nanny who finishes so early

I used to work 7am - 5pm as a live-in nanny as it fitted into the parents working hours. All families are different when it comes to having a live-in nanny. With that job i never used to babysit at night where as more recent jobs i did.

'Reasonable is whatever you agree at interview and in contract'

Exactly this^.

(unless you've tricked someone into signing an unfair contract, which does happen with live-in nannies, particularly when they're from abroad)