What does your nanny do for you ?

[AngelaD]

Mine at the moment takes the baby to tumble tots, makes her lunch, takes her out in the afternoon and then picks the older up from school and takes them to tennis or swimming two days, the other days reads to them or watches them play.
I was speaking to another lady who's nanny does the childrens washing, makes the packed lunches and dinner.
Is she asking too much or has mine got an easy job ?
TIA

The children's washing and ironing, changing the children's beds and keeping them tidy and clean, plus cooking for the children are all part of a 'normal' nannt job spec and would be included in any standard contract supplied by an agency.

However, it very much depends on how many hours they are employed for each week. I would only expect all of the above to be done if the nanny is full time.

She's going to be 4 days a week and I was going to pay her seperately for cleaning and baby sitting - does that sound right ??
Who would do the menu planning etc for the meals and shopping ?
Sorry to go on I just need to get the best value possible.

She should be doing the childrens rooms and their washing as part of her daily duties.

If you want her to clean the whole house and do everyones washing then she should be paid more.

And paid for shopping and babysitting too.

mine does same stuff as yours, plus keeps their room tidy and helps with the washing (we don't seperate it into the kids stuff and our stuff, plus I'm very fussy about washing, so I sort it and put it on, she tends to hand it out to dry and put stuff away). She does also do cleaning and ironing for us, but that is either seperate and she is paid extra, or she does a bit on the day when she has to come at 8 and take dds to school and so has a couple of huors to kill(normally she starts at 11.30, when dd2 finishes school)

Basically though it's down to you and her to agree what's reasonable and put it in her job description/contract

A nannies priority I feel should always be the children. Therefore primary things a nanny does are entertaining and educating the children, seeing them to/from school/pre-school, taking them to the park, preparing their meals.

Ironing and Cleaning I feel are more a house-keeper type role, and are both jobs which can farmed out to outside companies if so required. A nanny may to some extent do these tasks - but only for the children and if time/safety allows. A nanny cannot Iron children's clothes for example, at the same time as supervising the children - children and hot things don't mix too well in my experience!

With a baby who sleeps during the day, Ironing could be done during babies nap time... but I don't feel it's very safe to do it when baby is up, as during waking hours focus should be on the child, not household tasks. That's my view for what it's worth.

Hi i look after 3 kids do grocery shopping, change beds, general tidy up before our cleaner comes, washing, ironing, cooking, errands for mum and dad and have to make sure kids stuff is stocked up and sorted etc. I have the 2 year old at home and manage all this easily and have always ironed around the children, they have learnt not to touch hot things.

Don't do major cleaning though as don't really have time with a little one at home as i like to do classes and we like to get out and about.

I think it's about balance really children need to understand they can't have your attention %100 of the time and i feel it's good for them to learn to play on their own even if you are in the same room with a bit of ironing .

I agree nannyj. What you do is far closer to what the situation would be if a parent was at home, and imho that's preferable. tbh my ideal nanny would be a surrogate parent by which I mean someone who builds a natural loving relationship, who gives them attention and organises activities - but not exclusively, because I agree with you that it's important for them to learn that life does not revolve around them; that running a home involves work other than looking after them. I'd never take the piss out of a nanny and expect them to do shedloads, but I like someone who feels part of the home/the household. not someone who's only job is to look after the children. for me that's beneficial all round.

Agree that the usual deal with a nanny is to do child-related housework ie cleaning up after them, doing their laundry and so on. But depends on the individual family and nanny - mine does our housework because she wanted to earn a bit extra so I stopped having a cleaner. Nanny doesn't do the same amount as the cleaner but enough to keep the house running.

I am very lucky to have a really great nanny - her basic job desc. was that she would do everything "baby-related" - so that includes lo's laundry, bedding, ironing and cooking. She does her own personal laundry and is very good about tidying up the kitchen etc after she is done. She does not do any housework or other laundry or groceries etc. If I am not able to, she will happily step in to do classes, swimming, the park etc. We started out that way, but she will happily pitch in elsewhere if needed. After nearly a year with us we have come to a very good informal arrangement where she is "boss" if I am not around, but will happily fade into the background when I get home. I guess the best way is to start off with a basic job description and then you can see where or when the nanny is prepared to help out or do other stuff besides "nanny" things and then you can chat to her about what other jobs or errands she is prepared to do.

Ours does more or less what NannyL does, with a bit of give and take. I think that's a pretty normal way of dividing up what is and isn't done. With us there is more washing (2 in cloth nappies - nowhere near as yukky as you think but it is one extra load a day) but I look after the youngest as the eldest has special needs; I can't look after them both so obviously wouldn't expect anyone else to! Plus I do a bit of the child-specific cooking as eldest is on a special diet.

Actually, I wish Nanny did rather more domestically, or at least did what she does better - DDs room is always a bit of a mess, as is the playroom, as is their bathroom, and things she cleans often get cleaned again surreptitiously by me - but she's not naturally domestic and has to try very hard to keep on top of it at all, bless her, so I don't complain.

You sound like a fab nanny, NannyL :)

Dresses children
takes them to and from school
takes them to after school clubs or just generally out and about i.e. swimming, walking.
Makes pack lunches
tidy's round the house
irons children's clothing
and has been very kind by doing a few loads of our washing and getting them out on the line for us(this is not a task she's contracted to do but has done it occasionally anyway, off her own back, when she see's us very stressed and pushed for time).

oh and cooks children's meals, when they are in her care

NannyL is right - a qualified Nanny will do any duties related to the children (I've gone shoe shopping with little oness to organising the birthday parties.)Not something all parents require or want.
I used to Nanny full time and the only thing I didn't do was the main household cleaning, not because I was lazy but that was not the job of a nanny!
Regards to cooking, this was flexible as the father often enjoyed cooking, though would do the shopping.
Found being flexible the best route to take, there would be times when I would pop to the bank for my employers but this was very much the last of my errands to do in a day. At the end of the day my charges were my priority so that's who I took care of :)

Our nanny does everything related to the children (one in school, one in pre-school), plus she will do some generaly laundry if the situation looks desperate, does a weekly supermarket shop for all of us and Mon-Thurs cooks one big meal for dinner from which she feeds the kids, takes a couple of portions for her and her partner (they live in a flat at the top of the house) and leaves two portions for us on the stove. We have a cleaner for the general cleaning and ironing.

Our nanny does the cleaning/tidying/laundry associate with the kids and herself. She also manages the cleaner (or did until she fired her -- which cleaner deserved).

What do those of you who work full time outside the home and have nannies do about a cleaner? do you manage the cleaner? Does the nanny do this for you? Do you have a cleaner who can just get on with it with little instruction from anyone?

My cleaner pretty much gets on with it. But I've been in the house (working from home) when she first started. Also she's very good in terms of the quality of clean she does - the only issue is the stuff she leaves; you have to specifically say "can you clean under the settle this week, please" and then she will do so until it sparkles. So when I go back to work after this lot of mat leave, am expecting to communicate with her by notes a fair bit.

The thought of my domestically-challenged nanny managing the cleaner - ha ha ha ha - scary, scary thought!

She's not fierce. But she isn't timid either. So when she told me that she was afraid of the cleaner, I knew that the cleaner (whom I have never met) was definately a big bully. So, nanny had my full blessing to tell the cleaner to take a hike. Basically, the cleaner was hired at a set hourly rate, but then when she would do things like ironing or cleaning the windows, she would then tell nanny she owed her for an extra hour even though I was already paying her hourly and she only did like 15 minutess of ironing. The final straw was when the kids were sick and nanny called her as a courtesy to offer that she come on the next Thurs instead (she came every two weeks), and the cleaner demnded half the wages for the day. If it had been me I would have told her to come on in to my sick house and enjoy the results. But, nanny just said she'd let her klnow if we wanted her to come back at all. Then, sent me an e-mail. And I said she'd done a fine job and I was in full support.

I need a nanny who can stand her ground or my 3 year old would walk all over her.

However (sadly for me) nanny did not enjoy dealing with the bully cleaner and doesn't want to be responsible for a cleaner any more. So now I'm in a bit of a pickle because I'm certainly not going to sit on the phone at work talking to the nanny (spend enough time here on mumsnet!), I don't have time (or energy) to do it in the evening. And weekends are for kids. Besides, no one is home most of the weekend to supervise a cleaner.

So, I don't know what to do. I think I might have no cleaner and filthy house.

I'm certainly not going to sit on the phone at work talking to the cleaner ...

Because I'm an agency sceptic. And I refuse to pay more than £7/hour. Simply can't afford more.

I've never supervised my cleaner! She's my previous nanny's aunt/current nanny's mother, so I think that getting them to manage her could get a bit fraught. But really I think that she manages us. We communicate mostly with notes and she keeps everything spotless. Our nanny does everything that needs to be done with the children, and other things as required. She's great at doing extras, but in general needs to be asked (although always willing) whilst our previous nanny was better at spotting things in advance, but then she was full time, so had more time to do "extras". The children and the nanny do a menu list on Fridays for the week ahead for evening meals, and dh and I do packed lunches before we go to work. The previous nanny was definitely a parent substitute (although much better at it than me!) our current girl is more of a extra big sister.