How much would a nanny/ housekeeper cost for 2.5 days plus occasional babysitting?

[Downandoutnumbered]

Posting here to see if what I think we want is realistic!

DS is 2.5, currently goes to nursery 2 days a week. In September he'll go every day to the preschool attached to the primary we want to send him to, but that will be mornings only and only in term time.

DH is at home with him but doesn't have brilliant health so has depended on the two nursery days to rest. I do nursery drop-off so he can stay in bed those mornings, but won't be able to do drop-offs regularly at the preschool as it's a later start. I work crazy hours in a ridiculous job. We have no family or friends who can help out.

I think we probably want someone part-time to do drop-off a couple of times a week in termtime, do some housework in the mornings and then look after DS a couple of afternoons, and then do a couple of full days of childcare OK n school holidays, but they'd have to not mind DH being there at least some of the time too.If we had someone familiar to leave DS with we could also think of occasionally going out together in the evening. I also dream of having someone to do some routine housework as I get sick of staggering in from work at 9 and having to clean the kitchen.

Would nannies all run a mile from that kind of setup? Am I being totally unrealistic? DS is a nice child, honest, and I worry a lot that he has no-one but me and DH and I'm never there. I'd really like another familiar adult on his life.

Sorry for typos, on phone!

What hours are you looking at, 7am start, 6pm finish? Your post title says 2.5 days, not sure where the .5 of a day comes in. Are your working days fixed and thus say you need someone Mon, Tue, Wed 7am-6pm?
If you do not get home until 9pm, do you need nanny/housekeeper to work until then, or can DH take over at 6pm, 7pm?

8 am start, 6 pm finish -they wouldn't have to wait till I got home. I work FT, 5 days a week, so this is mainly about giving DH a rest. I said 2.5 days because I think it would be pretty much a half time job worked out as an hourly rate, but I think it would only be 2 actual days a week. Is there anyone mad enough to want it, do you think?

Whyever not? Especially if you open it up to a nanny with her own child in tow.

I do something a bit similar, though I do not start until the time that pre-school nearly finishes, so I pick up from pre-school and then work until early evening.

If DH keeps out of the way, then it could work. If DH is constantly around downstairs then it may be problematic, as your DS may be confused as to who is in charge.

To start calculating the cost, the hours and working days need to be known. 8am-6pm, 2 days per week is fine. Is that all you need, would DH be doing the other days?

Yes, DH would be doing the other days. The balance of the job would shift between housework and childcare depending on whether it was term time or holidays. Could be flexible about which days of the week as he'll be in preschool every morning. Plus there'd be one evening a fortnight or so of babysitting (probably not late).

My worry about finding anyone willing to do this is that I want a nanny, not a 'mother's help'- someone who's competent to look after quite a small child singlehanded for longish stretches - and I'm not sure they'd want to be bothered with my ironing! But if I don't add in the housework I'd either be paying someone to do nothing for 6 hours a week while DS is at preschool, or it would be a very unattractive job because of the drop-off.

As per the other thread about babysitting, do not include that in the contract. Most nannies will do some babysitting but it is not usual to contract it in for a live-out nanny.

If you advertise it right, detailing what you expect, then people can decide to apply or not. I'm no good at ironing... Maybe I need the practice. Do people really iron much these days given modern fabrics? I iron for a wedding or a funeral - actually I sub contract the work out to the laundrette!

What someone will do will depend on what they feel they can do. General housework is fine, you may even want to add in gardening if the person is green fingered. Set out what you want, decide if any are optinal, advertise and see who applies. Be open to having someone with thier own child, as that will open the job up to more applicants. Be open to having someone older, a bloke , try not to rule out any applicants before theynhave even got the opportunity to apply. Being flexible about which days you want can help the job fit with other work. Agree a Gross salary.

Thanks, nannynick - I'm open-minded about who might do it (you may have noticed I've avoided using any pronouns in my posts to allow for the possibility I might get a man!). Noted on the babysitting: although being willing to do it from time to time would be quite important
I'm happy not to ask for a regular commitment. Actually gardening would be at least as useful as housework.

Hi OP
Yes your vacancy sounds fine. Plenty of nanny housekeepers about. Yes do ensure you confirm a Gross Wage/Salary the Nanny may well have other work and if you agree a Net amount you may find you are required to pay more NI or tax than you anticipate from tax tables as some or all of Nanny's allowance will have been used already.
Will Pm you my area as I am available for part of the week.

Gardening may replace ironing, not all the housekeeping tasks - unless you have a big garden that needs many hours spending on it all year round.

Have you thought about what salary you would offer? Do some calculations based on say a 20 hour working week. Salary will vary, you need to try to pitch it at the right amount for what someone doing the job would want to earn. In central London costs can be much higher than in other parts of the country, around the country there will be some variation.

If you were say to offer someone £10 gross an hour, 20 hours a week, then annual salary may be around £10,430... employers NI (2013/14) adds around £377 PAYE Calculator plus then you have the additional costs for things like activities, mileage whilst on duty (such as picking up from pre-school and going on outings), some additional cost on food/drink, and you may decide to use a payroll company (say around £135 a year cost) to do the payslip calculations and guide you as to how and when to transfer payments to HMRC.