Nanny bringing own child to work

[Lasvegas]

DD starting nursery school soon and we want a p/t nanny to do 1 hour in am (drop at school) then 3hrs (3pm -6pm) between school finishing and me getting home. We also want 10 hours a day care in school hols.
The agency has asked if I would consider a nanny with her own child. Does anyone have experience of this? My gut feeling is no, because I want DD to have one to one attention from someone and not play 2nd fiddle to the nanny's own child. Is it common for nanny's to bring own child to work? Does it make their rates cheaper? otherwise why would a parent agree?
Also can anyone reccomend nanny agency London/Kent borders?
Thank you

Hi Lasvegas, am jumping on your bandwagon so cannot offer advice...I in same predicament as you (although want almost full day care) and my gut is no too. I am watching for response with interest! Good luck with your search.

Several things here, the hours you want are going to be more suited to a SAHM looking for a bit of extra money, also please please dont think your child would "play second fiddle" to a nannies own child. I am a childminder and resent the fact that people feel that i would treat a child differently than my own. In fact it is exactly the opposite i treat all children as if they are my own eg same rules as well as same hugs. Ok the feelings are different and I leave the special time for me and ds for when my mindee is not here. I think a professional nanny with her own child would do the same. And yes it can make the rates a little more negotiable. The reason a lot of parent like nannies with their own child is the experience of being a mother and also it may provide company for your child.
HTH

have you thought it might me good for your dd to have someone to play with other than the nanny, personally i wouldn't put your dd second in line to my own child if i were a nanny (i'm a childminder) i treat my mindees the same as my children and i have time for all of them, it could work well for your family

I'd be fine with it

I guess it depends on the age of the child and how many kids you have though doesn't it....a lot of the suggestions i've had so far are for nannies with young babies and my kids are in y2.

Hi,
I was unsure about nannies with their own child, but I have just had a second interview with one with a 5 month year old and I am soo impressed with her as a nanny, her DD gets on great with my 3, she gets on great and we have just agreed to take her on.
I think irrespective of their own child you get a gut feeling if you like the nanny, which is the important bit. They are on the whole very professional about bringing their own and include all the children together with no individual priority. The interaction for both children is a definate bonus.

This is all really interesting and sounds good. Guess I would worry about flexibility if needed to work later for eg, but that will be the same with any nanny, with or without child. Sorry lasvegas, have totally hijacked your thread

just out of interest, did you negociate on the rate? do you pay same or lower, have no idea

I think it would be fine too. If she has her own child I would see that as better than one who did not. At least she's a mum. No offence to nannies without kids but I think at least she knows what it is to have a child and how as a parent you will feel about they security & safety etc.

Also it would be nice for my child to have company.

We had a nany with a child the same age, it worked out brilliantly - the kids really enjoyed each others company.
We did pay a lower rate (maybe a quarter of third less?)- she suggested it - and we thought fair as she was essentially paying towards her own childcare, too!

You guys are making me rethink, isn't mumsnet fantastic, nothing like experienced advice!

a question to those of you with nannies with kids - mine are out of cots/highchairs etc etc, so a nanny with a little one would need that still. My things like that have long gone, so would she bring/leave here etc?

Thanks for views. I guess a lot of it comes down to gut feeling you have with Nanny's suitability. Have told agency I would consider Nanny with child if similar age to my DD, but I guess unlikely to work unless Nanny's kid went to the same school as my DD, how can Nanny do 2 school runs? Like Matilde I don't have a home set up safely or practically for an infant.

I've done it as well, and it worked fine. I think it helps if your child/ren are not exactly the same age as the nanny's, just to avoid competition. Particularly if you have only one child, or only one at home, it is nice for them to have another child to interact with. Oviously you need to make sure the nanny will treat your child equally to her own, and agree what you will do when eg. the nanny's child is ill, or keeps her up all night.

But it can work brilliantly. As with everything it depends on the individuals involved. And yes, it's cheaper, as it's effectively a nannyshare. If the nanny's child needs baby gear then she can provide that herself. IIRC the nanny and I went halves on a 2nd hand double buggy.

hth

I am a nanny to two boys aged 4 and 6, and I take my own child to work, aged 2. For me and my employers it works great. The boys adore my dd and think of her as a sister,its like having one without actually having one, if you see what I mean.

I treat all the children the same , theres definately no favouritism, I'm paid to do a job and thats exactly what I do.

I am lucky that my boss has let me use all her stuff i.e haighchairs, in the past but I wouldve taken my own. She very kindly provides lunch for my dd too.

It probably works so well because I was employed by them before I was pregnant so we had already built up a strong relationship. But since I have had dd , I can recognise that I am much better at my job. Now that I am a mum, I know exactly how my boss feels about her children , allowing me to do my job better.

I would definately consider taking a nanny with her own child lasvegaas, why dont you ask for a trial first to make sure? I,m sure the prospective nannys would welcome that.

good luck

Hi Lv, I think the reason the agency suggested this is that the hours you want don't add up to much of a job, unless you are planning on paying the bit in the middle too and nanny uses the time to do housework/chores etc. You might be lucky and find the perfect nanny who can survive on 20 hours a week - we had a p/t nanny who was studying on the days she wasn't working with us, another friend has a nanny who does a shift at a local daycare in the bit in the middle - or you might be paying £££ so 20 hours plenty - but I don't think your schedule would suit a lot of nannies.

Have you considered a nanny share - maybe with a family with young baby? Or a childminder - they are often more set up to do flexible hours.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Actually Lasvegas, that's made me think, have you registered on sharing.co.uk? It costs around £10 for a year to register. They put you in touch with people who could possibly share a nanny, so might help you out. Otherwise simplychildcare is a fortnightly magazine you can register in too. Re agencies, don't know any specific to your area am afraid, but am sure someone out there will

My nanny has her own child and (after 7 months) I have to say no problems at all. The rate is slightly cheaper (but that is what we negotiated). One of the reasons to agree is also for companionship for your child, plus I found it really helped ds (11 months at the time) to accept being looked after by a "stranger" (having never been looked after by anyone other than dh or myself, due to living abroad away from family) seeing a child who was totally comfortable around said stranger.

Our nanny has her own child ( he was 6 months old when she began working for us). She looks after my 2 (one school age, one 2 year old who was in part-time nursery) and occasionally another 1 year old from a different family but at our house...so on some occasions we have 4 children here. We made sure we had discussed as much as we could think of before she started work - I still had all the baby gear, high chair, baby gates, toys etc, but she brings a bag of toys and bottles etc for him with her. Everyone eats the same breakfast and lunch ( I think it's great that they all sit around the table together, nothing like peer pressure to get children to eat new things), and my 2 year old dd is in heaven, having a real baby in the house to 'help' with.
We have bought a small MPV, but this was mainly due to the 'nanny share' baby than nanny's own baby.
I like that I have a 'mature' nanny, who although she had many years of experience in childcare, she is re-learning some things from a different perspective now she is a mum.
We have discussed what might happen when her ds gets to nursery/school age - and are hoping that he will be able to get a place at one of the nearby schools, if not the one that my children attend, due to mad council school admissions in this area there are a lot of siblings that end up at different schools so the schools have staggered start/end times, to enable pick ups/drop offs at more than one.
Oh, and yes, we originally negotiated to pay our nanny at about 80% of the going rate, but now we have the nanny-share she is earning a good salary. (We are saving up in case she decides to have another baby though, so we can offer her something more than statuatory maternity pay).

Lasvegas, I've had this row before. I used to nanny but gave up and did other work before moving abroad. Personally when I care for other people children I am perfectly capable of caring for more than one child and be absolutely fair and give them all the attention they require. In fact I find that when I work in the kind of environment you decribe I have a tendancy to put other peoples children needs first. Also only children often find sharing a difficult thing to do and can sometimes find children to play a very stimulating thing.

Beleive me I understand your fear, but for me if anyone were to suggest I wasn't professional enough to do my job properly because of the presence of my own child without any evidence to back it up I would be a bit insulted.

The other to add is the hours you are requiring means your offering a part time (very) job requiring an awful lot of flexibility on the nannies part without the possibility of another part time job. The nannies who will be interested in your position will be either students (and therefore need time to study) or nannies with their own children. This is why full-time nannies daytime hours are filled with house related chores therefore creating a full time and more attractive position.

I'm not attacting you I'm just trying to put forward a nannies view.

As these are such part-time hours, is there a reason you wouldn't consider a childminder? (Not that I'm biased of course ...) Childminders do school runs and holiday care.

Thanks everyone, great to hear from those who are actually in this situation. I am looking for either a Nanny or a childminder (who is located on way to station). Matilde thanks for nanny share idea.