Contract for nanny with own child

[onion0]

Our nanny is returning to work after maternity leave and we have, with conditions, agreed that she can bring her six month old daughter with her. I want to rewrite her contract as this is a change in circumstances but i'm not sure what to put in. Certainly I want to make sure her husband picks up the baby by 1630 every day as we've agreed and that my children and my intructions continue to come first. Also that I don't end up paying for her child (not so much now, but later when she's older it could be an issue). I also want to ensure that she doesn't take time off when my kids are unwell to avoid her daughter catching colds/vomiting etc - that she needs in this situation to find alternative childcare and come to work as usual. She has lots of family support in the local area which is why we have agreed to her coming back with her daughter - back up is available to her if necessary.But what about things like the safety of my home for a small child (my kids are now 2 and 4 and out of the 'falling down the stairs, eating marbles' stage )or extra equipment that she may need (highchairs, pushchairs for 2, toys etc). We love our nanny and really want her back but I want to start off right so that I don't resent the extra child and I feel I am still getting the service that we had before.
Has anyone done this? Any advice very gratefully received!
Kate

Message withdrawn

i think that's common sense.
the nanny isn't doing this as a favour, she is paid to look after these children.
no advice sorry, i hope it works out ok for everyone.

Sorry have to agree with hmo2 your post comes across a little ummm .... callous (sp?) I have been a nanny, nursery nurse and now a mother and childminder. When I take children on i treat all as equals (my ds and mindees) and i would susspect she would do the same. Im sure she has thought through all the implications and if she is as good as you say she is then having her own child will only enhance her knowledge surely. The fact that her career is looking after children its not like she goes into this blind.
This post to me sounds like you are still unsure whether you think this situation is going to work for you as a family. Maybe having a temp contract with her for 2 months or something to make sure all parties (you, her, her child and your children) are happy.
Please remember she is a working mum just as you are and therefore deserves the same respect in family matters as you expect from your employer.

Hi Kate
We found ourselves in this situation and unfortunately it did not work. Nanny was unable to carry out her duties with baby coming to work and it didn't help that her baby cried continuously and had to be up in mum's arms all the time which meant she couldn't do the basic things like cook the children their lunch or supervise their homework.

Also our house was not baby friendly in that our children are older and I certainly could not stop from playing with their toys which included geomags and the like just because baby was there.

We gave it a two week trial and decided to a call a day on it as she was stressed, I was stressed, the children were not getting the care they needed (they weren't able to concentrate on homework) and neither was her baby. All in all it was an unfair situation for everyone.

So in our experience it didn't work.

I know you want your children and your instructions to come first but realistically this won't happen unless this is "Superbaby".
Think of it another way - supposing you were allowed to take your baby to work and your boss said the same thing to you - I doubt you would be able to carry out his/her instructions to the letter with a baby in tow.

This is probably what you didn't want to hear but this was our experience.

Nanny still comes to visit and often comes to do my ironing with baby in tow and she still screams. Had a lightbulb moment one day and took down children's old travel cot to use as a playpen and gave her loads of toys to play with and she still screams!!! She is 10 months now.

Wow! This seems to have hit a nerve! All I am saying is that my nanny expects the same wage as before she went on maternity leave and therefore I expect the same work. I work extremely hard myself (part time) and my employer does not give me any slack because I have children; I feel the nanny is extremely priveliged to bring her own child with her as I don't have that option and have to leave my children in the care of others (both expensive and stressful). I am paying the nanny to look after my children for 30 hours a week, and not hers - she is allowed to bring her child with her as a huge favour and because I want her to be happy. I am not in any way being self-centred - I am looking out for my children. Their needs must be met and if they are not, the contract needs to give me a way out. That is all this post was about.

i am a nanny and have just started to go back to work with my son.

I have only just gone back to work and my son is nearly 2, i felt tat a baby would take up too much of my time and that i wouldn't be ablo to carry out my job to it's full potential. That is also why i expect to be paid the same rate as befors becuase i will still be working as hard as before and i WILL put the family first. My son has to 'fit in' with their family and not the other way round but i do find things that all children can enjoy tho. (harder with a baby!!)

It really has to be agreed BEFORE your nanny returns, that is essential.

With regards to any equiptment that is needed for the baby, that is up to your nanny to supply, (you can get temporary stair gates)

How much expense will the baby be to you??? Even when they eat meals how much would it really cost to feed one more small mouth??? If you wanted to that strict tho then the nanny could bring in food for them. Activities for the baby should be covered by the nanny but you can't expect her to pay for expensive regular groups (music, tumble tots) if she really can't afford them so there you would have to either pay for her if you really wanted your kids to go or your kids would miss out there??

With regards to illness, if you wanted your nanny to still work while your kids had ant contageous illness then would you also want her to come in if hers had any??? You say she had family nearby? That may not be a problem in that case then . Just ask her to be honest about how much help she can honestly get. If she is as good as shes says then she should be honest.
( i have no extra help and my family agreed with me that hoesty is the only way of thinking for us as they don't want thy're kids getting ill as much as i don't want mine to!)

If she doesn't feel she can do the job as well as before then she needs to take the responsibility to admit that. It would be hard with a baby but could be do-able.

Good luck and sorry this is long.

I would say you did sound alittle harsh when you first posted but then we all appreciate that we want OUR children put first. However I do think if this is a huge issue then you are better off looking for nanny without a child as I know as an ex-nanny and childminder that the most needy gets seen to first and usually it is the youngest and this time will be your nanny's baby.

She should provide all her own equiptment. But as for costs of things, I do think you should provide lunch/tea if they are willing to eat the same thing as your children and the same for trips etc... if you asked your nanny to take your children to the zoo then you would pay for her to get in as you should pay for her child. Her working should cost her nothing. I think it is slightly unreasonable to expect her to pay for every little bit especially if it is what you want her to do with your children and not wahat she has decided to do with her child. She may not be able to afford it, which is probably why she has to go back to work with her baby.

Good luck, I hope it all goes well but I would too suggest a temp contract to see how things go first.

Personally, I think she's taking the piss, expecting the salary she had before if she'd bringing the baby to work. Absolutely no way are your children going to get the same care they were getting before. Babies are demanding!

She should also provide all the equipment for the child, but I'd be happy to provide lunch/tea. On outings, eg to zoo, I'd pay for her admission, but ask her to pay for baby (if babies have to pay). Also if your children have an ice cream or some such treat when they are out, she should fund her child's treat.

I don't think you're callous. You need to ensure that your children get the best possible care and don't spend their day slumped in front of Cbeebies because she has screaming baby from hell that won't be put down.

Oniono I think you are doing the right thing to think of all the things that could possibly go wrong, and discussing how to deal with them first. With luck they won't happen!

Nannytax has a free legal line if they do your payroll, I've found them pretty good

And then there are threads on nanny shares here, tho' I'm not clever enough to post them which have ideas on splitting costs for the extra kit, and safety where there is a baby in a toddler house. I know if my current nanny had a family I would want to do the same as you, so I have my fingers crossed for you all

My nanny brings her baby to work with her - but I am in a different situation to you, as I employed her after she had her baby so it was a choice I made before employing her - and she gets 75% ish of the 'going rate' - which she is happy with, and which I feel compensates for simple things which do become impossible due to baby's presence (especially since there is such a big age gap between her baby and my children). She brings food for her baby (although in her contract I have agreed that he can have whatever my kids are having, in practice since he was weaning when he started coming here and needed weaning food, she hasn't gotten out of the habit of bringing his lunch/tea etc with him). She has offered to provide equipment, but apart from a bag of toys which she brings daily, I have supplied high chair, cot for naps, play mat, and double buggy - since I already had them from my own kids (and since she is cheaper than nannies without children I don't mind the extra wear and tear on the house that an extra child brings).
We have had to keep up baby gates, including a monster size one across the entry to the kitchen. And I am getting fed up of tripping over a double buggy at weekends (when I had bought a teeny tiny single buggy for dd and thought I could get rid of the big one)..And we have upgraded our car to a mini-MPV, since there are occasions where nanny needs to drive all 3 children and we wanted them safely in the back seats (didn't want to put our eldest in the front seat). To save hassle her ds uses one of dd's car seats in our car during the week (otherwise nanny would need to re-fit her seat to our car whilst children ran up and down pavement or were left alone in house every morning). This means we then have to re-fit dd's seat to our second car if we take her out in it at weekends.
We haven't had any issues over illness yet, but our nanny does have local family who will watch her ds if necessary (but a sick child really needs a mum rather than a gran, so we'll see).
On the good side, both my children love having the baby around, and think of him as extended family.
Have to be honest, after doing this for a few months I don't think I would want the disruption if it didn't come with the financial benefits (which you won't get from your situation).