What does a mother's help do? Is this too much?

[Hopefully]

My nanny has just handed in her notice (sob!), and I'm looking at childcare and wondering whether a mother's help might be a better fit. We have 3 DCs, DS1(6), DS2 (3.8) and DD (8mo).

Nanny worked one full day a week for us (previously worked three days but couldn't find a two day a week job so had four days with another family and one day with us).

DS1 is at school, DS2 is at preschool three days a week (till 1pm). I'm basically thinking that it might be better to get someone to come in on DS's preschool mornings and occupy the baby (she normally naps for part of the morning, but she's not a great sleeper, only 30-40 mins in the morning), and do a bit of washing up/cleaning/ironing if and when the baby is either sleeping or occupying herself. I would be working from home the whole time, but wouldn't really want to be disturbed too much, so it would be kind of sole charge.

Too much to ask of a mother's help? More of a nanny housekeeper role? And if not, what kind of gross hourly wage could I be looking at?

I think you would probably get someone to do that. You will probably get more candidates if timings allow them to drop their own child(ren) to school first. Bear in mind that a nanny/housekeeper or mother's help will be anxious to keep your baby amused and contented as their top priority and might need to be more proactive to achieve that than you would, so might get less household stuff done than you would in that time, and certainly less than an experienced cleaner. Pay depends so much on area, but maybe £9-12/hr typically.

Thanks for replying .

Housework would be more a bonus than a requirement, but with an expectation that if the baby took a mega-nap/her sleep improves that they would do some ironing/cleaning or whatever.

Hours could be v flexible, but I was thinking something like 10-1:30 three days a week, which would work for someone with school age children I suppose.