Hiring local nannies on holiday???

[stickystick]

(Apologies for cross-post - have put this in the Travel section too because not sure where it best belongs!)

I know that if we take our 2 year old on holiday to a normal self catering villa then I will spend my entire week working my butt off cooking and cleaning and trying to stop him falling in the pool and drowning.

So I had this plan to go to a holiday place in southern France (highly recommended by MNers of course): a smalll farm where they have a few self catering units, but, crucially, a creche and an evening babysitting service staffed by English speaking nannies.

However, my partner has vetoed the plan on the grounds he thinks this place is too child oriented and he hates "forced socialising" with other families (hence he would never countenance things like Mark Warner!). He would rather rent a villa in Greece or the Caribbean (needs to be somewhere still hot at the end of September/early October) and hire a local nanny to take care of him during the day and evening.

Does anyone know how easy it is to find a good local nanny to do this? Has anyone tried it? Is it a realistic option? Are there UK based agencies which specialise in this? Is there anything one should bear in mind?

Why don't you choose somewhere that does the catering and cleaning for you then you can enjoy your holiday with your son. Maybe your DP could be more helpful so you're not so worn out.
I'm afraid I don't understand why anyone would go on holiday with their children and then hand them over to someone else to look after. I know lots of people do it but it's a bit alien to me.

to a normal self catering villa

that's your problem. To my mind, it ain't a holiday if I'm doing the cooking and cleaning! Go to a hotel and let someone else do that stuff so you can enjoy the time with your child.

I think if you were going to do this you may be better to take a nanny with you. There is a agency called holiday nannies I think? It would probably be quite tricky to find someone at the destination who speaks English and you can check refs etc

I do personally know and can recommend a nanny who lives in Tenerife and works as a nanny for English families visiting the Island ... I don't think she is a cheap option though!!

The other option is of course a hotel so the cooking and cleaning up is taken care of.

We've stayed in the place in France you were initially thinking about. I thought it was great DH hated it (too sociable).

I don't see anything wrong in having a break on holiday, having cooking facilities with a young child is do much easier than having to eat hotel food every evening and having some childcare too is lovely. There are a couple of villa companies that offer nannies and/or chefs. James villas does (there's another that I can't think of the name I'll post later), also Scott Dunn.

The other option is going to somewhere like pine cliffs in the algarve that has villas in the grounds of a hotel where you can use their kids club.

You want a nanny for the day and the evening? In that case do you have relatives you can leave your child at home with and go on holiday by yourself?

Would hiring a nanny at the resort be difficult in terms of checking refrences. Would your DC be ok spending time with someone they've never met before?

Maybe a hotel is a better compromise with your DH? You can eat out and go on excursions so he's not forced into socialising too much as you said with the added bonus of a kids club?
We hire a villa and eat out and as for cleaning we split the bare minimum of it between DH and I.

If you went to Tenerife this would be a good option, perhaps there may be similar options in different countries :
www.tenerifechildcare.com/index.php?menu=home
With the hotel option, most places only offer kids clubs from age3-4 anyway, but you usually have the option of hiring the kids club helpers ( usually teenagers) in the evening.

Here's the holiday nanny option : www.holidaynanny.co.uk/packages, but personally I'd hate to have someone I didn't know come on holiday with us.

If your DH wants to go down this route, then task him with coming up with the options. Unfortunately when you have DCs, things change and having an idyllic villa in the middle of nowhere, ceases to be a practical option.

ditto tenerife and tenerife childcare, but that was my friends agency shes lovely isnt she jendot

loving holidays and tenerife myself, go in 'looks at watch' 36hrs :) but i can understand why parents want some time out on holiday, tho maybe better to have a family holiday, then go away with dh for a few days and leave child at home with a nanny (this is what i have done a few times, as been the nanny for families)

maybe dh needs to help out with the cooking/cleaning, or get an appartment like we do that has a maid/cleaner service and eat out all the time, plsu spend time with his son

Martinhaal resort also has villas which, like Pine Cliffs are attached to a family friendly hotel with a creche that is very suitable for little ones. Borgo in Puglia also has a similar set up.

I've also forgotten Sani Beach ----amazing creche and semi-selfcatering unit and out of school holidays not expensive at all.

Carlisle bay in Antigua is amazing and so child friendly, but not great until early December.

If your DH wants to go down this route, then task him with coming up with the options. Unfortunately when you have DCs, things change and having an idyllic villa in the middle of nowhere, ceases to be a practical option.

no it doesn't

Why not leave your son with a relative or nanny back home ? At least he will be in familiar surroundings, because he would be with a nanny the whole time anyway!
either that or do a family break and a short break with your dh. I guess I am another one who doesn't understand the whole going on holiday and leaving kids with childcare the whole time.

tell your DH to do the cooking & cleaning so you can enjoy the holiday with your child? I don't know your home situation when you aren't on holiday, but cooking, cleaning & childcare don't all have to be your job all the time.

maybe she wants to be with her kids and have help aswell?

wow, wasn't expecting so much input, thank you.

I reread my OP and realised it did sound a bit odd. I am not planning to farm out my son 24/7 - it's just that the original place in France (Karoleann - v useful feedback! ) offered a flexible creche during the day, and also some evening babysitting. I had in mind maybe someone lively to entertain him (or babysit him while he napped) for a few hours in the day, and then perhaps do three hours evening babysitting after he's gone to bed.

I must say, my first instinct when my partner proposed this local nanny option was not mad keen - I am quite nervous about entrusting my child to someone I've never met before. I did think about taking our own (part time)
nanny with us but a) she has another part time job she'd have to take time off from and b) my partner would not like the loss of his privacy.

I also have thought about leaving him behind, but the only person who could look after him is my mum, and she has other commitments that week.

Basically the trouble is that my partner is quite set in his ways and doesn't really want to compromise. Neither of us like "industrialised" mass scale holidays (my personal idea of hell is a mega cruise ship) and we value privacy, but I think that parents of toddlers have to accept a certain degree of compromise.

I am going to research Portugal as many of you suggest!

Why doesn't your partner help out more? Children can nap in a buggy in the shade and be same in the evening. Take them out with you and sleep in the buggy

Seems to me your dp needs to compromise more and do his 'share' on holiday or go to a 'commercial' hotel like mark Warner and use their nannies

Is it an option that your nanny has your child at home and takes to her other job for a few days?

You don't have to compromise on place or privacy when you have a toddler but you do have to be prepared to look after your own child all the time!

Why on earth would you be doing all the cleaning, cooking and childcare? I'd leave your partner at home and go where you want to go with your son if he wants to dictate where you go and not help at all.

Children can nap in a buggy in the shade and be same in the evening. Take them out with you and sleep in the buggy

believe it or not NOT ALL KIDS ARE THE SAME, i got my son to nap in his buggy once. I think this is the downside to having strict nap time routines at home.

You really have had a lot of judgmental people on this thread. My eldest was a very unsettled baby and our first holiday with him was a nightmare - no fun at all. For the next few years we only did holidays with a crèche - not because we didn't love him but because we needed a bit of breathing space and to have some time together without him. He didn't sleep in a buggy and taking him out meant a stressful night so we either stayed in or used babysitters. Middle was a doddle, never needed help and the youngest was a lot younger than the other 2 so one year we took our aupair with us for a week and had a week without her.

This was all years ago but it made our lives just a little bit easier. There's a reputable company in Mallorca and a couple of other places called jelly and ice cream childcare. I haven't used them but friends have in ski resorts where it seems much more accepted to have childcare to allow you to ski child free

Those of you who have partners who help out, you don't know how lucky you are. Next time you're feeling cross at them, remember that! I do virtually everything. My partner will change the odd nappy if specifically instructed, and he made our son an omelette once, when I was late home from work, and he's good at taking the travel cot apart....but that is about it.

blondeshavemorefun my son would nap in a buggy until he was about 18 months old - now he very rarely will - he'll only do it if utterly exhausted and the buggy is kept on the move. So not much good for taking him out in the evening, assuming one doesn't want to eat dinner while marching up and down pushing a buggy. Our nanny's other job is being a spinning instructor - do you reckon she could take a 2 yr old along?

nerrsnerr yes well, this thought had occurred to me... in fact I am taking my son away for a few days in the UK later this month, just me and him, borrowing a relative's holiday flat on the south coast. We did it last year too, and it was nice for us both to have a change of scenery, but I got quite lonely and there was an awful lot of trekking to far flung supermarkets on buses, cooking, and paranoid cleaning (because it's my aunt's flat, no shoes allowed etc etc). Pretty much BAU.

stickystick - just ignore the judgements.

As eversobusy says on the ski threads people talk happily about sticking their young DCs in all day creche or whatever and noone bats an eyelid, but god forbid you'd want a few hours to yourself on a sun holiday.

I remember when DS was 18mths-3yrs, it coincided with a health problem I had so I was in constant pain during the time.

We went to La Manga and also a resort in Sardinia where babysitting was available, and at La Manga we put DS in the creche one afternoon. he didn't enjoy it and in retrospect I feel a bit guilty, but at the time I remember the utter joy of not being responsible for a few hours and fully relaxing in the spa ( also helped that the Scottish rugby team were there at the same time!). It was lovely as well being able to go out for a meal and not have to worry about what they had available, how long DS would stay awake for, how to entertain him etc. etc.. All this was of course interspersed with the rest of the time being spent together, doing stuff by the pool, having fun as a family.

As your DH doesn't do much, then he cannot demand that you stay somewhere with no support. We tend to stay s/c but in holiday villages with facilities available e.g. La Manga as above. That way you don't have to make friends with everyone, but you have babysitting and restaurants available if you want to use them. I don't go on holiday to cook apart from breakfast .

The only person I am judging on this thread is your partner. He demands the kind of holiday you go on and then does fuck all.

I realise this isn't what you were asking and please don't be offended, but why on earth can't your partner step up and do more, not just on holiday? It's my baseline assumption that me and my partner share childcare, it's not him doing me a favour! He's great and all, but I'm not lucky - he's an equal partner in our family, not a bystander.

Those of you who have partners who help out, you don't know how lucky you are. Next time you're feeling cross at them, remember that! I do virtually everything. My partner will change the odd nappy if specifically instructed, and he made our son an omelette once, when I was late home from work, and he's good at taking the travel cot apart....but that is about it.

I'm not lucky that my partner is a reasonable human being! He doesn't "help out", he's a parent.

What a sad post. Why bother to have children if you're just going to carry on as if you're child free?