Nanny/Au pair/mothers help

[nbsmum]

I would really appreciate any advice that someone may be able to offer on my predicament....

My husband and I have 2 children, aged 3 and 21 months. I am currently working part time flexible hours, but am aiming to return to full time work next year about July.

My husband works continental shifts on a 5 week rota, which add up to 37 1/2 hours per week average, the shifts are 12 hours, and rolling rota of approx 6pm - 6am and 6am - 6pm.

for example one week may be mon, tues days, then fri, sat, sun nights. however in 5 weeks he has 11 days with only 2 shifts to do.

quite confusing i know, but we do have his rota up to 2 years in advance.

The real problem is, when i return to full time work, as a police officer, i will also be on shifts, earlies 7-2, lates 2-10 and nights 10-7, approx. so the issues start when it may conincide both my hubby and i on nights at the same time, also with my job, there is uncertainty of finish time, with the possiblity of arrests, or incidents which may delay my finish time by up to 4/5 hours. Also in addition to overtime, i will have to accept the possibility of cancelled rest days etc.

As my husbands work is more regular, would i be best basing our childcare provisions around his hours, we can offer live in, although would prefer someone local who would ideally return to family home when not needed on nights,

what do you think my best options are???

also need to estimate costs to check will be feasible!!

What sort of hours of childcare are you looking for - ie what are the "standard hours"? Or at least how many hours each week, and how many are within traiditonal childcare hours (say 7am-7pm).

Sorry - that was curt. My nanny is happy to do occasional overnights (and she is live-out), but I've also enjoyed the flexibility of having a lodger/au pair. My initial instinct is that you may need more than one person to cover all bases, but I don't really have a feel as to what hours you're offering a nanny (say). Presumably you don't just need cover for your working hours, but if you are on nights then you don't want to be looking after children all the next day?

As i said, i think it will be best to work around my hubbys shift pattern, because he has the most stable hours, his shifts go as follows:-
week 1; mon, tues nights, sat, sun days,
week 2; mon, day, weds, thurs nights
week 3; spare week, 2 shifts allocated on thurs of previous week.
week 4; tues, weds, days, fri, sat, sun nights
week 5; thurs, fri, days,

so as you can see over a 5 week period hubby works 7 night shifts, and 7 days, plus 2 spare shifts which may be nights or days. the shifts are 12 hours long, my childcare would need to be here from 4.00.pm till 7 am on night shifts, (obviously when kids in bed they can just chill and go to sleep in the spare room, and when hubby on days they will need to be here from 4am till 7 pm, although it isnt a problem for them to stay the night before and then just get up with the kids when they wake.

This is basing it on the proviso that we have rotten luck and my shift patterns fall exactly opposite my hubbys.

my duties will also be 5 weekly;

w1; mon,tues,weds,thurs, nights
w2;mon, tues, weds lates, sat, sun earlies
w3:mon tues, earlies, fri, sat, sun nights
w4:weds day, thurs, fri, sat, sun lates
w5;weds, thurs, fri earlies

so early is approx 7-2, lates 2-10 and nights 10-7

so if i was on this group (which is 1 in 5 possibilty),
w1; we would need from 9pm til 7 am on monday and tues nights,
w2;1pm - 7pm, monday, 4pm til 11pm (unless delayed) weds,
w3: could be none, dependig on shifts available.
w4: wed 7am- 6pm, fri, sat, sun all 1pm til 11pm approx, unless delayed.
w5:thurs, fri, 6am til 3pm (unless delayed, no later than 7pm)

as you can see the hours we require are all over the place, but would involve lots of free time during the day for whoever worked for us

on this rota that would work out to 92 hours pr 5 weeks minimum, maximum 130 per month
or 18.4 per week or 26 per week, but generally no more than 7 days and 9 nights per 5 weeks, or 9 days and 7 nights per 5 weeks.

During my initial year, my shifts MAY change every 5 weeks, through different attachments, but initial first 13 weeks would only be during daytime hours.

Obviously, because of the shift pattern it would be difficult for our help to have a regular job, but she would be able to do temping/babysitting on an ad hoc basis, which would allow her to seriously increase her income.

very confusing, but life is never straight forward!!!

So your need for daytime cover is actually quite minimal really.

In your shoes I would look at an au pair to be honest. Live-in will give you a lot more flexibility with your lates - your w2/4 possible late nights are a bit of a bind for a live-out. And with an au pair it is not hideously expensive. I don't really think you need a qualified nanny for the hours, but do of course put your au pair on a first aid course. You can also get the au pair to clean/iron/prepare meals in the weeks where you don't need the cover as much. I thin the variation of hours would be hard for most live out nannies, and also quite expensive if you did conclude that you would have to give her a ft wage even though you needed her for odd hours.

just to say that having read this thread... i as a nanny would consider applying for this job...

also i notice there arnt many weekend dats that would be required.... 1 weekend in 5 isnt that bad really... especially as when working weekends you seem to have lots of other days around the weekedn off.

nanny salaries vary greatly depending on where you are and weather live in or live out....

assume you would be needing a livout (tho she may prob choose to stay over when starting extra early!)

havent got a clue what you would expect to pay... i would say less than a full time salary... but the fact that the nanny could not commit to another job is a seriosue thing to think about..

I honestly think you are best calling a few agancies and seeing what they suggest as a weekly figure (also bear in mind nannies salaries are often quoted in net, which means you need to add tax and NI on top!)

May be at a rough guess (as you say you have a pretty unusal job description) assuming and average daily nanny salary at £300 net per week (and in some areas its considerably more (ie central london) and in other areas quite a bit less) may be £220 net?

thats just a guess tho.... do call agencies who will be more than happy to help you out... you dont actually have to use the agencies dont forget

also.... when you / your husband have been on nigths, i assume you dont want to then be awake looking after children all day... and may need some time for yourself to have a rest etc? (or did u factor that into nannys work hours?) so would u expect your nany to continue on for a few hours then? that could make up a few more hours for her!