Argh! Need a nanny...

[BashfulBunny]

I have 6 mth old triplet girls and a 3 year old boy. I'm currently on maternity and not due back to work until April 2016. My boy goes to nursery half a day, 5 days per week. I'm looking for a junior nanny or similar (not sole charge) who can help us out as a live in with the possibility of taking on a more senior role of sole charge in April if we all think it's working out.

We've just been let down by someone who was all lined up but has just changed her mind and have now got just 4 weeks before our current person leaves - a lovely, lovely newly qualified nanny who's off to travel the world. (Wish her well, but we're gutted ).

We were lucky enough to meet her through a work placement when she was a student. Does anyone have any good inside info on where to find someone? We're not getting much luck with childcare.co.uk and some of the nanny agency fees are obscene. I'd rather give it to the nanny!

No advice from me, just a round of applause! Sounds like you are doing a brilliant job.

I love twins and looked after lots of them including 5 sets of newborns

Tho triplets would make me wary ........ Let alone adding a 3yr

Agree def need experienced nanny

Will your work offer vouchers / that will free up £243/8 that you don't pay tax on and maybe can mean you pay a slightly higher hourly rate

I'll hunt out the bath chairs - they sound more space saving than the one we have which is from our eldest.

DP and I had a chat and we've changed our ad to an afternoon nanny. We've then put up a separate one for someone who's not yet experienced to help get J dressed in the morning and take him to nursery. We've changed the nanny rate to £8-10ph gross depending on experience. Hopefully that will help.

Both DP and I have the tax relief vouchers, though mine are on pause while I'm on mat leave.

We had a lovely person from surestart who used to come for 2 hrs per week, but she left a couple of weeks ago as she's now pregnant. We could ask them for help again.

Ha. I'm definitely wary of triplets!

Where's Mary Poppins when you need her..?

I salute you!! I have no advice re the nanny specifically but thought of two things that might be relevant to you. Firstly, if you are getting SMP at any time during your mat leave, have the vouchers as they are free - your employer cannot sacrifice salary from SMP. Same if you have a salary sacrifice pension. Secondly, I know one city law firm which gave a junior associate who had twins 2 years of mat leave instead of one - she just asked them. I don't know what kind of firm you work for but if it's a reasonably sized one might that be an option? It's not as if they are likely to have loads of employees with triplets.

Ok, firstly take a breath - you will find someone.

I think you are looking at this the wrong way. Rather than trying to split the hours and complicate things treat it as a full time role from 8am - 7pm with the 'benefit' of some time off during the morning. These are totally normal live in hours.

The salary for a live-in nanny is considerably lower than live out and is generally not based on an hourly rate. The going rate for a live in nanny is £350-£450 net per week which works our at around £18k to £22k per annum.

I actually think 6 months of shared care then moving to sole charge will be attractive to junior nannies who will be keen to get triplet experience. I say this as someone who has employed Norland probationers (sadly they no longer do probation) and found that they came out of college fully equipped to take on multiples.

That's exactly what we had been thinking, ImNot, but the advice here - I'm assuming from nannies? - is that this is too much to ask. The nanny we currently have is fresh out of Chiltern college (how I wish we could keep her ) but we're just not attracting any interest, so I'm at a loss and starting to panic.

Her view was that it was a great job (hence why she's with us at the moment) but it seems most college nannies are off travelling and doing holiday resort seasons for the first few years now. Don't blame them, but it takes a huge swathe out of the market.

hat's interesting, fairground. I could maybe see about extending it for a bit.

ImNot, did you find your nannies direct from Norland or anothrr route? Sadly we've missed the boat with them as the newly qualified ones only become avail in July and it has to be a placement with at least one under 1. Ours will be 15 months by then.

You could contact Norland and see what they say, 3x15 months might be the same as 1 under 1!

I think some earlier posters missed the fact that it was a live in salary being discussed!

I have had one Norland probationer who I recruited through Norland and one Chiltern NQ nanny who came to me through word of month. The were both absolutely amazing and had been brilliantly trained. However, as with all things, there are good nannies and bad nannies, and I had a horrendous experience with my second Norlander who I had to ask to leave after 5 days.

I think your biggest problem is your location. I live in the London suburbs and I found it difficult to recruit because a lot of nannies seemed to only want to work in central London (zones 1 and 2). I suspect that being out in Reading is even harder.

I think you may have to bite the bullet and go down the agency route to find the type of candidates you want. Eden and Imperial are both pretty good albeit pricey.

As both a lawyer (partner in City firm) and a multiple mum myself, it sounds to me like you are doing an amazing job, and I am sure it can't be easy!

Another suggestion is can you change babies schedule so they have another nap in day, and go to bed later? That way you have them asleep a little more during the day, and then help more when they are awake as your Dh home?

So instead of say 7pm bedtime. Add a nap for them all 5-6pm, and make bedtime 8.30/9pm. Then that late afternoon you can have an hour alone with eldest/ or can use time to rest/ or prep dinner/ etc, and then you can have your Dh help feed them and bath etc after 7pm as he will be around? Even if just for the next 6 months or so whilst they need more hands to help feed and bath.
Hopefully they would also sleep in longer in morning with later bedtime so you could just have 3 year old awake between 7-8am

I agree that Reading is probably making it harder. The irony is that we moved from zone 2/3 because we needed a bigger house. It is better, just not for this it seems.
As much as I'd rather give the money to a nanny, I think you might be right about agencies. I'll give one a ring to see if they think they can help.

Huffle, That's a fair point about 3x15mths. It can't help to ask.

I have no experience with triplets or 4 under 5. (Mine are 4 and 1 so a piece of cake compared to what you have).

But I wanted to comment on this. though mine are on pause while I'm on mat leave.

Your company should be paying them throughout your maternity. And since you can't sacrifice SMP, you effectively have an increase in salary during maternity. I used mine (together with DH) to afford 3 full days in nursery for DD1 while I was on maternity leave.

Any chance you could get your existing nanny to commit to returning in time for you to return to work?

Did you find a solution in end Bashful?