Advice pls - best set up childcare / housekeeping

[MNmum]

Would like some advice please about hiring home childcare / staff as i've never done it before.

I'm expecting my first child this spring and will then be on maternity leave for rest of 2016, after which I'll go back to working full time again. Once I start working, we'd like to have a full time, possibly live in, nanny to take care of little one. My husband and I both have jobs that don't always have set times (can discover during afternoon that its not possible to leave office on time) so nanny would need to be flexible.

While on maternity, I'd ideally like to have someone working at least a few hours a day to help me out and look after little one to allow me to leave the house at day time, catch up on sleep etc and for me and OH to have a night out now and then.

Any full time childcare would have to be willing to travel with us for holiday once/twice per year and then work full time while on holiday (of course all expenses paid).

In addition, we'd need someone to do housekeeping (cleaning, laundry, food shopping, cooking, ironing, basic gardening such as raking leaves etc) during this entire period. At the moment we have a once a week cleaner that cleans and irons.

I could afford to hire someone full time from when baby is born and in an ideal world I would have loved to have one person cover both baby and housekeeping duties, on full time schedule, from birth and onwards. It would drive me crazy to have a nanny that refuses to help me with anything not 100% baby related or who wont, for example, bring me a cup of tea while i'm feeding the baby. We can offer accommodation for a live in, but only a small bedroom and shared bath room. Driving wouldn't be necessary.

Any views on what type of staff i'd be best off hiring to have highest chance of getting good quality service (live in/live out, combined nanny/housekeeper, one nanny and one cleaner, cleaner plus babysitter then swap to nanny etc etc)? We live in West London.

Janga - I agree, those are all duties of any nanny. As a nanny I would vac once a week, sweep the kitchen floor more often than that (especially under dining table). Nothing special there. It is not even nanny/housekeeper territory as does not involve cleaning of toilets/bathroom, dusting etc.

Agree with Blondes that preparing a separate meal for you for the evening is pushing it a bit but it is certainly possible that there would be leftovers, or large dishes made so there would be something for you. Would depend on the ingredients supplied - can be difficult making things from what is left in the cupboard/fridge. Easier if meal planned ahead and with a cook book. Most people can follow a recipe - can't they?

Just to be clear - I'm not asking for a separate meal to be prepared. Just for the nanny to prepare something big enough for a portion to be prepared for me to have something when I get home. I loved our previous nanny - she made the children v happy- but the house was an absolute shit tip when I got back . I am really not a perfectionist and have learnt from the experience but after a 12 hour day the last thing I wanted to do was do two hours cleaning after she left just to clear up toys, tea and lunch, associated cooking items and then cook for myself

interesting thread,just wondering what salaries the parents must be on to employ full time nanny,cleaner,gardener and handyman

So every day nanny needs to make a huge casserole - shepherds pie - fish pie etc

What happens if have beans on toast / or out at play date tea - or have someone back so your portion gets eaten ...........

As a parent with a former nanny if a huge casserole was being made it would be an absolute bonus if a little bit more went into the pot. Coming home to a house that smells wonderful but there's none left is a killer :) We did tend to reciprocate though and if we were making something that froze well would make extra portions for the kids.

To be fair though - putting enough in the pot to feed both my and my bottomless pit of a husband is a fair amount of extra work so it was never expected, just a nice if rare bonus.

I'd be pretty unimpressed if I left the house clean and came home to a pigsty though, unless the kids were ill or something. Cleaning up after yourself is not "cleaning duties" in my book..

When kids are older there's a bit more flexibilty. A 3 yo can sit at the kitchen table and do some playdough/colouring for a bit while you peel some veg or fry off meat. A 1 yo as per the OP needs a close eye though and while there is always nap time, in my experience that's when the nanny typically does the actual child related chores in a whirlwind, grabs a sandwich and sits down for 10 mins.

Not every day, no.
But as I/ my husband think about each other's tea when we are at home with kids I wondered if it was a reasonable ask? We had a minor issues re nanny inviting other nanny friends over when children were not really friends or similar ages so would prefer if they were pre-arranged

It's not a usual request no. Yes some nannies will happily cook extra. Some won't and maybe if you are asking this at interview then maybe this is why you can't find a nanny easily ?

Same with pre arranged play dates ....,,,,

Thanks blondes.
To be fair, I haven't started recruiting yet (will start in March for a May start) so was just thinking about what would be reasonable to ask.

I also don't think it's unreasonable to not want unknown nannies and children in my house, however much I like the nanny.

:)

Wow, I love it when our Nanny has playdates and Ive loved getting to know all the nannies, children and parents in her social group. Her social aspect is one of the best things about her.

I would bloody love it if she'd make us a casserole for tea but isn't that like wishing my accountant would do my ironing?!

if you trust your nanny with your children,then also trust her judgement who she invites over to play

unless you work from home you will be unlikely to meet the children/nanny that your children/nanny see

Blondes I suspect Jenga would be fine with guests if her ex nanny hadn't expected her to clean up after they'd visited.

Silly ex nanny

There's always one who spoils it

I always had a clause in my contract that I had to meet someone first before they were invited round to our house. Previous nannies either introduced their friends to me, or met in a public place.

There's no point in DBS and background checking a nanny if they then let all and sundry into the house and similarly I wouldn't want any of my children going into someone's house that I didn't know.

I can see your point Karoleann but if you work full time when do you have time to meet your nannies friends?

I'm afraid I wouldn't and haven't take a job with that in the contract. I have been a nanny for 29 years, I have always had nannies and mums over for playdates and been to their homes. My MB's have subsequently met anyone we spent time with, at birthday parties. But none of them could have met them for months, if they aren't working, I'm not working!

Thankfully all my bosses have had complete trust in me and my judgement. I have only had two families in 29 years say at interview that they needed to meet my friends before they came to their home, I didn't accept when offered the position.

In fact, all of my employers have allowed me to have friends visit when they are away with the children, one family allowed me to have 13 people over to stay for christmas and new year when they were away one year (I was dog and chicken sitting for them though)

Hi - thanks for perspectives - really interesting. I asked a couple of friends after my problems and they said they didn't like it so I thought that was normal. I am probably coming over as harsh/ annoying but have failed to mention a couple of things. A trusted mum friend saw them in park together and they weren't paying attention to the smaller (2yo) children because they were nattering. The smaller one was doing something with the monkey bars and my friend had to step in as it was dangerous. Other nanny was sacked by parents for filming videos on her phone while driving! The new family we didn't know at all and children babies so it didn't sit right. And the mess... but will discuss it when I interview rather than have a set view

First of all, congratulations on your first child, you must be over the moon!

From my experience, which appears to be at odds with some of the people in this thread, you can most likely find one person to cover cleaning and nanny duties, the gardening however would most likely have to be a separate position, as these skills often don't have as much convergence.