Need advise re. Nanny and Babysitting

[TinCan]

We are hiring a live-out nanny to work 4 days per week (3 11-hour days and 1 8-hour day). We intend to include in her contract that we require 4 babysits per month, 1 of which may be on a weekend. Are babysits generally included in the salary or paid in addition to the salary? If in addition, at what rate are they usually paid...same as nanny rate or more? (Note that we are paying a full-time London wsalary because we appreciate that although the job is only 4 days, it is fairly long hours)

[NannyL]

im a daily nanny.

my arrangement (and i would NEVER allow any other arrangement in my contract either) is that im paid an additional rate of £7 per hour of babysitting.

The deal is they can ask me to babysit... i can say yes or no, depending on if it suits me or not. (i almost always say yes, unless there is a good reason why i cant)

If im babysitting on a week day i go home at 4pm (ish, i live 1.5 miles away, a 3 min drive) and go back at babysitting time. (my day normally ends at 6)

obviously at weekends i turn up at the right time!

I'll always babysit if i can, as long as it suits me

[ScottishThistle]

If you're paying a 5 day salary for 4 days I can't see why anyone wouldn't accept one night babysitting per week (unless they live miles away), weekend nights should be treated different though & be paid outwith salary!

[Eleusis]

Our nanny is contracted for set nanny hours (until 7:00 m-f). Anything outside of that is by prior arrangement and she is free to say "no". The only place that would get to be a sticky situation is if she said no on a night when I have to be away for work. But, as yet, that has never happened. There have been plenty of weekend nights when she has not been available, so a couple of months ago I joined sitters.

[sinclair]

We had nanny do a weekly babysit and she came in later that day (youngest was in pre-school by then) so no money changed hands. It was actually nanny's idea as she was looking for something to do whilst kids at school - so it worked out well. we had Wednesdays (2-for-1 at the cinema with Orange) but did often change it by mutual arrangement if something came up for either party. IME it is quite common to add a babysit into a contract at the time of hire but just for one of the nights that nanny usually works.

[nannynick]

As a live-out nanny, I have never been contracted to do babysitting on top of my usual weekly hours. I would advise against going down that route, as it can get tricky if say you didn't use all the babysitting hours in a particular month, if the nanny wasn't available when you wanted a babysitter etc.

Instead contract for the core hours. Then use your nanny as your primary babysitter - paying for that on an ad-hoc basis. If your nanny isn't then available, you can contact other local babysitters - or change your plans so that you go out when your nanny is able to babysit.

Just my view.

[mogs0]

Two of my live-out nanny friends are contracted to do 1 babysit a month. One of them has to do a Friday and neither get paid any extra. The one that does a Friday gets a massive kitty to buy a take-away.

4 babysits a month seems quite a lot although if you're paying a full time wage for a 4 day week then I'd do it!! Maybe if you agreed the same night each week like Soapbox said.

[Soapbox]

We include them up to 4 hours a week (which since her day ends at 7, means we can stay out until 11 if we wish (although we normally get home around 10ish).

On the day she babysits she doesn't come in until lunch time, although she is contracted for a full day that day.

Not weekends and the same week night every week unless we give a fair bit of notice (I don't think it is fair to expect a nanny to put her social life on hold until being told which night she is babysitting that week. This way she can make normal arrangements to go out, just avoiding Thurs nights).

If she babysts for longer than the 4 hours we pay her £7 an hour.

If we want to go out at the weekend we use sitters. If we used the nanny then I would never expect not to pay - the weekends are their time imo, and therefore working a weekend night should be paid for.