Parents working from home

[Landladymews]

I’ve heard that nannies aren’t always keen when parents are working from home. My husband works from home a fair bit and I’m also looking for a job where I can work from home 2 days a week so I get to see the baby more often ie after 5pm rather than being sat on a train! We are planning to build a garden office and have the nanny and baby in the main house. Would this still be off putting for a lot of nannies?

I think its fine as long as you give nanny freedom to do her thing and not be interrupting or altering throughout the day.

Ie if you have a rough routine of joining them for lunch its fine. But her organising to put baby to bed at 1pm, wake at 3pm as she has scheduled a baby music class locally, or a baby playdate 3.30pm, is then very annoying to nanny if at 12.45pm you and husband decide to play with baby for an hour, the rest of the afternoon is out of sorts as baby napped later for a shorter time, or her having to cancel stuff.

The same if baby is fussy, or naughty when older. If nanny says no they can't have or do something for a reason, you and dh need to stick with that otherwise child learns to come and interrupt you to get a different response.

For me personally as a nanny I would never take on a job where parents work from home in any capacity. I have nothing to hide and it’s nothing against my bosses, but it can be very confusing for the child and there needs to be boundaries and rules in place for it to work. If your clear in your ad that you both will be working from home and you plan to build an outside office, it will decrease your nanny choice pool but plenty of nannies do not mind bosses working from home.

It depends entirely on the nanny tbh. I will not work in a home where a parent works from home. I have absolutely nothing to hide, nothing. But knowing a parents is likely to walk in from the garden any minute or come down from the office, puts me on edge. I don’t feel comfortable being myself and acting daft when they’re there or sitting down for 20 mins during nap time. And then I know nanny’s who are totally cool with it.

Be very clear in your advert that you are work from home parents and you’ll get the nanny you need!

I have strict rules for employers working from home!

• If you don’t have enough time for ‘quality’ time, don’t let the children know you are home. It’s not fair on the child/ten or the nanny if you pop in and have to rush out 3 minutes later to take a call (my MB leaves her work phone in the office if she has 20-30 minutes spare.
•Don’t let the children see you if you don’t have time to spend with them. I will not be the bad guy, dragging your young child away from mummy or daddy. The children do not understand why they can’t see their parents.
•If you have fussy eaters don’t come to the kitchen at lunch time unless you have time to sit with them and be in charge (I will go off and change beds, do some washing/ironing, run an errand outside the house or go hide somewhere with my book!)
•Let your nanny know at least a week in advance what days you are going to be home. On the day let her know if you will be able to join your child for lunch (she’ll make something she knows the child likes!) and if you have spots in the day where you have time to spend a good chunk of time with your child. We alternate play and tea at friends houses each Wednesday so MB doesn’t work from home that day and I try not to make plans for the afternoon that she’s working from home.

My MB/DB will always let me start an hour later and finish earlier if they are working from home (in full pay!)

I work for a family where mum and sometimes dad WFH. It's totally fine. I was a bit apprehensive at first (like hating people hearing me sing songs and being silly haha) but you get used to it. It can be super handy. I'm in charge in terms of nap times etc... although nap times are usually the same every day. Child is now 2 and is just used to us all being around. Child doesn't mind when mum or dad pop back out.

Good advice above and I know your DC is a baby...but My dad boss used to pop in frequently from the garden office for drinks, loo etc and my older charges always seemed to ask for something I'd said no to..like crisps, more TV (even things I'd said no to hours before!)..he was great at saying 'Marylou's in charge'..no explanation or arguement..just that..I really appreciated that!..Worked well for me and Bosses..I was there 3 years until they moved.

I did with our last 2 children (and had had a different nanny for the older 3). I stayed in my home office with the door shut, even locked at times! When they were very small they did not therefore know I was around. I would sneak out if I needed the loo and make sure the coast was clear. When they were breastfeeding our nanny came to get me and I fed them in the living room.

She went out a lot which was great for me and the children and had a group of about 4 nanny friends and they would sometimes come here or she would take the twins to their places of work and I didn't mind them being out at all. I certainly was very aware it must be hard to have the parent around and I never interfered. I only came out of the office on days I was home about 6pm when she left.

Also we have 4 downstairs living room of the large hallway so there would always be two shut doors between us all so I would not hear anything unless they were coming out getting ready to leave. It will depend on the parents if it works as some might be interfering. we knew because of having older cihldren that if they see you or know you are in they might be banging on the door etc and I never let it get to that stage.