Nanny housekeeper

[Oncetheystartschool]

We have 2 DC aged 7 and 4. The 4yr old will start school this year. At the moment we have a nanny 50 hours a week, which we've done since DC2 was 6months old. It means DH and I can both get to work and DC get picked up from school/nursery and taken to various clubs during the week. We need home-based childcare which is really reliable as DH and I both have pretty full on work schedules and I also have my parents that are both unwell who I visit every few days and take to weekly hospital appointments as they can't get there alone. I'm usually out of the house from 7.45 and DH from 8.15 (he does handover with nanny most days).

Once both DC are at school I'm not sure what the nanny will do during the day. We also have a cleaner who is taking maternity leave soon and so I am trying to plan ahead and offer a combined nanny and housekeeping job which works for her but is also more affordable for us in the long term. Does such a thing exist? I see it advertised but don't know anyone that does it. Would a nanny actually be willing to do housekeeping during school hours? Would a nanny be willing to reduce their hours during term time (I thought probably not)? Would I be better looking for afterschool and holiday clubs only and getting a cleaner separately?

Its such a minefield and I don't want to cause worry for our nanny but I do think we need to plan ahead for when school starts after the summer.

Do most people keep their nannies on the same contracts once DC are school age or is it common to change at this time?

If your needs have changed and you now want a nanny-housekeeper you can offer the role to your current nanny first.
If she doesn't want it then you can make her redundant and recruit someone new.

Nanny-housekeeper roles are quite common. You might need to pay a little more than just childcare though.

Thanks. Do you know what the likely pay difference is? We currently pay £14ph and we're in NE where rates are generally lower than London.

It will depend on the job market in your area really. If you can't recruit at £14 you can try offering more. I'd offer the role to your existing nanny first though.

Some nannies happy to clean

Others aren't

I'm one of those. I didn't study hard at college to basically clean your loo

I mean that nicely as cleaners work hard and one did My bathroom the other week and looks amazing !!!

That's why I left my
Last nanny role as youngest was going to school and they wanted nanny to clean and get rid of cleaner

So I said no and got made redundant - nice pay off as been there 5yrs and they found a lovely nanny /hk who was happy to clean

You say £14. Assume this is gross

What happens in holidays when kids off and nanny doing fun things with them

She can't do all the usual jobs and cleaning and look after kids

But yes you will def find someone even if current nanny says no

This is exactly why I'm asking on here because I don't want to offend our current nanny asking her if she's willing to do housekeeping, but equally what will she do from 9am to 2.30pm during term time?

Ideally I'd ask her to work full time during holidays and less hours in term time and not do any housekeeping, but I doubt she'd accept such a big drop in salary overall.

Your nanny will, surely, be aware that things will change when your youngest goes to school? Why not sit with her and have a chat about it? You may find that she wants to stay so is happy to take on other duties - she may not want to, in which case you're alerted to the fact that she's going to be on the look out for another job.

Just say as we won't need a nanny between the hours of x would you rather drop your hours or do other duties like cleaning. It is difficult but unless you want to carry on paying her the same rate for not working through the day you will have to say something.

There are various options.
One is that you suck up the cost and that your nanny might be sat around not doing much but that's the flip side of having bomb proof childcare. You certainly might want to consider this whilst your youngest is in reception, especially if she does a lengthy settling in period or there are lots of events for parents to attend.
The other is that you ask your nanny to reduce her hours overall but still be available in the holidays and then offer to average out her salary over the year so that she gets the same amount each month. When doing this, think about the various things she might be willing to do which isn't cleaning - unpacking the supermarket shop, errands etc
Another, given your comments about your parents, would she be prepared to adapt and take your parents to some of their medical roles? At least during term time? I totally accept what Blondes has said about having spent a lot of time training and doing the job you actually want to do but some nannies are prepared to compromise, particularly if they like the family/kids (and even more so if the job market is a bit flat in the area).
The final option is you offer her the nanny cleaner role & see what she says.
I suggest you have a conversation with her. She's going to realise that there are changes coming in September and would no doubt like to know where she stands. I'd make it clear that you realise that, by terminating her contract, you'll be making her redundant and will pay her her redundancy. You can also sort out with her when she'll finish/move to one of these roles. 31st Aug? Beginning of the summer holidays? October HT?
The downside to having a conversation now is that it might prompt her to start looking for new jobs straight away and get one before you'd ideally like her to finish. But she might be doing that anyway, not realising there's a longer term solution with you.

Talk to her, explain that from September you are considering what to do, that you only need a nanny from 2.45 however if she is interested you would be open to her taking over the cleaning and taking on a housekeeper role in addition, that you would be then able to keep her year round on the same hours

You also mention @Oncetheystartschool that you and dh have hectic busy jobs

Some do staggered starts till oct half term ffs 🙄

If dc are ill can you drop and run to collect

Can you stay home for 3/5 days if they have sickness and diahoreea

Half of mini blondes class have been off for several days here and there with various bugs

Luckily my dd is very healthy

So if you offered nanny 7/9 - 3/6/7
And full time in holidays you may get stuck

Also seem to be more things to attend once they are at school. Esp sept term

Concerts harvey festival Xmas play

Xmas arts and crafts etx

Yes unless a sahm or work nights like me you can't attend everything

But then your dc gets upset as other mums /nannies there

They have someone to wave to etx

Can you afford /want to pay your nanny normal salary but once done usual child chores to be her free time as long as has phone

I did that in a job years ago as mb and db both ran own business and really busy

I went to the gym. Back to mine. As long as I didn't go swimming as no phone they didn't mind what I did

And as I was there from newborn it would have been too much for them for me to leave and then start new school ans new nanny so I stayed till Xmas then left

This is a great post.

And as pp said if you are letting her go think about when you want to do that, you may want to keep her until October half-term/Christmas and make the change then.

I think you'll find that lots of nannies won't want to do heavy cleaning, but would be happy to take on other jobs (running errands, doing the food shop, cooking a family meal/batch cooking for the freezer, walking the dog, possibly laundry etc). You may find enough there to keep your nanny busy during the day and get a cleaner for scrubbing toilets etc. which a lot of nannies would be reluctant to do.

Thanks all good points to consider. At the moment we pay full time even though there are 3 mornings a week when both DC are out at school/nursery. We have needed the extra time on occasions when one DC is ill but most weeks nanny goes out/home after nursery drop and doesn't reappear until after she's done nursery pickup. I think she may prefer to carry on doing that during school hours, but then we'd be paying almost 60% of her current hours to have her on standby, which is a lot of money! I think she might be willing to run a few errands but it certainly wouldn't fill 25 hours every week. She has unfortunately said she doesn't like cooking and will not cook anything other than basic pasta/baked potato type meals so I batch cook at the weekends already.

I'll have to speak to her about the options and see what she says.

Hi guys,

I am looking for a cleaner/housekeeper whatever you guys call it... 😬

Someone you guys would recommend, trustworthy, good cleaner and so on.

I have a toddler and currently expecting as well. I can barely do chores and a little bit more of up and down (despite squatting) I get spotting and abdominal pain which makes it difficult for me to properly even walk, let alone do the floors and stuff.

Just not liking my situation but really need help. I am in St Albans and my budget is tight. I don't want to go to organisations and would prefer someone who I can benefit as well :).

Please let me know ASAP. Have an occasion coming up and house needs some cleaning.... :$

To put another perspective, my friend has two boys and they are full time school. But she is still a full time sole live in nanny.

reasons why.

1. private school holidays! Their off school more then their at school

2. after school activities, from around 3-6:30 some days she is ferrying them around

3. she cooks and bakes and includes parents in cooking now kids are older (I see you’ve said nanny won’t cook, that’s pretty rubbish a decent nanny should be prepared to cook for the kids at least.

4. she does pa type stuff for parents, taking and collecting dry cleaning, food shopping, posting stuff, buying Xmas/bday gifts for ppl including kids she nannies for at Xmas, she buys their clothes. Sorts the uniform.

so yes she is free to do as she likes between school drop off and pick up, she’s actually very busy most days and so it’a something to consider.

she doesn’t do any cleaning only keeping kids rooms tidy and the playroom organised and washing kids clothes.

so although it seems like your paying her a retainer for doing nothing actually it prob won’t work out that way.

other Think she does is organising work that may be needed to be done on house. So a plumbing issue for example she arranges the plumber to come waits in for plumber.

@sherbetDips someone like that would be ideal. At the moment during the hours when both DC are at school/nursery she usually goes home to spend time with her own family and doesn't do much for us. She would run an errand if I asked but its always with a slight air of annoyance like I've asked her a huge favour.

I feel like I would be having to look for specific things to keep her busy as she won't proactively do them. She doesn't do any of the kids laundry, bedrooms or make meals other than basic sandwich type things or reheat food I've batch cooked at the weekend. She does occasionally run the hoover round downstairs but that's about it and that's usually only after the DC have made a mess!

It sounds to me as you and dh are busy plus care of parents that you need the cover of a nanny daytime

If kids are ill can you drop everything and pick them up and maybe have next day at home looking after them

So yes bite the bullet and pay for one

Major cleaning no. But many will do washing and batch cook

Can't beleive your nanny won't cook. Or ask her to do a fish pie lasagne or other dish that can be used by you

She doesn't do any of the kids laundry, bedrooms or make meals other than basic sandwich type things or reheat food I've batch cooked at the weekend.

Thats ridiculous. Those are standard nanny duties and I can understand why things might not get done after a busy day with toddlers but with school age children there isn’t much of an excuse. I think you need to reset her expectations so that she’s fulfilling her nanny duties even if you decide not to go down the housekeeper nanny route.

She may not be able to afford a pay cut and she also may not want to do housework when she's supposed to look after children. I would think she would look for another job but you could ask her and see how she feels.

Children's laundry, sorting their clothes and rooms, cooking for children are all standard nanny duties.

When we hit school and nursery stage, she did dishwasher emptying, taking in and putting away a supermarket delivery, sending and receiving parcels and any other odd jobs. She also walked the puppy we got (which had all been prearranged with her). Just sort of all hands on deck approach, but not cleaning.

Tbh I think maybe the issue is that she's not currently doing a brilliant job and I'm worried it'll get even slacker when both DC are at school. I can imagine her disappearing after the morning school run and not reappearing until 3pm, and me having to pay for it! Obviously it would be a huge help for the days when DC are ill and of course during school holidays but its a very very expensive insurance policy.

If she filled her time with tidying DC rooms, doing their laundry, making their dinner, getting the odd errand or shopping done and so on I could actually enjoy the weekends! At the moment I end up doing all DC laundry on a Saturday and all meal planning and prep on a Sunday and get stressed every weekday around 3pm when nanny texts me to ask what is for the DC dinner because I feel that is part of her job and yet I end up doing it!

In all honesty it sounds like you may be better starting afresh.

When my youngest ( at the time) started school we just had an open conversation asking would she like to stay on, but accepting that there would be more housekeeping duties and she was happy to. She actually enjoyed the mix of childminding and time with out the kids. We kept the cleaner, so no toilet scrubbing. She did also do: various errands - getting presents for parties, clothes for kids anything needed in town, letting in tradespeople; keeping on top of kids' wardrobes - sorting and sending to charity shop as needed, laundry and ironing, organising pretty much all our cupboards, labeling kids clothes, taking in and putting away shop. It worked out great for both of us.

Whatever you decide about the role, your current nanny either needs a rocket up her backside or sending on her way. She is taking advantage and you’re allowing it. In what other job could someone go home for a few hours to see their family during the day rather than doing the tasks they are paid for?

Is it because you’re worried she will leave and you’ll be without childcare?

if you think the relationship is retrievable and you’d consider retaining her then have a serious conversation with her about your expectations and how she is falling well short of that. If not then find someone else and sack her on the grounds she isn’t doing the job and her attitude is appalling.

So has she refused to do all this (minus cooking) which is weird anyway as nannies cook for their charges and some even happy to do a large lasagna for example for family or freeze some

If your DC is starting school soon, I'd assume she's been thinking about this already. Have a chat with her