How a nanny could help a lone parent

[Pegasus41]

I have two primary school age DC, am a lone parent (we lost their Dad). We have minimal family for help. I’ve been relying on after school club to cover my work hours, but I do feel like I could do with a bit more help (and which maybe could replace some of the after school club), as I’m very tired, don’t have much flexibility for seeing friends, and could actually afford a nanny. I don’t have much experience with nannies though, and am finding it hard to come up with an idea of what their schedule would be and how it would work, exactly, given DC are at school. Any ideas? Anyone had a nanny for primary school age DC?

They could collect kids from school.
Prepare and feed evening meal.
Put kids clothes on to a quick wash and hang out to dry.
Help with homework.
Enable you to have a night out with friends - I guess extra hours would need to be agreed in advance. Also how to navigate school holidays
this is a list of nanny duties https://www.nannies-matter.co.uk/helpful-info/what-are-responsibilities-nanny

I don’t know about a nanny, sorry, but in a similar position as widowed with 1 child. I use after school club every day but the things I would add to my life would be a few babysitters so I could go out in the evenings, a gardener so I could enjoy some time sitting in the garden instead of constantly looking after it, and a cleaner, so I could enjoy my weekends without cramming in cleaning! So I guess I would just say if after school club is a good enough arrangement to cover your childcare, maybe think about what jobs you’d really like taken off your hands to make life more enjoyable and work out what help you need from there.

If you are in London, check out koru kids. That's exactly the kind of care they offer.
If not might be worth advertising on childcare .co.uk website

Best of luck and I'm really sorry to hear of your loss x

You could look for a nanny housekeeper. Someone to come in at 1pm and cook a meal for the evening, run the hoover round and do some washing. Collect from school at 3pm and stay until 7pm, maybe stay late one night a week so you can go out?

Then you can either arrange to have them cover full hours in the holidays or use half day at holiday clubs.

A good nanny can transform your life. As a lone parent you might want to have a live-in nanny if you have enough space. This is very helpful if you are ill, or have to travel for work or need a day off. Also great if your children are ill. They will share the load.

I've employed three different nannies over 10 years whilst my children were small. They looked after the children, took them to nursery, play group, school. Cleaned their rooms, looked after their clothes, took them to play dates, cooked their meals. My nanny also did the shopping and ironing and babysitting - but was paid extra for this.
You could also consider a nanny share with another family.
My children still see our last nanny and has baby sat for her children! You won't regret it.

As a pp suggested, maybe a nanny/housekeeper, who can do the school runs/after school clubs and do some hours during the school day to do some housework, errands, laundry, cooking, be available for if the children are Ill and then do some school holiday care too. Standard weekly hours could also include an evening babysitting too.

Depends how much you could afford to pay, I was a full time nanny for a single mum with primary aged dc, I didn’t generally work during the school day, but she still paid me (I worked for them before the dc started school too, so my hours and pay stayed the same) and I was on call if the children needed collecting early, if they were I’ll, on school holiday/voting day/inset days/strike days/I’d go on school trips/available for school stuff -although mum would always try to get to important stuff.
it made her life (she had a stressful, professional job) much easier knowing that I was available if needed.

I've had live in and live out au pairs to help me - could that be a possibility for you? They pick up from school, do dinner and homework, the kids washing and 2 nights babysitting a week. If you have them for a few more hours they could do some tidying too. Some of my au pairs were just local students who helped me out. My 18 year old daughter now does the same for a local family.

(I had nannies when my children were much younger too).

Thanks all, these are really helpful suggestions.

As above nanny /hk

Or a nwoc which will make a little cheaper

Do you need holidays cover as well

Thanks, yes holiday cover, too.

I would definitely consider an au pair but it seems impossible to find due to Brexit. I’ve had an ad up for ages on au pair world but all the responses are from people who are not “pre-settled”, and so would not be allowed to work here.