Is it OK to hire a babysitter (nursery staff) to do pick-up, bed-time and an extra hour or two?

[DaddingIt]

Hello,

Our daughter's (2y) old nursery key-worker (she's moved up to the next room now) is offering babysitting and has done this for lots of other parents (I'm not asking about whether that's OK as other threads have answered that part).

I'm specifically wondering whether its OK to hire her to do childcare all the way from pick-up to bed-time and an hour or two after (e.g. 5:30 pick-up, 7:30 bed-time look after the little one till 9:30).

I already talked to her about this and she seemed OK with it but I'm not sure she would be one to say no. So I was hoping to get a few more opinions from parents and babysitters/nursery staff about whether this is OK? She would have already worked a full day-shift by this point.

Also is this something that should be paid more than the normal rate, I'm also thinking of letting her place a Deliveroo order on us.

Please share your thoughts.

Thanks!

@ladykale - the nursery doesn’t offer it. The OP is asking a member of staff individually. I doubt any nursery would offer it - assuming the EU law still stands for 11 hours of continuous rest between shifts.

When I said get a nanny I meant for all her childcare needs. It seems nursery might not be the best fit for what OP needs.

Fair enough @Kingsparkle. I take your point too.

Small children really take it out of you though.

I wouldn't ask a nurse to do this for the same reason I wouldn't ask the nursery worker.

Id make an arrangement with a local.older teen.

If she's happy to do it, then I don't see a problem. Most babysitters have other jobs during the day!

You say this so flippantly as if getting a nanny isn't 50% - 100% more expensive than nursery option!

@mathanxiety yet somehow lots of SAHP manage to look after their children all day, as do nannies!

I was a nursery assistant before becoming a teacher. I had 2x families I would do exactly this for.
Family 1 - tues/ weds every week. Would take child home from nursery at 6pm, feed/ bath/ bed her, stick a pizza in oven parents provided for me, and leave around 9:30/10pm when parents would get home.
Family 2 - single mum, working Fridays & Saturdays. Would do same as above on the Friday then come back Saturday and have child for the whole day til mum came back around 5pm.
Used to charge £10 per hour, but this was 15 years ago so not sure if that’s still going date! I loved it though, so can’t see why your babysitter wouldn’t!

It is worth checking with the nursery - mine would not allow staff to "do the pick up" on days that they were working, because it blurred the line at which nursery ceased to have responsibility for the child.

I know it's meant to be considerate but this thread is full of well-meaning but patronising people.

You offer what you're offering. Decide if you're willing to still hire her even if she's only willing to do SOME of what you're offering, and make that clear in your message. Then the grown, adult woman you are offering a job to can decide what she is willing to do.

In my experience, lots of people are looking for more hours and are quite happy to do this once or twice a week as it's profitable and relatively simple. But if she's not, that's fine too, you find someone else.

Quite common for nursery staff to do this where I am - often wfh parents have to commute once or twice a week and can't make it back by 6pm so will pay the keyworker to take the child home.

Nice bit of extra money for the nursery staff as it is higher pay than the minimum wage in nursery.

Nurseries almost never pay staff to stay later than the children. It's a waste of money for the owners! Tidying and paperwork is done in the day while children are there.

For people saying she will be starting her morning shift at 9AM, that is doubtful. More like 7.30AM or 8AM most mornings. I do nursery work and often do 8AM-6PM, by the end of it I am so exhausted I can barely stand. I can't imagine someone doing the same shift then going on to do more work elsewhere. However, I am not the nursery worker in question. Presumably, she feels she can handle it so see how it goes. The only other thing you have to be mindful of is if it becomes a weekly thing then I imagine you then become her employer and so would have to manage tax and national insurance. If adhoc, it's fine.