Aupair (with biweekly cleaners) or live-in housekeeper nanny?

[unwilling]

Hi all, as the title says I am wondering which would be the better option.

I am a single mum of two school-age very independent DC. Their dad does not contribute financially, so I am looking for a cost-effective but equally effective plan, if that makes sense. My office hours have changed so I have to be in the office from 9-6pm. We have had several aupairs over the years, some wonderful experiences with whom we still keep in touch and some who were terrible. Recently took a pause with the live-in childcare thing, as our last aupair wasn't great and we wanted to have our space to ourselves for a bit after she left.

There isn't much work to do. DC dress themselves and are generally very well behaved, aged 10 and 8 yrs old. I need help with keeping the house tidy, school runs, and cooking. I enjoy a very clean house. I would also like some flexibility to 'have a life' myself as that's been pretty much shelved the past few years.

I am considering the below options but would also welcome suggestions on doing it differently.

Aupair with biweekly cleaners
This option is to have an aupair who is focused on school runs, keeping the children entertained, their spaces tidy, children's laundry, and cooking meals for themselves and the children. Also very light housework like hoovering common areas (stairs and hallway). Babysitting once a week (on average) also likely. In total, we're talking 20hours per week.

Biweekly cleaners: deep clean every couple of weeks using professional cleaners. Where I live they charge between £15-20ph. This is to ensure/reassure the aupair that I don't intend to turn them into a cleaner or such. It also helps keep the house clean and tidy.

Live-in Housekeeper-Nanny
This option basically combines aupair and cleaner role, and costwise should work out about the same as the two combined. In this scenario, I worry that the cleaning won't be as thorough and also that the person could end up overworked because even though it comes to about 25hrs per week, they would be doing too much in terms of responsibilities especially with babysitting added on.

What are your thoughts? Also what budget do you think is fair in both scenarios, regarding wages? I would appreciate lower and upper ends of the wage spectrum. Food and accommodation will be provided.

Apologies if I've waffled on quite a bit. Being a parent, especially a single one is very tough these days 😞

Please be kind in your responses, I have seen some posters get absolutely roasted here which is rather terrifying.

Thank you! **

I imagine it might be tricky to hire a housekeeper/ nanny for only 25 hours a week? As it would be tricky for them to pick up another job? All the housekeeper/ nannies I know do it as a full time job and get paid accordingly.

An au pair sounds a better fit but I might be wrong having not hired either!

A live-in housekeeper/nanny will want full time, 40-50 hours a week. 25 hours is an au pair job. Who would a part time live-in job appeal to? Could you work around uni hours for a student?

Au pair wage will be about minimum wage - £12.21 an hour. You can offset about £74 a week for accommodation. So lets say 20 hours au pair plus 5 hours a fortnight cleaner = £950 a month.

Nanny/housekeeper would be around £15 an hour I expect, depending on where you live. Maybe less if you are offering 50 hours a week. For 25 hours a week I'd expect at least £1625 a month. For full time maybe £2800.

How easy is it to still get an au pair post brexit?

if you can get one I vote for that option. Eggs in more than one basket - if the cleaner isn’t thorough enough you can change them more easily!

I would personally prefer to have the same person doing the cleaning and the childcare (if they agree to it) because they’ll be able to fit the cleaning around the childcare, they’ll know exactly what needs extra attention each week, etc, they can do bits and bobs during the week, plus you’d only have to deal with one person, not two.

Can you not find someone who is willing to be flexible, do nannying, cleaning, take little jobs elsewhere to top up their income when she is not needed at home?

When I moved to England I worked as a nanny. The times when the kids were at school I would go and clean some houses nearby (a couple of times a week), or clean the house I was nannying for (as and when needed), do the ironing, some shopping, gardening, whatever was needed. Slowly my first family needed me less so I started to also look after the children of another family nearby, until eventually I was mainly nannying for the other family. Being very flexible meant that the families didn’t have to pay me for the times when the kids were at school or entertained by their parents. Looking back I guess I did too much at times (e.g doing the ironing when babysitting although I was being paid at babysitting rate). But I know the families didn’t have much money so I didn’t feel they were taking advantage. God I miss those times so much! Why did I have to grow up and get a serious office job?