Should a mother's help be left in sole charge of the children?

[MinkyBorage]

Just about something which was mentioned in another thread, but didn't want to hijack.
I'm thinking about getting a mh a couple of days a week, as I really just need an extra pair of hands to help when new baby born in March, them having sole charge of the children is crucial for me as I will need to take dd1 to nursery and was hoping to leave dd2 at home when this happens, probably need to take new baby to doctors ap'ts, or just pop out to the shops etc etc. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Should I be looking at getting a p/t nanny?

Sorry don't know, but sidling onto the thread as very tentatively considering getting a temp. MH myself in a similarish situation.

im sure thats fine

generally you dont leave MH's all day, but an hour here and there is fine

I worked as a mothers help 7-7 5 days a week and would have some sole charge of the baby when mum did school run, or took all children for a walk so Mum could get on with stuff.

I nearly always had sole charge when I did mothers help work.
Depends on the mothers help and depends on the mum.
The recommendations are more guidelines than actual rules

My mum was a cleaner/mother hand for a family. She was often left in sole charge of 1 - 3 children 3 days a week. Twenty years later she still works for the family despite the youngest child being about 11.
I think it's fine, if I was in a position to employ a mh, I would probably want her to be with all of us for at least 2 weeks before I left her with my dc's, only so that they could all get used to each other and to give her a chance to see how I wanted things done.

I wouldn't personally unless I knew she had faultless references or at least childcare qualifications.......

I am coming to the view that these descriptions - 'mother's help', 'au pair', 'nanny' - don't really help any more. There are so many permutations of hours of work/ responsibilities/ experience/ skills.

How would you label someone with 3 years' experience of child care, at least half of it sole charge, but with no qualifications in the job?

What difference does it make if most of the job is housework?

What about a young person (ie little life experience) with a brand new NVQ but no other time spent with children? What if s/he happens to be from another country (not NVQ,obviously) and wants to improve spoken English, and would prefer to live in because it is less hassle and not lonely?

In answer to the OP, if your candidate has common sense and the right kind of experience, it doesn't matter what she calls herself. Or himself. It would be even better if s/he has or will get first aid training.

I believe the job description describes the job and not the qualifications/experience. If I wanted to hire the milkman as my nanny I could, and he would be a nanny. However, I of course would never do this. I think parents and not ofsted are the best people to decide what sort of qualification their children's carer is required to have.

If I hired a mother's help and after a couple of weeks I was comfortable with her I wouldn't think twice about leaving her for an hour here or there to look after the baby.

mh are there to help the mum, so if that means you need to leave mh alone sole charge while you go out for an hour or 2 then fine

as long as you trust the person you have looking after your children then not a problem - if you dont trust them to look after your children sc, then i wouldnnt employ them in the first place

I agree... It's what you feel comfortable with, maybe an hour or 2 a day, l and perhaps over time you can increase this as you get more comfortable! My first childcare job 7 years ago when I came over from NZ, I wanted to get into nannying but didn't have much experience... I was left with sole charge of 4 under 7, including a newborn, for almost all of the 60 hours a week I worked. I coped, but wouldn't recommend it!

it depends on the person you hire.

I was fairly recently hired as a mothers help. I have 16 years experience as a nanny, I work as a maternity nanny, doula and night nanny.

Mum was having another baby and needed another pair of hands to help with her 3yr old (and baby once it was born) and light duties around the house. I was obviously more than capable of having sole charge too (and i did for up to a couple of hours at a time!)

Great, thanks all, that's made things clearer.