If you are a nanny of school age children, what do you do whilst they are at school?

[lovelessbroad]

I'm FINALLY thinking of getting a full time proper nanny as several bouts of illness amongst my kids have made me really, really behind in my work (am freelance/SE).

I've always thought it would be a false economy because I don't really NEED anyone before school or during the day unless they are ill/in the holidays - when they tend to do other stuff anyway.

Is it reasonable to ask for evening babysitting in lieu of working 9-3? Or what kind of domestic help could I ask the nanny to do during this time? I want her/his priority to be the kids, obviously, and I have a cleaner, but the thought of paying out for 6 hours a day of not working is sticking in my craw a bit.

So nannies, or employers, please, share your wisdom. Cheers.

those I know have another job 9-3 eg preschool teacher

First guess - if you are thinking of a nanny, rather than an au pair (which is the usual solution for your situation), then you don't have room, or don't want, someone to live in.

If that's right - ie, that you are wanting someone who lives out - evening babysitting to make up free daytime hours would be a "big ask". You might find someone willing, but it would be unusual, and it wouldn't be unreasonable for a nanny to say no (or not more than once a week, and not Fridays - eg).

On add-on duties, to be done when children are at school - well, there's a range of possibilities. The commonest one is a "housekeeper" role - but you have a cleaner - and in our experience, it somehow doesn't quite work anyway. Another option is the "family chef" role - so someone who cooks for you all, and does all the house-provisioning - there is at least one MNer for whom this works really well. And then, in your position, I would wonder whether you might want admin/PA type help with your own work?

Ah, bink. Thank you.

Would that I had the kind of grand career that merited having a PA!

I think you are right. I think what I really need is an au pair. But until I do our loft -which won't be til the summer - I won't be able to accommodate one.

I know from experience and anecdote that a nanny shouldn't be employed as a cleaner.

What I would really like is a 1950s wife, I think.

There's no reason whay you couldn't advertise the position as Nanny/Housekeeper. And you could then stipulate what the 'housekeeping duties' are and that these duties are only applicable for 9-3 unless there are children at home ie. when one is off school sick or in the school holidays.

You could include family washing/ironing, grocery shop, errands to dry cleaner etc. I'm sure these wouldn't take from 9-3 every day so nanny would still have free time still. There are nannies out there that do this sort of job and with the job market for nannies being quiet there may be more that are willing to.

I have a child at school and a child at pre-school.

Our nanny does the grocery shop on-line, and gets it delivered for a time when she can put it away, washes all the towels when she washes the kids' towels, goes to the post office, collects dry cleaning, and comes up with ideas of other things she can do ie make more chutney, de-scale the kettle. She will also go to the shop to get more school uniform trousers, take them for haircuts, ring round leisure centres to book rooms for parties and track down suitable out of school activities for the boys. Now some of these can clearly be done with a child helping, and some are sort of child-related, but to my mind they go beyond normal nursery duties.

Our previous nanny was not so excited about doing work which was more of the housekeeper type stuff than child care. She went into Ds1's class while DS2 was at pre-school, and listened to reading. This kind of salved my conscience a bit.

I think it really depends on the nanny. I would suggest making sure you focus on people who have looked after school age kids before, and ask them what sort of things they did while the children were at school. I've never met a nanny who liked ironing. I wouldn't suggest that if I were you!

tbh most nannies wont do babysitting in lieu of working and being paid but having no children

are your children that ill, that you need to take off a lot of time and look after them,ie the nanny would be earning her keep

some nannies with own children are more flexible and will clean/do housework

when my ex charges went to fulll time school,my mb paid me the same and once i had done usual duties of chnaging bed/washing etc time was my own and i went to the gym,shopping etc

but i was bored and left

think you need to advertise job as housekeeper, or nanny with housework duties

Watching this thread with interest. We have a nanny, currently DS is in reception DD goes to nursery 2 mornings a week. She starts her day at 7 though so I think she deserves a break after the school run. She changes their beds, sweeps the floors (kitchen and breakfast room) and hoovers their room. Does n't clean the bathrooms or other bedrooms and neither would I expect her to. In September DD will be at pre-school 5 mornings, I can't see how we will manage without a nanny as I work very anti-social hours.

I'm an afterscool nanny and your question should be, "what doesn't the nanny do while the children are at school" I work from 2.30-6.30 and this is a rough guide to my week.

Monday: children's laundry: strip and wash bedding also do one 1 load of darks - hang out to dry and also remake beds and replace mountain of toys! Go round room and pick up nits after weekend of carnage. Feed guinea pigs. Collect from school, other charge walks home by self. Give snack, do homework (normally 1 hour min) and supervise music practice. Give tea (always cooked from scratch - chips once a month as only non made from scratch food), clean up tea dishes, clean all sides with dettol, load dishwasher, sweep floor.

Tuesday: fold laundry which is now dry place in airing cupboard, stick on load of pastels to be washed then hang to dry. Batch cook something for freezer. Feed guinea pigs. Collect 1 from school then drive to collect other from school and drop her and friend at friends house. Give youngest snack, do homework and supervise music practice. Give tea, clean up tea dishes, clean all sides with dettol, load dishwasher, sweep floor.

Wednesday: put laundry that has dried into airer, clothes that went into airer on Tue now ironed and (bedding also ironed obviously). Put laundry away and sort out clothes drawers so that all tops, jumpers, jeans etc and together and folded neatly. Anything with holes/rips/tears taken out and fixed. Bake something yummy. Get any groceries in that are needed (usually the essentials) Collect one from school walking, the other form school in car. Feed Gpigs and give children snack. Give tea, clean up tea dishes, clean all sides with dettol, load dishwasher, sweep floor.

Thursday: Iron clothes that went in airer on Wed and put away. Collect youngest from school take to activity. Come home help eldest with homework, and do last load of laundry. Go back to get eldest from activity bring home. Badger both to get ready for another activity that requires uniform, feed Gpigs, Give tea (from freezer), polish school shoes, clean up tea dishes, clean all sides with dettol, load dishwasher, sweep floor, drop to final activity.

All this is interspersed with resolving arguments, listening to school gossip (ie, someone in school said this today), talking tired children down from tantrums, ensuring they both come home with the right bits, keeping parents happy, pulling curtains and putting lights on when go out, answering door to frinds/neighbours, not letting children go to friends, telling people of for being late and finally having a bit of fun!

Does that help? Would it not work if you found someone who worked similar hours for you as the ones I outlined?

Also on a Monday I forgot, quick whip round the girls bathroom (they do have cleaner) wash flannels, towels etc and fill toilet tissue holder up. Make sure have enough toiletries in bathroom.

I used to work as a nannay for school aged kids I worked 2 day 7 till 5 because the mum needed somneone who could do holidays and when the kids were sick

during the day when the kids weren't there I used to clear up after breakfast,do washing , do ironing, cook for the boys,do all the school stuff the mum, was part of the pta so if some of the stuff was on a working day I would help out by making the cakes , organising the activity.I also used to cahnge the boys beds and wash and iron their bed linen.
I also did the one off jobs as a mum you never get time to do like sorting out toys and clothes.
I also used to other mum stuff like make birthday cakes and arrange party bags and stuff.basically anything a normal mother ( now I am one) would do during the day while the kids were at school.
one of my kids got very poorly with ear infections on a regular basis so the peace of mind was there for the mum who knew if he got ill she wouldn't have to search around for childcare

Yeh - sorry - have been looking after my sick daughter - this is really helpful actually. If I think about it I probably CAN think of enough stuff for her to do 4 days a week 12-330. It's not actually that long is it.

Would it be reasonable to ask her to do some of the following-
batch cook and freeze
tidy/organise the kids' room and playroom
do laundry, dry, fold and put away
Take Rabbit to vet if necessary
Buy presents for childrens' friends if nec
Sewing? For them and for me?

could she do things like -
organise our office?
Tidy the shed?
Be in for the Computer Man?
Or NOT?

I'm amazed Nanny Eyelash that you can do all that in 1 hour without kids. You must work fast, right?

Ok up to the Sewing bit. I do sewing for the children (well, only had one button come off so far), but not sure my MB would want me to do sewing for her clothing.

Tidy the office and shed - well, you can but ask. Never know your luck.

Certainly can ask them to be in for a delivery/computer man.

Hmm, think tidying the shed and organising the office might be stretching it a tad, but you never know, you can only ask. You could ask them to keep the kitchen clean and tidy, and do a weekly shop.

same as nick,ok up to sewing but def wouldnt tidy your shed

I thought the shed one might be a bit cheeky. But it is FULL of the children's sports equipment, paddling pool, etc - so arguably comes under the child-related category. I'm going to try, and see if I get clouted.. . . . .

Oh, it's loveless, back to my old name again.

You might try to get a nanny who has her own child? So she gets time with her baby when your two are at school, and is happy to work shorter hours?

likely to be clouted - but always worth an ask

The shed is far more likely, than the office. As you say... the shed contains things that the children use. Whereas the office is probably out-of-bounds the majority of the time.

I think the shed thing depends; if you just want the nanny to sort out some sort of semi organisation within the shed as time goes on that would be fine; I'm the sort of person who would do this anyway as in the summer moths would make my job easier if I knew where things were and could just grab them etc. But having said that I wouldn't want to be doing things like cleaning sheds when there are snow angels to be created etc. Maybe if you viewed it as a, "something that would be nice to get sorted but not the end of the world if it never gets done" that would be best?

But if you want someone to clean and arrange your shed on a weekly basis then it's possibly going to far? Office is probably too far and I'm assuming there might be confidential things within an office? I never go in my MB's office.

Also to answer your question, I do work quite fast - definitely the most hectic part of my day and my mornings involve school runs and 6 under 3's! But still, I love it!