Oh bugger, I need a new nanny. Current one just resigned.

[AtheneNoctua]

Come feel sorry for me.

Then, send me a nice new nanny who wants ti live in Sunbury.

Actually, I am sort of contemplating an au pair and a childminder. DD is 6 and DS will be 4 in May. Am I mad? Probably. I think work is going to send me away 2-3 nights per week so probably au pair won't cut it, actually.

Damn! Back to the drawing board...

Athene, speak to Squiffy - she has an au pair nanny combination.

athene sorry to hear your nanny has resigned, i remember when you were so happy to find her and then her horrid family kicked her out early

its a shame she didnt think about the hours BEFORE she accpeted the job

you said if you use a cm you could use childcare vouchers to help save money, why not get a registered british nanny and then you can use childcare vouchers

the hours you want are long,esp with the extra babysitting on top but then again your children are older and will be at school/nursery for some of the time during the day

do you leave the house at 6.30, so that the cn does all the getting up,dressed and breakie by herself - or are you there till say 7am and can help?

is it possible to get a nanny who drives and then can leave later for school as dont have the walking to bus stop and bus travel time - or would it take just as long to drive to school?

i think you will find it hard to find a cm who will start at 6.30 - plus you will have to get them up and ready before then to drop off, so seems to me that you either need an ap&cm or a ap&nanny and spilt the hours/bs or a nanny who will work long hours but can have time off through out the day to relax

just re read my essya, and prob not much help to you, but good luck in your search

Sorry but without knowing what you pay your nanny/calibre of nanny you employ it's very difficult to say whether or not this would be a choice for you.

It is possible if you employ a junior nanny and you also would have no need for a cleaner.

Hi Blondes,

Where I'm thinking a childminder fits in is M-F from 8:50am when she au pair / nanny would hand DS over to her at school gate and CM would drop DS at school at 12:45. This would give the ap/n the whole day every day (in term time) when she has no children.

There is a small flaw in this plan because we have JUST signed DS up for next terms swimming on a monday morning. So I would probably have to do ap/n on duty for Monday mornign and childminder tues-fri.

I think I'm going to end up with a nanny in her early years (hence one who will want to live-in and will cost a small fortune insead of a big one). I just can't leave my kids overnight on a regular basis with an au pair I think. Whilst I'd love to reduce the cost. I just don't really think it's a great idea.

waves back

sure the ap/nanny will happily sort out swimming lesons - where cm wont/cant

would you use the cm during schools holidays, as again 6.30/7 plus evening bs is too much to ask a ap to do

where a youngish (anyone under 30 is young to me ) nanny might make things possible for you, esp if you did get someone else in to bs 1/2nights a week

Ideally, I'd like someone who is 21-22. This has the financial advantage that her gym membership is half price.

I think you may be surprised at the response you get, there are a LOT of girls looking for work at the moment.

I think you could find a local junior Nanny whom is living with Parents who will do daily.

Have you looked at CV's on Nannyjob?

not sure a daily would want to start at 6.30 and possibly not finish till late in evening if babysitting

that AP/CM combo sounds fine and I'm sure the AP wouldn't mind doing the monday swimming session.
It's just finding someone who you're happy has the confidence to cope overnight. Also if the days are free, you have the option of finding an older AP who wants to study seriously during the day.
It will be a hard task, but you have time to look at both nanny and AP options I think.
Get thee to AP world / Gumtree / agencies

Blondeshavemorefun, My suggestion of daily nanny is a daily nanny/au pair combination where au pair does the early starts/shares babysitting.

I personally think the childminder/au pair situation will be a very complicated scenario riddled with possible problems but I could be wrong.

hi jura - no i didnt know that - i assumed that they couldnt be or else athene would have used the vouchers

"Another attraction to the childminder is that we could make use of childcare vouchers and save a bit of tax"

how come you didnt register your CN athene, then you could use the vouchers?

Hi Athene, I am well thanks for asking. Just noticed you want a youngster. That counts me out then

I haven't registered my previous nannies because it is too much faffing around for someone who leaves every 6, 9, 12 months. I can't be arsed to be honest. And for quite a while both my and DH' employers did not participate in the scheme.

But, for a childminder, she comes to the table already registered and I don't have to go to any extra work to make use of them. The whole idea here is to reduce my workload so I'm not interested in extra to save only a few shekels.

ScottishThistle, please tell me why you think this has potential to be complicated. I do not want complicated. I want reliable and seemless childcare so I can go to work, possibly a plane flight away. So what have you thought of that I haven't.

I love you, coolj, but you are out of budget for me, sadly. This nanny employment thing would be so much easier if I never had to think about affordability. But, sadly, I do.

ST yes i just reliesed this - duh - im not blonde for nothing

I may be wrong but the problems which may arise are:

*Au-Pair working too many hours
*Au-Pair on holiday/sick, Childminder unable to cover early mornings/evenings

Will think of more potential problems, sorry doing serious multi-tasking!

But they could apply to a nanny as well...
so if AP+ did 6.30-9.00 4 mornings a week = 10 hours
then mondays 6.30-1pm say, =6.5 hours
then after school or would the CM do some?
so that's what? 3 hours a day another 15 hours. So that takes you to your AP+ hours
Then you have to factor in an overnight.
It is do able and that's only using CM in the mornings.

I think a sick au pair when I have a childminder for the middle of the day is certainly less disruptive than a sick nanny when she is the sole childcare. Same goes for holiday. However, a risk I do see is that au pairs are generally a bit less commited to the job long-term and they are less likely to be able to handle an emergency situation. For example, about six months ago, my phone was turned off and nanny had to take DS to the hospital with amild concussion in an abulance after useless local GP refused to treat him. Not sure I want to put an au pair in that situation.

you're right Athene, but that's when she could contact the CM for help.

It's not easy and of course you also have to consider school holidays/sick children etc and I think a Nanny coming to your home works better for these situations than a childminder.

If Nanny is ill, she may struggle in as she knows she has the help of the AP if required. I'm talking as a Nanny who has had 3 days sick in 17yrs ~ shame there aren't more out there like me!

The AP will have more household chores to do seen as childminder can't help out there.

Sorry if a bit of a ramble, writing quickly!

But AN has the same problem with a nanny...

I'm not going to take up the whole "APs don't exist any more" line I'm so fond of but we'll call the AP a Mother's Help for now and understand that it means a young, possibly foreign, person who is unqualified and maybe has a bit of experience, but definitely isn't a nanny.

The MH can work as many hours as she's contracted to. The question arises whether she WANTS to work this many hours and whether she'll be happy doing it. We're no longer bound by the 5 hours work/day guideline because the visa requirements changed but split shifts aren't that common and is AN happy having an AP do her schedule?

MH can be on holiday/sick leaving a childcare gap. In this case AN presumably does what she does with her CN and finds a temp, takes parental leave if she can or smiles really sweetly at CN if slightly ill and completely stuck and lightens the load as much as possible.

AN - a combinatation is possible but probably not, at this point, a really viable option. Once your DS is in school then you're sorted.

I agree without knowing what you pay it's difficult to know what you'll get but I expect a little extra for any starts before 8am. If you paid more I'd say you'd get what you wanted no problem

FWIW I usually start at 7.45am (I'm live out, accomodation they provide 2 streets over) and practically never finish before 7.45pm. Occasionally I need to start as early as 5.45 (if my boss has an early flight/train). I stay over at least 1 night/week and babysit another night. I COULD NOT do it if I had my charge at home all day, it would kill me. I find Wednesdays (no school days) incredibly tough. As it is I have 8.45-11.45 and 13.15-16.15 Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri to myself....sometimes I use the mornings to sleep. Your schedule would completely knacker me I'm afraid! But then again my charge does have additional needs so I don't know what it would be like with 'normal' children.

one slight correction Frannikin.
It's extremely common for AP/MH to do split shifts. A lot of language courses are during school hours.

A lot of Mothers helps/Au pairs work split shifts!

So what are you suggesting Frannikin, I'm a bit confused?