Desperately seeking nanny/babysitter central London two mornings a week

[IlanaK]

Ok, I give up! I have tried gumtree and am batting 0 for 2 as they are not showing up for interviews, I have tried asking friends who use babysitters, I have tried agencies but they either say that it is too few hours or they want to charge me £400 to find someone! I even called one person I saw advertising on a tesco noticeboard - that's how desperate i am getting!

Any other suggestions? Anyone on here want to do it? Help!

MN local, nannyjob.co.uk, nannyshare.?co.uk?, netmums.

Explain a bit more about hours/days/ages of children/duties/narrow down location a bit/salary etc.

as oligo said hours/days/ages/location/salary etc.
I'd potentially be interested...

Thanks. Ok, more details:

I need someone MOnday and Wednesday mornings from 9:30-1:30. I have three boys aged 8, 5 and 1. I home school them so they are around during the day. I mostly want someone to play with my older two and take them to the park. No additional duties except maybe making them a sandwhich for lunch. Location is right by Baker Street station. Salary is £8 an hour.

You would possibly find it easier to find someone for 1 full day rather than 2 part days as its going to be difficult for someone to fill the hours 1.30 onwards on those 2 days.
Also offering a higher salary of say £10 per hour would put you in better league with other jobs in your area.

www.findababysitter.com/ may be worth a try

Thanks. I am amazed how hard it is to fill this job. I can't make it one full day - it needs to be the two half days. And £8 an hour seems to be the going rate that all my friends pay their babysitters. I can't afford more anyway.

I would have thought this would suit a mum with a child at school as they could do the school run and then fit this job in with no problems.

Is it important it's always the same person? As if that isn't an essential, you could use Sitters - they've been fantastic with babysitters for us over the last 6 months - never failed to produce one, and every single one has been great. Worth having a word? - especially to see what sort of continuity they might be able to offer, as your job is a regular one? I think their hourly rate is £6+, plus a per-booking fee of £4, so it comes in within your budget.

I'd love to have done it, but I can only do 10 till 12, with a 3yr old in tow!

9.30am-1.30pm isn't babysitting... it's daytime childcare, thus why you may need to offer a higher salary. Note I say may... as it seems to me that you have had 2 interested people but they have pulled out - is that right? It may be the money putting them off, or it may be that it is shared care, parent at home that is putting them off. Also you don't say if £8 per hour is NET (after taxation) or GROSS (before tax deductions).

I think you are right to aim it at a mum whose children are school aged. Once schools are back, could you try advertising the job at locations close to schools, or even with schools themselves (some may have a newsletter in which they accept adverts).

Bink - Sitters charges different rates for daytime care to my knowledge... their daytime rates are not on their website. Sitters also suggests that for evening babysitting... children are in bed, or ready for bed when the babysitter arrives - thus the pay rate. When other duties are required such as cooking, bathing, taking out on trips to the park, that would warrant a higher pay rate.

I have registered at the findababysitter site and put an ad on there as well as emai la few of their nannies.

Yes, I agree that it is daytime childcare, but I say babysitter as I am not necessarily looking for someone qualified which is often what part time "nanny" refers to.

£8 does seem to be the going rate around here. Even the nanny agencies have agreed on that. They just can't supply someone for so few hours.

Yes, I do want continuity. I don't think it is good for the boys to have a differnt person all the time. My one year old will not be happy in particular.

My search continues!

You could try calling it "Mother's Help" and seeing if that gets your adverts more attention.

Ilana - surely part of the problem is that anyone who could accept £8/hour as salary would not themselves be able to afford to live in central London.

I live in zone 2. If I wanted to apply for your job, I would not be able to be at Baker Street for 9.30 having dropped my own children off at school first. If I had to pay someone else to care for them for 45 mins or so before school starts then it would not be worth my while financially to apply for your job.

Also, if I wanted to earn £8/hour for just a few hours a week, I would do cleaning locally tbh. No travel and very little stress/responsibility.

You could advertise for a nanny who is training or maybe a student from a local college or uni.

In east london i would get 10£net/hour for that sort of work though £8 here is actually quite possible. If I work in west/central london i get £12/hour for just a few daytime hours at a time and thats via agency so think advice may vary. I am qual. etc. etc. though but still also think £8 is bit low for that area.

Also I suppose if you worked full time you might get less per hour than per hour rate for just a few hours.

Perhaps few mums in that area might not really need that small extra bit of cash but maybe they might be interested in some sort of exchange whereby you could do simlar thing for them sometime- or swap other skills?

Sorry, I thought from one of your posts it was only to take the older two out to park etc., not looking after the one-year-old too - I agree you can't have variety of people with the little one.

My dd's school newsletter (just as NannyNick says) often has ads from au pairs wanting to do a extra bit of morning work - typical au pair hours (with school age children) are 7-9 am (school run) and from 3pm (pick-up). But again, the au pair might not be able to get to you by 9.30 if they have the school run commitments first ... is 9.30 absolutely fixed?

Lol.. You cant afford more than 8ph - yet your boys are taught from home and you live in Baker Street... say no more!

Wow Suppernanny19 - what a snap judegment of me. You know nothing about me at all. How on earth can you know what I can afford or not by my address and the fact that I homeschool? Most homeschoolers have way less money as it means giving up work to stay with the children. The "work" that I will be doing from home is actually volunteer work - I am a breastfeeding counsellor. The area I live in is a mix of million pound flats all the way down to council flats. How do you know which one I live in? I assume from your name that you work as a nanny - well do me a favour and don't apply for my job!

To the other more helpful people who have replied - thank you. The findababysitter site is very good. I had to pay £10 to register, but I have already had a response from someone that looks very good. A recent graduate doing freelance work in the area who is also working part time as a nanny - just what I am looking for and she is happy with £8 an hour. I will be interviewing her next week.

Its interesting the variation in the rates of pay. For a while, I used Tinies which I think is a really well known agency when I needed a one off nanny to cover me when I was at a meeting. These were qualified, crb checked nannies - usually between jobs so could do a one off. They charged £9 an hour.

Anyhow, I appreciate the helpful comments (bar one!).

I am in SW London and babysitters who sit sleeping children get paid £8 an hour, a neighbour has a cleaner who charges £10 an hour.

Agree with the others that the rate you are prepared to pay will limit the numbers of people who are interested in the work.

Well I'm sorry I clearly offended you. & my rates start at £9ph so I wouldn't apply. Enjoy the sun

I am currently interviewing for a nanny for 4 afternoons a week (from 12.45->5.45) - I live in Bayswater. I have 2 lovely girls on my shortlist. One is studying in the mornings but one will be looking for a morning job to go with our afternoon job (i found both on gumtree thanks to MN sugeestions!), let me know if you are still looking.

Is she called Rachael by any chance? I contacted her through gumtree and she emailed me today to say she was possibly getting a job for the afternoons and would be interested in the mornings I was offering. If its not her, then I would definately be interested!

I have three nannies from findababysitter coming for interview this week so hopefully I will find one!

No, although I imagine there are lots of desperate Mums like me trying to organise after school cover...nursery that was open from 8 til 6 with no schools holiday suddenly seems so convenient!