Nanny duties when kids at school/nursery

[orangeplum]

My youngest starts at nursery this week and my nanny will now have at least 2.5 hours free every day whilst the kids are at school/nursery.

Please can those of you with nannies or nannies themselves tell me what they do during these "free" times. What sort of jobs/help around the house is it reasonable to ask them to do. Up to this point my nanny has focussed on looking after the kids, providing their meals and doing some loads of washing for us.
Thanks

While my (soon to be ex) charge is at school I:

clean and tidy his room
prepare bits and pieces for craft activities/English worksheets (he's bilingual)
do incidental bits of shopping for him - keeping medicines in date, making sure we have enough wipes for his glasses
do laundry and ironing
batch cook to freeze, parents are welcome to have some of this too!
run other child related errands

As long as everything is up to date my time is my own but when he is with me I focus on him and not on cooking/nursery duties.

I would say talk to your nanny - there may be things she isn't willing to do but she might have good suggestions that could suprise you.

I'd second what Fran said - i would do my child related duties then - so the children have my sole attention when they are around.
Having said that i also agreed to do dry cleaning runs, family shop, car through car wash and any odd errands mum and dad needed doing - these were not obligatory though i had the option to refuse without causing offence.

I always think this is a difficult time for parents - you still need a nanny - who now appears to have oodles of time free (please be aware of time it takes to get to and from nursery!) yet asking them to perform 'extra' or non child related tasks is a minefield!

When caring for a family with 3 children... once all were at school/nursery, I would:

Finish stacking dishwasher and put it on.
Hoover around.
Sick a wash load in the machine.
Cook lunch.
Drink a cup of coffee.
Plan what was happening that afternoon.
The time can go surprisingly fast, hardly seems like anytime until doing the nursery run.

Dont forget to count in travel time

I will have 1.5hrs "free" time once the travel has been included.

Laundry
Cooking (batch or meals for the day)
Look thru toys/books
Preparing arts an crafts
Shopping if required

Also gives the chance to do usual nursery duties alone, now LOs dont sleep in the day they usually have to entertain themselves for a few minutes while these get done. Gone are the days of napping

Anything child related really.

Shop for birthday presents (for children's friends whose parties are comming up).
cook either for same day or in bulk and freeze.
Tidy rooms/toys.
Kids laundry.
Shopping for kids (i.e. school uniform, new tennis raquet, etc.)
Make a scrapbook of the kids in place of nanny diary which they may have outgrown.
Make star charts.
Make some activities to compliment homework (i.e. if child having trouble with math, might make up some flash cards or related math game)

So long as the activity is specific to careing for / feeding / entertaining / educationg the kids I think it's okay (unless of coure your contract says otherwise).

If the nursery session is 2,5 hrs then this is not her 'free time', you need to deduct the travelling time.
And i would also deduct her 'lunch time' because the children probably dont nap anymore? If she works 10 hrs then 1 hr break is not unreasonable.

I think it's perfectly fair to expect your nanny to be working whilst you are paying her. However, I wouldn't dictate every minute of every day.

why cann't she have some break at Costa or Starbucks?

in all of my jobs where i have had childcare duites (i dont in this one) as long as washing is done/bedroom/playroom tidy then the time was my own to do as i pleased - AS LONG as i had my phone with me, as I was on call

I would normally do the familys weekly shopping one am

sometimes i would go to my home (5mins away) or go to the gym, other times stay at work

i am happy to do some stuff during that time, but also nice to be able to sit down and have a cuppa in peace (esp as often dc will have stopped pm nap)

How can you have a nanny job without any childcare duties?

Hi
Thanks for all your suggestions. The 2.5 hours is after travel time to nursery (5 mins)and picking up time taken into account. You are right it is a minefield but also i think its fair to expect a bit of help on things would have overlooked before when they were looking after kids all day eg sweeping and washing kitchen floor that kids have messed up, a bit more cooking for kids and sorting and tidying toys rather than just shoving them away - hopefully this sounds reasonable.

I think blondes meant nursery duties

I know she did. But I'm sure she deserves to be teased for saying she has no childcare duties.

quite right athene

in this job i dont do any nursery duties

though to be fair i havent had any childcare duties or children for 3 weeks so brain is getting used to working again

My nanny fills in her spare time while DC are at school and nursery by being treasurer of the school PTA.

My previous nanny was not into the PTA. She went into school one morning a week to listen to the children read.

both go to assemblies/ meetings etc organised at too short notice for me or DH to take time off work.

I'd agree with others, it's not actually all that much spare time.

Your nanny is a PTA officer??? That's impressive.

i forgot the reading - yes i did that once a week when both were at school all day /nursery 5 mornings

wow your nanny is dedicated being on the pta - i normally find my boss's avoid that at all costs

saying that my current lovely mb is form rep and has been for a few terms, as no one else can be bothered

which i find really sad that no other parents can be arsed, and tbh most of them at our school dont work, im one of 2 nannys there, tho a few cm's who pick up but not from our class

surely every parent can do 1 term in their childs school life