Please tell me how to go about setting up a nanny share in West London...Pleeeease!

[Sycamoretree]

I'm about to start a new job in a month having taken a voluntary redundancy.

DH is currently a SAHD working freelance one day a week. The intention is to start FT childcare when I go back to work to allow him the time to really throw his energy into finding a FT position again in a tricky industry at an even trickier time.

DD is 4, starting reception in 2 weeks.

DS is 2.

We have a nice 4 bed home, very child friendly and a big garden, safe for kids. Ideally we'd want the nanny to work from our home (of course!) but realise this may not be ideal for another family.

Where should we start? Find a nanny first then find a family that happens to like her and us too (am worried this could take time and we'd be bearing the brunt of the cost)? Though I guess in this situation we'd be in more of a position to have the other family slot in with us.

Or, do we find the family first then set about finding a nanny together that suits our kids and our needs (this seems more sensible).

I would imagine a family with similar aged child/children would be wise. Not more than two other children though (am I right?).

How would I go about finding this other family do you think?

Financially, if the other family only had one child what would be a fair split of the childcare costs?

hmmm, so many questions.

We have considered childminding options but I think the hours would be too restrictive and in London you can pay up to 7 pounds and hour maybe more, which when you double up works out more expensive than splitting the cost of a nanny with another family (am basing that on generous estimate of paying a nanny 30K gross).

Phew, thanks for reading. If you're still with me, I'd be so grateful for advice from any one who has been there and bought the t-shirt so to speak.

We have had a nanny previously when DD was 6 months old. We were in a share but it was split 2.5 days with us, 2.5 days with another family - friends who we met on our antenatal course.

This time we need to share the childcare 5 days a week.

Bump and a sigh.

I know, it's not that interesting unless it's happening to yooooooouuuuuuu. But I really, REALLY need some advice.

I don't know anything about nanny shares, but it might be worth advertising it in

www.neighbournet.com/

if your area is covered.

A few people have mentioned nannyshare.co.uk before.

www.nannyshare.co.uk is a good place to find families. I used this - met up with a few, discussed requirements, worked out whether we could be a good fit etc. Then you can go and find the nanny using that website or nannyjobs.co.uk or gumtree.

We found the nanny first and then looked for a share family - but that can be expensive if you don't find a family in time. I used to be involved in setting up nanny-shares where I used to live (via a local parents group) and the hardest part was finding a suitable family since most of them wanted to share a nanny for 1 day a week or for odd hours and we needed someone to share at least 3 full days to make it worthwhile to us.
My advice would be to see if your dd's school has a parent's noticeboard and put an ad up on their for a share-family, and similarly for any 'feeder' nursery schools. This is because if school age kids are involved they need to be at the same school.
Otherwise - try nannyshare.co.uk and gumtree, and ads on coffee shop noticeboards (the ones where the mums hang out on maternity leave )
We shared with 2 families (one after the other) and both had babies (mine were 2 and 4). My kids adored having the babies around but it did limit their activities to some extent and once the babies turned into toddlers they trashed my house (which is fine when they're your own toddlers, but it gets wearing when you have babygates and highchairs cluttering up the place and sticky fingers have broken your speakers - again, and they aren't even your kids )
Oh, and we ended up buying a MPV for the nanny to drive the kids in since we needed at least 3 car seats in the back of the car.
Oh, and having the share at your house is fine but remember that nanny will have to leave house at a certain time to take dd to school so other family needs their child there in plenty of time, else your child is late to school - so do ask potential families if they are ok with that schedule (especially if they are used to using a nursery where they can drop off at any time).
Good luck.

Thanks ladies - I have signed up for nannyshare.co.uk which has been fantastic. There are three families will exactly the same requirements and a playmate for DS which all seems a bit too good to be true - they also have a nanny all read to share (suppose I had better like her lol!).

Fingers crossed.

I did a nanny share where I worked FT and the other mum worked 3 days. This gave us 8 days of childcare between us, IYSWIM, and so we split costs 5/8 and 3/8, which we were both happy with. The children were babies, so they didn't eat much and we were never stressed about food costs. That just all worked out.

The children were the same age and formed an INCREDIBLY close bond, which I think is not unusual - so be ready for playdates to carry on even after the share has come to an end.

If the share is at your house you might need extra equipment living there too - 2 highchairs, another cot or travel cot up most of the time.