childcare issue (pay, cleaning and DD2)

[stopcopyingme]

hi, (sorry its a long story)

I go back to work soon (2 days a week) after having DD2 (she will be 9 months and DD1 will be 2 1/2) my MIL will be caring for them in our home. We pay her the going rate for a nanny, have done since DD1 was born and throughout my mat leave even tho she reduced the hours.

originally MIL was a well respected/popular nanny in our town, she only worked for docs/private school headmasters etc. so we are very lucky to have her! we keep the relationship professional, paid holidays, sick days etc.

Previously with DD1 she had her at her house, had toys and clothes there that she brought, etc all at an expense to her. we paid her what we were told was the areas normal rate for a nanny.

now she will be in our home, with the eldest going to nursery for one morning a week.

Should we be increasing her pay or keeping it the same?

increase in her work load/expense will be driving over to us (5ish miles each way), DD2, light cleaning relating to DD's i.e. hoovering bedrooms, making beds.

decrease will be not providing food and snacks, not having the house costs while dd1 is normally there i.e. heating/electric/etc. all resources i.e. arts and crafts will be provided by us. dd1 nursery one morning a week.

the reason I'm asking on here is the people we originally asked for nanny rates have moved away and MIL doesn't like discussing money. also we don't want her to be unhappy with the pay and get another nanny job ( she's always being asked)

is it normal/expected to increase pay when more children are involved?

In my view nannies are paid on a per family basis, not per child. You could try to see if the pay rate is still in line with other nanny jobs in the area. If you haven't been giving a small (very small at the moment) payrise anually then now may be a good time to increase a little, though inflation at present is still quite low and many people in jobs are not getting payrises.

Hello

you do not need to increase her wages as its per family not per child.

Your MIL should have been ofsted registered as a childminder to care for your 1st child in her own home. (a childminder is about 50-60% of the cost of a nanny so you have probably been paying over the odds!)

A nanny is someone who works in your home which its sounds like she will be now. You are the employer and pay NI and tax on top of salary and holiday and sick pay as you have been.

Its good you have been able to keep a relationship professional with a family member.

eastmidlandsnightnanny - the nanny is the childs gran so wouldnt matter if it was at her house she wouldnt need to be registered. family members dont need to be registered to watch the grandchildren.

If we are treating this as a normal nanny job (ignoring the fact that she is your MIL), then I would say yes, you do need to increase her pay. In a regular nanny job, if I was now expected to do the travelling, have another child and do bits & pieces around your house, then I would expect an increase in pay. To me, buying art stuff, paying electric bill etc would be no problem and I'd rather do that and be in my own home. However, I do understand why you are changing the arrangement (I presume she is happy with this??), but feel you are getting all of the benefit out of the new arrangement (which is also fair enough, but for me, an increase in pay would be in order).

It's fine for someone to say it's 'per family' not 'per child' - but would they feel the same way if their workload was increased but not their wage? Guessing not!

It's a shame you can't talk to her about it.

thanks for your replies.

nannynick - thanks for the annual pay rise thought, we have been trying to do everything properly but hadn't thought of that.

eastmid- as cheryl said, when we looked into it at the start, we were told rightly or wrongly that granny-nannies didn't have to be ofsted checked at all but we did pay for her update her first-aid and she does follow the eyf thing as much as poss etc.

cheryl - thanks for confirming that for us

chippingin - thanks for giving the other point of view. She actually suggested it, as she feels it will be best for the DD's, not to have to get up early etc. she is a very proud lady and i think she would rather struggle than ask us for more or discuss it. so I thought if we just say "heres a payrise of x because its normal to pay x more for two etc in the nannying world"

Ok I thought any paid childcare whether a relative or not in their own home had to register as a childminder.

I think you are right Eastmidlands: if you pay grandma, sister or whoever, they need to be registered. There were certainly granny CMs on my pre-reg course, and a lot of discussion on whether the requirement for inclusive admisssion policies applied to them equally. If I remember rightly, the official line was that it did, unless they looked after their relatives' children in their own houses, in fact were granny-nannies rather than CMs.

No no, relatives are exempt from registration regardless of where childcare is provided. Includes grandparents, aunts, uncles weather by blood or marriage, or civil partnership. So no issues with that side of things.

They only need to be registered if you wish to claim tax credits for the child care.