How much should I offer...

[CantSleepWontSleep]

...to a lovely nursery school teacher who might be prepared to come and work as a nanny/mothers help for a month over the summer holidays, just after I have dc3.

She would be expected to entertain a 4.5yo and a 21 month old, help a little with the new baby (holding it whilst I shower/do other stuff or play with the older 2 myself), help to feed us all (I tend to eat with the children for ease), tidy up after the children and maybe do some of the kids washing and such like.

We are northern home counties if that makes a diff to the rate.

I guess the working hours would be something like 8:30 or 9 until 5 or 5:30, depending on what she is prepared to do! Obviously I'd love her 7:30-7:30 really, but that's quite a bit more than she does at the school, so feel it's prob too much to ask.

I would ask her what she wants....

I will do, but I'd like to have an idea of the norm and thus what I should be paying. I expect that she'll be in a similar position to me and unsure of what to ask for too, although I'd imagine that she'll spend some of half term researching the going rate too. We've agreed to talk more about it after the holiday.

I don't really think she should be cooking for you and your dh.

You could ask her if she would be willing to do a couple of days until 7-7.30pm or maybe start a bit later on those days.

She wouldn't be cooking for me and dh. Dh will be abroad. I will eat what the kids eat when the kids eat, as normal.

I assumed that was what you meant when you said you wanted her to help feed you all.

CSWS - if it helps I pay my nanny £8 net/hr in London...and she's v experienced, takes the kids out, does the children's laundry, shopping, cooking etc.

So something between £6-8/hr would probably be about right, but you'll have to see what she asks for.

I hesitate to say this, but if its just a few hours a day, during the school hols, she may prefer something a bit less formal when it comes to pay, anyway, so that it doesn't confuse her existing tax structure. But that probably depends on how many hours/for how long/at what cost etc.

And you have to sort out all the tax stuff yourself filly? Is that fairly straightforward (for an intelligent woman)?

Yup, or you can use sites like nannytax (there's about 3 or 4 of them - i'm sure there's some threads about the options somewhere on MN!) to do the thinking for you

cant see why a nanny/mothers help couldnt be asked to cook for the family. especially when a newborn arrives.

As she is only coming to work for you for a month, I think she might qualify as self employed. It's certainly worth finding out if you don't have to take on the burden of being an employer.

Mother's Help should definitely be cooking for family. As a maternity nanny I would also cook for the family and to be completely honest even if I were a 'standard' nanny and mother was eating with the children I wouldn't be so petty as to cook only enough for the children either.