2 DC - nanny or nursery?

[butadream]

DS went to nursery and we were happy with it but the pick-up time was always stressful. Mainly for this reason now we have 2 DC we're considering a nanny instead. Other reasons for a nanny are:

• a nice nanny always seems like a nicer arrangement for younger babies anyway
• no problems if DC ill
• the other nursery duties a nanny does are v attractive i.e. clean clothes and good food for DC

BUT:

• would a live-out nanny work 8.30 am - 7 pm (hopefully we would be home earlier most nights but trains are not trustworthy enough to promise it)?
• lots of posts on here about unreliable nannies worrying me esp if agencies aren't that helpful
• nursery still cheaper actually esp with increases to employer NIC on the way

Thanks Missus, well will offer it like that - there are a couple of nannies on childcare.co.uk who are looking to bring their child with them to work.

TBH probably would prefer a nanny without children but don't want to rule our potentially good candidates.

Thanks also greybird, yep, reckon it will cost us c. £3k a month in childcare - yikes! And I think this looks like an "ooer" face so will try our v best not to pick a rubbish employee!

wage seems good for full time nanny without child - works out £9.23 ph nett - you may be able to pay slightly less for a younger/less experienced nanny

i would word the ad salary depends age/exp of nanny

regards to salary for a nwoc - i think 65% is a bit low - i personally couldnt pay my bills on that (tho obv know that all nwoc who take child to work are lucky) and would do more 80% so would be about £7.39 - so still saving just under £2nett ph

but just my opinion, obv if you can find a nwoc who is happy to work for £6.24 nett then fab

I wasn't at all suggesting that an AP should be doing sole charge Blondes.

Was suggesting both in nursery with the AP doing pick ups either end of the day.

But it sounds like financial considerations are not the main issue, so just go with the nanny.

I personally would do the wage as a range so from £x to £x depending on experience. And that you would consider a nanny with her own child, but no mention of the pay specifically for such a candidate. Then you're not tying yourself into anything.

What if you really love a new nanny, you'd be stuck in a corner?!

Good luck.

Don't worry HarrietTheSpy noone reading this thread again would think you were an evil au pair slavedriver!

Thanks navyeyelash, think I might try advertising with salary on one site and with a range on another site and see what difference it makes to responses

Been giving more consideration to the "use both" option - the nursery will let us do 2 days a week, no less. Do you think a nanny would like a 3 day a week job as much or better than a FT one? Then if DC ill on a nursery day hopefully nanny could cover at extra pay or if nanny ill hopefully nursery could let us book some extra days?

HarriettheSpy did this system work like this for you when you used both?

I've always found it harder to find a p-t nanny than a f-t one so I wouldn't do the 3/2 thing. (In the end I had to pay a higher hourly rate for p-t)

I can believe that, round here I can see that nanny jobs exist 4 days a week but nurseries don't want children for only 1 day a week ...

TBH I would prefer just 1 arrangement i.e. nanny but then we still have to consider illness and holidays.

Think you would end up paying a higher rate for a part time nanny, and most nannies need to work full time so would have another job on the other days. It's unlikely a nanny and nursery would be able to cover each other I think.

agree some part time jobs pay a slightly higher rate, and also normally the nanny will have another job as missus said so unlikely to be able to fill in for you

could granny have them for one day, and be the same day every week, know you said granny would have a child each for one morning, but would the mornings be the same as could be annoying for nanny not to know if granny having a child or not

then you could offer the job as a 4day job - loads of nannies LOVE 4 day jobs [samile]

Much as we love her, we know from prior experience that granny would commit to one day a week and then, at least once a month, call us the night before to say she does not feel up to it! So we can't make it a 4 day job.

The mornings with granny would be regular time slots but we anticipate that she would cancel these at least once a month, hopefully that's less annoying than moving around and in fact we wouldn't let granny do this as too unsettling for DC anyway esp. if they have regular playgroups and classes with nanny.

butadream I am a qualified and experienced nanny looking for work so if you have decided to have a full time nanny drop me an email clayre bear at hotmail dot com

Thanks clayrebear but the position is live-out and I am in London, from your other posts I thought you were in the North West, or have you moved?

So either a 5day nanny or a 3/2 nanny/nursery. Have you looked at cm at all?

Maybe do a split week like that to save costs. Obv cm charge per child but you won't have tax&ni on top for 2days

Thanks Blondes. CM round here shut up shop at 6.30 p.m. or earlier (understandably).

You could always ask the cms if they will consider another hour a day - you may end up paying overtime fees though.

I would say you can get a nanny for less than your quoting but they won't be as good a candidate on paper - however they might be perfect for you! It's worth keeping about 50 a week in reserve when advertising so you can extend upwards for a really fab candidate.

Ofsted reg could save you lots and all you would need to fork out is the cost of registration (100ish) and possibly redoing first aid, especially if you word the ad to say an ofsted reg or prepared to be reg nanny.

Thanks frakkin, both good ideas!

I have put an ad on one website so far and only got e-mails saying "I am from the Phillippines can you get me a working visa?" (No) and "I am an au pair newly arrived from Spain" (no thanks).

Am I advertising too early for a start date in the first week of June?

A local friend just went back to work and has a nanny 4 days a week, she thought she was perfect but it's week 3 and the nanny is already off sick today - it's a bit worrying!

I know this is a few days old, but wanted to tell yuo about our experiences
we did nursery for DD1, but always had reservations nad wsa tricky when she was ill - more often than you would think, inc 2 weeks for chicken pox, then had DD2 when DD1 was 18 months, had 6 months off work then gto nanny who stayed for 3 years.
this meant DD1 could go to pre school nursery when 3, thus makign friends wh went on to primary shcool with her etc.
Our nanny was paid £127 per day net, with tax an NI on tip plus 5 weeks hol, 8 am till 7 pm, 4 days per week.

She was v good nad DD1 in particualr loved her and she made sure they were always well if unimaginatively fed and house tidy etc, it was the right thing when they were so little, less so when DD2 becaame 3 and a half,

For hte ages yuo are talking abou, I would go for the nanny option, although expensive, I think it is better.

Thanks pearlym, you're right, we need to balance likelihood of child being ill (high) vs likelihood of nanny being ill (hopefully low).

I have put an ad on one website so far and only got e-mails saying "I am from the Phillippines can you get me a working visa?" (No) and "I am an au pair newly arrived from Spain" (no thanks).

Yeah, you will have to do a lot of sifting through applicants to find those who meet your criteria.

Am I advertising too early for a start date in the first week of June?

No I don't think so. It could take several months to find someone suitable.

A local friend just went back to work and has a nanny 4 days a week, she thought she was perfect but it's week 3 and the nanny is already off sick today - it's a bit worrying!

Nannies are human... they do get sick. Though many of us nannies do try to work when we are a little ill, bad really but we don't like to let our employers down.

Thanks Nick, I know, and it's unfortunate that probably the first couple of months is when it's more likely the nanny will be ill due to the introduction of new bugs c/o my arsenal of biological warfare aka the DC!

no not too early to start advertising. i have 8weeks notice in my contract

Thanks Blondes.

Update - with figures to help people in similar boat.

We've been interviewing nannies, but it seems our job is unattractive to the good ones as although we are willing to pay up to £500/net per week they can earn 150% of that looking after 2 children in a nannyshare and there are plenty of other jobs (inc nannyshare ones) which are only 4 days pw and/or which finish at 6pm. Couple of nannies with own child are interested for £385/net pw but we are not 100% sure if we want responsibility for another child in our house even though we have employer's liability insurance in our home insurance policy.

We've also rechecked the finances and a nanny is going to cost c.£3800 out of our net income per month taking into account employer's NI, getting temp nannies in to help with holidays & sick days, nappies, food, heating etc. If we got a fab nanny we would be prepared to borrow to cover this cost as it is only for a couple of years but realistically I am going to want the moon on a stick from anyone in that position as that will be our main household expenditure.

On the other hand DC1's nursery for 2 DC will cost £1800 pm (after a small sibling discount) out of our net income. The 3 year old gov grant money will have to go to DS' school but if we took him out of that then it would reduce daycare fees by I think about £200 pm but not sure, anyway DC1 is already at state pre-school and has friends there so we won't change that. DC1 likes the nursery and we trust the staff.

Sooooo we've booked DC2 into the nursery now at the risk of losing a £300 deposit if we change our mind. Then the plan for DC sick days will be grandmother + a temp nanny to help her out at a cost of c. £130 per day (that would otherwise be the plan for nanny sick days if we went for a nanny).

The plan for school pick-up would then be to get an au pair to help with older DC aged 4 but I will have to do nursery pick-up for baby as we wouldn't want an au pair to have any sole charge time with her at all. So say £550 pm for au pair inc food & heating etc.

I am really quite upset about it all, not so much the finances as we always knew having children would take all our earnings whatever our life choices but because there is no "one stop" "no worry" solution allowing me to concentrate only on work when at work - my male colleagues just sail into work leaving all childcare worries to their wives whether their wives work or not. I do somewhat wish DH wanted to be SAHD but can understand why it wouldn't suit him and it is better for the family if we are all happy and productive I suppose.

What is it we have to say to get us through it all? This too shall pass? It's an investment? It will all be worth it in the long run?

Hey ho.

Did you consider a cm?

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread so if you did! Just thinking because then the cm could collect dc1 from preschool...
Nannies are lovely and do a brilliant job. (I used to nanny myself pre dh and dc) but it's a LOT of money. I think the care ds gets with his cm (used to be a nanny) is just as good (if not better than some nannies I've seen) and I don't have to worry financially.