If you employ / are a nanny with school age children how do they / you fill their day?

[Pennies]

In Sept my DD2 will start school.

For health reasons which means I can end up in hospital at short notice I need a nanny on hand to be able to sort the children out should that happen. DH works long hours and there's no local family to help. Can't really rely on friends coz that's not fair, esp in school hols.

I'm wondering how best to keep nanny busy when DD starts school.

She does 3 days a week as it is and nanny is doing housework, laundry, cooking. She's already getting about half a day off at least a week because I don't have enough for her to do.

What does your nanny do whilst your children are at school?

Hi Pennies, I mostly lurk on here although I do post occasionally, so I am aware of your situation and your need to have someone reliable to help you at the moment.

If you could give us a rough idea of what your nanny already does we could maybe suggest some additional duties.

I suppose anything that might make your life a bit easier would be good though. Does your nanny already batch cook for the freezer for easy to prepare meals for when she's not around? How about organizing the shopping etc....

Have you thought of finding for her / asking her to find a job / some jobs to fill the school hours. It depends on the demographics of the area you live in, but there might be other Mums like me.

I have a nanny one morning a week from after school drop off till about lunch time. She looks after my son while I do my own cleaning. Better for me than a childminder as she comes to me and she also takes my DS to play at other people's houses / the park / soft play so is out for most of it. If you were happy for your nanny to have other children in your house, this could work well for Mums who would like their house to themselves to clean / work for a few hours. My nanny (and a friend of her's) have as much work as they want, school hours only. I also have other friends who either run their own part time businesses or do very occassional hours who could also use similar help.

Tbh as long as I had done my nursery duties ie making sure bedroom/playroom tidy,washing childrens clothes (cleaner ironed them) and freezing few shepherds pies/ casseroles etc the time was my own

occasionly MB would ask if I could pick up a parcel/ go to bluewater etc but otherwise I could do whatever I wanted as long as I had phone with me as school would AlWAYS ring me first as often mb/db couldn't be contacted

I did help at school and listened to Reading and helped at local nursery in the morning twice a week

tbh it's boring having no children. Nice to meet a friend for lunch/go to the gym etc but not every day

PS: My nanny only does term time as she has two DC's of her own and this works for me as I have school age children too.

Was going to suggest what blondes has just said - for nanny to go into school to listen to children read (once/twice a week for a couple of hours). Schools are usually very glad of the help. It is something that I did as a parent so I should think it is within a nannies remit.

Just read the other thread and the volunteering in the nursery - good idea.

You may find she is getting stuff done by lunchtime as you are there - if she was by herself she may sit and have breakfast after the school run (I do - peace and quiet ) then do a couple of jobs before a coffee and 10 mins of daytime tv, then anotther job etc etc. I'm sure in lots of jobs, if the boss was looking over your shoulder (metaphorically speaking) you would get things done quicker.

You could get her to organise old clothes that are due for the charity shop. Plan activities. Organise the arts and crafts supplies.

IIRC - you've taken her on as a nanny/housekeeper for when you are not well enough to do some household tasks. No harm in delegating some of them now, you can conserve your energy for upcoming treatments.

As blondes my time was my own. I didn't do ad hoc work as had to be on call in case of problems. I helped at school, did nursery duties, a bit of cooking and studied.

Maybe your nanny could look into a childcare qual if she wants to stay nannying (this is her first job, isn't it?) and you could give her time to do that?

I'm sure she can do things around the house. If you're having chemotherapy then things need to be as clean as possible and deep cleans do take time.

Can she take some light exercise with you? Going for a walk or similar and just being there in case as it were? It may seem a big effort so her support might be useful. Even if you feel okay now it may be worth just having her around in case you need her to do something, which obviously isn't part of her job description but sods law dictates that if you fill up her time with jobs outside the house you'll find more things you need her to do.

That said a busy nanny is often a happy nanny so ask her if there's anything else she wants to do or thinks she could do.

Hope your treatment is going okay - thinking of you.

I'd ask her to keep on top of any schoolwork / additional activities. For example, my DS needs a bit of extra hep with handwriting as his fine motor skills are a bit behind. So, I'd ask her to get some handwriting practise books and have a thing about other things which might help. One thing my lovely nanny does (which hadn't occurred to me) is she makes DS do his own buttons every moring. He hates it and there is sometimes a struggle. But, doing buttons is good for hanwriting. So, if your children have any particular needs, you could ask her to fill her time considering and organising some activities.

Incidentally, our two are also in full time school so nanny does have quite a bit of free time. She signed up for an English class during the day while they are at school. I know some employers would object to this. But, so long as the kids come before the class if she is needed (which is rare but has happened), then I'm okay with it.

I have 4 DC's that are all at school. During the day I do the housework, errands, shopping etc etc. I am meant to have time off but in reality I am on call so can't go too far from school. I also go to the gym, do non nanny related jobs for the parents. It is actually quite a boring and lonely existence caring for school aged children.

tbh pennies, with the other posts you have done about your nanny, im not too sure i would ask /make her do other things while your dc are at school

you said your nanny was depressed/finding the job hard as it was as 12hrs - the average nanny wouldnt find these hours/job hard but your one does

you dont want her to get fed up and hand in her notice

i know this means you are paying her to do nothing for maybe 4hrs a day BUT unless you can find someone to replace her asap then you need her more than she needs you iyswim

she is there to make your life easier so by all means ask her to do the shopping/very light housework etc but i wouldnt hire her out to friends