Urgent! How much would you pay your nanny to look after your kids for a whole weekend (incl nights)???

[Avocadoes]

Just back from a weekend away. Our nanny looked after our girls for two nights and two days. She had previously said she would charge the hourly rate for this service. I actually thought it was pretty steep to charge £10 per he (her normal rate) for hours age was asleep but assumed it was normal so said ok. So 55 hours away this weekend amounted to £550! I thought she had donw pretty well out of that and gave her the huge wad of cash only for her to say it's normal to give a nanny 1.5x pay on Sundays! So she wants another £80.

I know we should have discussed exact details before but we didn't. Am I being taken for a ride or is it normal to pay £630 for a weekend of childcare?

i too charge £150 per 24 hours...

i think that is an extortionate amount for her to charge you, but i guess if £10 / hour is in contract that is what she is expecting...

unless time and half is in contract i would not give it to her!!!!

sounds like she is being very greedy

I also agree that she is asking far too much. I never charge hourly rate overnight (unless i have a child who wakes)-i charge half rate. However i do agree that these things always need discussing before you go. I would pay what you agreed and make sure she is aware what the rate is for next time.

Christ riven! I'm an SEN nanny and i charge £150 per 24hrs too.

drhunt - hmmmmmmm orgagami - that i CANT do but i can get 3 children in bed by 7pm

seriously tho, the 10ph for every hour is a bit steep, as i said i charge £200 per 24hrs BUT you did agree to this and from what you are saying you dont object to paying the £240 per 24hrs just the additional £80

riven, i think one of us should come to you and social services can pay us so you and dh can go out for an day/evening as i know you dont get out much

We pay ours £9/hour during the day, £8 per hour babysitting. +£50 overnight after 11pm. When the children were still waking at night I paid extra for that.
So we would have paid her about £400.
Don't give her any more cash!!

Another comparison, £10 per hour babysitting; so we pay all awake hours as babysitting; so 13 hours for us for two days; £260 plus £20 extra for sleeping over i.e. £300 total.

She is taking the piss. Even with the £10/hr for overnight. Don't pay the extra £80. She'll just keep doing it if you give in this time. People who take advantage of others like this make me . Yes, you agreed to the rate and that's your fault but very cheeky of her to even charge that much when most very experienced nannies do not.

But Riven that's for staff qualified to take care of SN children, surely?

Don't pay the 80 quid, OP. And good luck for today's chat.

Also Avocadoes, I know this will sound harsh, but I don't have time at the moment to put it really nicely
Don't let on to this nanny that you are desperate to keep her or else she'll just continue with this sort of behaviour and other things will occur where she takes advantage of you. She needs to realize that she is can be replaced by someone who won't have such cheeky requests/demands.

Totally agree with StarExpat. She might be a great nanny (personally I think not with an attitude like hers) but she is NOT irreplaceable and she is taking huge advantage. I would suggest a contract review ASAP to put in writing the exact pay for situations like this. And if she doesn't like it, tough. What she is asking is extortionate money that even a highly experienced professional nanny would NOT ask for. Very cheeky IMO.

She is absolutely taking the piss. Not only on the time and a half malarchy, but also on getting her £10 per hour over night. Nannies I know get a set overnight fee ranging from £25 to £40 which takes them from normal clock off time to normal start time. The lower range are generally live in so less inconvenience.

You said a few posts down that "This incident does leave a bad taste in my mouth but that doesn't cancel out the fact that she is great with my kids and they love her."

I want to offer a word of caution this "bad taste". I had a nanny who attempted to pull a fast one on me, and it left a bad taste in my mouth which I never got over. She was good with the kids, they loved her, she loved them, but my working employer-employee relationship with her was damaged beyond repair. Even now it pisses me off.

While she worked for us, I changed jobs. I involved her in the whole process whilst I was interviewing. WE talked about how things might change. Travel was on the cards. And I obviously needed to know how she felt. WE had an agreed overnight rate already. But the amount of time travelling was likely to increase. So, after I got the job (and after she had resigned but still had a few months until she was actually leaving) she said she wanted more money for the overnight. She stood her ground. I said no. She argued hard. She got emotional. She cried. She threatened not to do the job. I remained calm but stood my ground and told her that part of the job was not on offer and she would need to all of it or none of it. In the end she accepted that she was not getting her demand. I was flabbergasted that someone who regarded themselves as a professional could resign and then demand more money to serve out the notice. I never got over it. If this issue is going to errode your working relationship with your nanny the same way it did to me with mine, then I would suggest considering plan B before you you fork out hundreds or thousands more for someone who may be leaving anyway (as she doesn't sound like she is very happy with her remuneration)...

good luck today

Why are you passing wine at 9:35 in the morning? The things I don't know about you!

I'm watching this with interest.

FWIW I charge £10 per hour normal working hours, £8ph x 4 babysitting hours and £30 flat overnight fee.

To me any weekend work is outside my normal hours so if I wanted to be as greedy as the OP nanny i'd charge time and a half the whole weekend.

She is definitly trying to pull a fast one.

People like her give us nannies a bad name.

I worked as a mother's help in the summers and on holidays while I was at university. The regular nanny (who had summers off, but popped in once in a while) once told me that she'd be asking for a (big) raise when she returned in the fall "because they can afford it and they love me and wouldn't ever want to lose me, so I know I'll get it" . I was really, really close with the mother but didn't say anything at the time. She confided in me a couple of weeks later that her nanny was demanding a pay rise of $150/week and that she didn't feel that this was right but she didn't want to upset the nanny because she was very good with her dc and so lovely...etc. they didn't want to lose her. I didn't say anything, of course.

Her friend was also over at this time and she told her that this was really not on and that the nanny would not leave them if they didn't adhere to her every demand or request. And if she did leave them for something like this, then it wouldn't be a loss, they could find someone just as good if not better.

She did listen to her friend. Offered nanny a sensible raise (nowhere near her demand) and, after threatening to leave, mother stood her ground, the nanny finally did accept it. I think she was treated well, paid well and realized that actually, she had a really good job. Hopefully she realized that she was as lucky to have them as they were to have her.

Well we have had the conversation. It went ok although I am in the slightly frustrating position of not being clear what she really thinks.

Basically I showed her the contract, explained there was no overtime rate and said I was sorry that DH and I had not explicitly agreed a free with her before this trip. I explained we had assumed she would charge £10 per hour ad that is what we had agreed and paid last time. I then said that we didn't want her to feel aggrieved, and if she had honestly agreed to the weekend assuming a higher rate of pay then we needed to discuss it but we did think we were paying a premium already.

I said I had consulted other people with nannies who thought £200 per 24 hours would be a generous fee so £240 felt v generous but that we had planned to pay it so everyone was happy this weekend. She said that was OK but who were these other friends with nannies because if I had asked X and Y that wasn't comparable as they had live in au pairs. I said it wasn't X and Y but other people with experienced live out nannies like her. She said OK again and I said was she happy as I didn't want this to be an awkward issue. She said it was fine and at that moment my 18 month old fell over and she dashed off.

So I think it went ok. The au pair comparison was a bit pointed which I resent. However, she is no longer asking for more money but who knows if she accepts it's a good rate or if she still think I should really have paid more.

Ew. What a horrible attitude. And to say "oh did you ask X and Y because they are au pairs", implying that you don't know the difference.
She should know that she's getting a good rate and well above the odds. She's trying to pull one over on you.
Appalling behaviour.

Au-pairs getting that rate

Pass the jobs over to me, i'm sure I could find loads of au-pairs willing to work for that rate.

Good on you for sticking to your guns.

Too bad if she's not impressed. She can always refuse to do it next time although i'm sure she knows a good one when she sees it.

So, next time, is she going to expect £10 per hours through the night? And are you going to pay it?

I would find someone else to do the overnights if I were in your position. This would probably annoy nanny. But, I have to look after my budget, just as she is looking after hers.

It does seem as though as though equillibriam has perhaps not been restored to the employer-employee relationshop. I guess time will tell.

Agreed. If she refuses to do it next time, have someone else lined up who can do it and just say "that's fine, X will do it instead for the pay offered" so she realizes you don't depend on her and have to pay her ridiculous rate (which should be up to you, as her employer... she's not self employed).

I think she is very lucky!

I've been a sole-charge nanny for 24 years, have excellent references and have looked after children from newborn to 14 years, some with special needs.

I charge £200 for 24 hours proxy parenting!

Maybe I should up it.

I don't really consider weekend proxy parenting as work, I don't do any of my nursery duties, I just have fun with the children! I obviously care for them well and feed them, but we eat out, go to fun places, etc.

I am working this weekend, parents go away friday at 1pm, will be back on monday morning but going straight into work. I will get £220 per 24 hours and £15 per hour any extra hours, (I am working abroad for very generous employers!) and I know I will get a small gift from where they visit!

But I would not expect this, this is what they told me they would pay me, but if they came back and said next time it will be £200 per 24 hours, it would be fine as that is in my contract.

Sorry mis-read re the au-pair

I'm a proffessional nanny with over 20yrs experience under my belt so am able to ask high rates and even I think she is way over the top..

Hello Callaird!!!