Housekeeper- What would you expect?

[PoisonousSmurf]

Noticed an advert for a housekeeper on our local website and the person wanted someone to look after their two (over 7yr old children), give them breakfast and take to and from school (two different schools), take the dog for a walk twice a day. Cook and evening meal and keep the house 'looking like a showroom' and all the bathrooms must be sparkling at all times as if in a 5* hotel.
All this for over 10 hours a day (twice a week), but less than £10 an hour!
Would anyone do this???

Sounds fine. £800 a month for 8 days of work - it’s close to that magical £1000 a month people are always asking for on Mumsnet.

Good part time job for people who have other responsibilities. £800 would pay for more than my monthly food bill!

Haha, no!

I wouldn’t do the above for less than £15 an hour (I’d probably want closer to £20 to be fair).

Cleaning for less than £10 and hour, fine. Cooking, errands, children in my care too? Not a flipping chance.

They’re taking the piss.

Well, how much less than £10ph are we talking? Not sure what nmw is atm, about £8ph?

Well I certainly wouldn’t. How the hell would you be keeping a house to showroom standards by coming in twice a week and juggling childcare, school runs and cooking? Sounds very much like they need a housekeeper AND a nanny and they’re two tight to pay for both.

*too

Also, it would depend on the size/condition of the house.... keeping a 3-bed semi in order over two 10 hour days is far easier than having to manage a 7-bed, 6 with en suite, 4 reception house, I'm sure!

£100 per day isn't bad!

Fifteen quid an hour maybe with a very simple evening meal and excellent kitchen and cleaning equipment. Less than a tenner they are having a laugh!

There won't be any takers for a variety of reasons.

I hate employers who quite patently need a nanny and a housekeeper but are too tightfisted to pay for both. That 'like a showroom' comment is ridiculous.

Yep. Cheeky.

They don’t want to list it as nanny/housekeeper because then the inadequacy of the hourly rate would be all too apparent.

The “like a show home” stipulation is a very handy red flag demonstrating that they’ll be nightmare employers.

I'm a dab hand at recognising this kind of crap in adverts now (nanny of 6 years)

Red flag, just the same as 'we don't believe in boundaries' when referring to their kids, you know they'll just be total nightmares.

That’s one long working day if it starts with breakfast before school and ends with cooking dinner. Sounds like these are cheapskates who instead of paying a separate nanny, full time cleaner and a dog walker want to roll it all into one. £10 an hour is ridiculously low too. I hope no one is desperate enough for work to reply to these tightarses

It wouldn't be an unreasonable raft of expectations at £15ph so long as someone else is keeping to the same standards the other 5 days of the week. It's not too hard to keep a house looking sparkly if it is only overnight since it was last sparkly. If the family slob out and live messily on the unstaffed 5 days then no way is that reasonable. You could certainly get the kids to school and then get the first dog walk done by 9.30. Whip round the house with duster and hoover and polish where needed between dog walk and lunch. An hour's lunch break then whip round the bathrooms. Dog's second walk before school pickup. Collect kids from school and make a start on dinner. It would be a long hard day so no definitely wouldn't do it for £10ph but perfectly possible. Definitely wouldn't do it if it was ever going to be more than 24 hours since the house was last spotless.