I need to find a nanny and cleaner/housekeeper - how do I go about it?

[QuinnMallory]

I'm going into hospital next month and need to find a nanny to collect my son from nursery, feed/wash him and get him to bed throughout the week and also a cleaner/housekeeper to keep the house running. Where is the best place i.e agencies, websites, etc, to look or to post an ad? I am in LS20 and will need help for at least 6 weeks from early June.

Do you think I could get one person to do both or do nannies generally not do cleaning and ironing for a family? I'm prepared to skimp on the cleaning a bit but won't be able to turn a blind eye to the mountain of laundry and ironing that my small family of 3 seems to generate!

Please help - my head's spinning with the amount of stuff I have to organise before I go into hospital!

Quinn - can't advise on websites etc, but our 'general factotum' might be interested as we're not able to use her much at the moment as dh has been laid off...

My hesitations are that a) I don't know you to know whether you would get on with her; b) she has no childcare 'qualifications' as such - except raising two children herself, coping (amazingly well) with my headstrong ds (4) and I know babysiting regularly for another family with 2 dds - she will happily put ds to bed for me and sort his supper etc.
and c) don't know whether she would be interested.

I could tentatively find out...

Thanks mistlethrush - I'd be interested in finding out more. I don't think I have any major personality flaws but I will be recovering from surgery so may not be at my sweetest all the time I'm more interested in experience than qualifications so being a parent herself is good. If she's still raising two children, will she be available to look after mine at teatime/bedtime though? Please do mention it to her if you think she might be interested.

Hers are both late teenagers - so supper and bedtime don't need to be supervised.

I'll give her a ring later and sound it out...

She is going away in June unfortunately - already booked.

I have, however, spoken to a friend at choir who is a childminder - she knows someone who works with Tumbletots, has all the qualifications and crb for being a nanny and defintiely wants to move towards that - trouble is I won't get her contact details until next Weds...

However, she did say that there was a local board for childcare in Leeds that might be able to help.

I suppose that if your child is already in nursery, you might even want to see if any of the nursery nurses there might be interested in helping you out with the childcare side of things - at least you'd have consistency that way and wouldn't be introducing someone new...?

Thanks for making the enquiry nonetheless, Mistlethrush.

I will get on exploring other avenues, I'm sure I'll be able to get something sorted out.

If you do get details of your friend's contact, please do give me a shout. I will ask at my son's nursery too.

Thanks for trying to help.

Have you tried putting something on the nanny/childminder board?

I'min LS20...I might be able to help. Fully CRB'd, 4 children, member of the Chernobyl Childrens Project. blondiered at gmail dot com

ilove sorry, i thought the thread had gone dead so have only checked it again and seen your post today.

I've sent you an email now.

cheers
Quinn