Does this room for £100 per sound like a good offer?

[PtraciDjelibeybi]

Hi, I was wondering what people thought about this advert I am planning to place to solve my childcare difficulties...

Pleasant double room in KT4 offered for £100 per calendar month (inc all bills) in exchange for early morning (before school) child minding (10 year old boy)

I am a single mother with a ten year old son.

I leave the house for work around 3am on weekday mornings.

I am looking for a responsible adult to be in the house with my son in the hours between my leaving for work and his leaving for school.

He has no particular needs and takes himself to school, just too young to be left alone for that time.

During school holidays my son sometimes goes to stay with relatives, but if he is on school holidays and still at home I would need your presence for the same "pre school hours" period.

Any holidays you wish to take I just ask are proportionate and that you give me fair notice to make alternative arrangements for the period.

Our house is in Worcester Park, Surrey - suburbs of London. We are a fifteen minute walk from Worcester Park train station - frequent services through Wimbledon and Clapham Junction to London Waterloo (25 minutes). We also have good bus connections to Kingston, Sutton and Croydon.

The room is available now. If you would like to view it / meet us or have any queries at all please do get in touch.

Hmmm.
You need to be really really careful.
THe ad could be re-worded as
"offered, unsupervised access to 10 year old boy who has a rather trusting mother"
what you really are hiring is a live in nanny who pays you rather than you paying them.
not sure it will work.

Sounds a little like an au pair job. Could you get an au pair instead and negotiate some cleaning, homework help and a night of babysitting from them in exchange for board and you paying them token pocket money? I understand your dilemma but don't really think you could charge a lodger for this as effectively they need to be available to work for 25 hpurs a week or so.

As in 3-8 am 5 days per week, even if they are asleep they still need to be available there....wpuld you expect them to get up with ds to get him breakfast etc?

Sounds like a fantastic deal to me!

I wouldn't advertise this. Rather, ask around, if people know anyone personally who is flat hunting, who would consider this.

I don't think it sounds like a good offer, no. You are looking for childcare and expecting them to pay you?!?

How much approx is a standard room to rent where you are?

Given that a standard room in a house comes in at approx 100 per week and you're charging 25 per week, that in effect means you're paying someone 75 per week to care for your son (its just you're not directly giving them the money but deducting it from rent charges). Given they need to be available for 25 hours per week, that means they're being paid 3 per hour for work, albeit very easy work since they'll likely sleep for the majority of it.

It could work and it seems like a good deal for some. However, it depends on who you're looking for. Someone out to make a living is not going to be at all satisfied with 3 per hour, regardless of how easy / hard the work is. Some might do that since it's 'easy' money and a cheap roof over their heads and go out to work later in the day to top it up. It could provide them with quite a comfortable life.

I think it all depends on how you look at it. There are pros and cons as with all things.

Have you tried contacting your local university? Could be ideal for a mature student?