What are the usual duties of a nanny ?

[Sunnylily]

I have ADHD - so ideally want someone to take care of my baby while I wfh and also fix lunch and do dinner and general tidyup in the evening ( i can take care of the baby while they do the dinner and tidyup)

But wondering if a nanny does this ? What are the general duties of a nanny ?
Thanks 🙂

What does having ADHD have to do with anything?
I suppose the nanny can do any of those things if you agree it with them beforehand and they're happy with it. You'll need to employ them for long hours though. While you were working I would expect their attention to be fully focused on the baby and thus they wouldn't be able to do other chores like making lunch, except during nap times.

Usually they do stuff for the child. So making kids breakfast, lunch, dinner would be included but not usually your meals. Could do a wash of kids clothes in the day.

However, mostly it's being with the children. Depends a bit how much time they will have if there will be down hours at school/play group. How many kids, any additional needs etc.

How old is your baby, how are you feeding. What hours do you want help for. It sounds like you want someone there all day and into the evening . Are you only going to look after your baby in the evening while they cook dinner and tidy up. What about bath time and settling into bed. Do you have a partner to help. Do you want a live in nanny. How much can you pay.

Like pps have said, they’re childcare. They look after the baby which includes feeding the baby and tidying up after themselves (putting away toys etc) but not cooking for you or cleaning your house. In theory fhey can put a wash on or whatever but I never asked mine to do that - they really deserved their break when baby napped.

Fwiw I would wfh sometimes but it depends on personality of the baby as to whether seeing you could be disruptive. DC1 would have got upset if I’d appeared for lunch then disappeared, whereas DC2 was fine (and I would bf her before her nap on wfh days). DC1 was 11 months and DC2 was 12 months when I went back to work.

Looking after children
tidying children’s toys
preparing food for children

They could have child while you prepared your evening meal

They don't cook meals for you @Sunnylily

You need a nanny/housekeeper for that. It's a lot more expensive.

Prepare food for DC and feed if necessary
Change nappies
Bathroom DC and get ready for nap/bed
Take DC to park/nursery/school/trips and activities
Wash DC clothes, dry, fold and put away.
Play with DC
Tidy DC toys away

A nanny of very young children will usually be for child-related duties only. So the care, feeding and enrichment of your child, plus keeping the common area of the home that she uses to care of child tidy. It does not usually extend to cooking for the family or cleaning (except basic kitchen after cooking and children’s laundry).

Should you want wider family and household duties, that’s usually a nanny-housekeeper, and harder to find in a nanny for very young kids. Harder to find in general also I think, but some people get lucky.

We had a nanny-housekeeper when the kids reached school age and all the housekeeping was done on school hours. She refused to cook for family though.

We now have an after school nanny only and her role is just for children. She cleans kitchen but doesn’t do laundry as she’s very busy ferrying the kids around and helping with their homework.

That sounds more like a 'nanny/housekeeper's. If you're on a budget at all advertise the role as 'mother's help' and look at newly qualified childcare students.

I was going to suggest 'mother's help' too

A nanny for a young child does all child related care but not domestic duties for the household.

A nanny housekeeper blends childcare with some domestic duties such as laundry, bed making, cooking, but with usually older children.

A mother’s help is perhaps what you need, essentially another pair of hands around the house in a blend of childcare and light domestic.

It depends on pay and on age of child. We had a nanny for DS between 4 months and 20 months. She did a lot more housework when DS was a baby, she even ironed as well as cleaned and meal prepped, and then very little as he became a toddler and much more challenging.

My DS only napped 1 hour and 15 minutes from 12 months so you can imagine there was zero time to do housework beyond the basic tidying of his play area/clean up after his lunch and dinner.

Also, nannies are people with varying skills, my nanny wasn't great at cooking by her own admission but she loved cleaning and she was incredible with babies. The most patient baby whisperer you ever met. So it depends what you prioritise.

I find Mumsnet is often quite prescriptive about this sort of thing but in real life it's really not that rigid, it's about being really clear about what you want and then seeing if you can find someone with the right skills for a wage that works for both of you

Just be aware and up front that it's a non standard nanny role, acknowledge that in the job description. You might find it works better to hire one person to be a housekeeper part time and another as nanny

E.g. Mumsnet always says "cleaners clean not tidy" but I am always up front with cleaners that we do need a bit of tidying and they are always happy to do it. It means I pay for more hours but I am happy with that

I think your biggest issue is likely to be finding a nanny that doesn't mind you WFH. A lot of nannies find this hard as young children are very aware and will try and seek you out, also just feeling self conscious.