live-in part-time nanny?

[hatter]

We have a great live-out nanny who works 3 (consecutive) days a week. She brings her own little girl to work with her. She wants to move somewhere where she would be unable to travel daily to our house and wonders if we would consider her staying 2 nights a week. We have a spare room so space is not a problem. Any ideas as to how this would work in practice? There's some scope for advantage to us - ie some babysitting, less worry about time-keeping. My instinct is that we shouldn't be casual about this but make a clear-cut agreement - but what would be reasonable for everyone in terms of our expectations from her and hers from us? At the moment she's on a reasonable salary for our area - a bit less than some, but some people would say reasonably generous in light of her bringing her own child. Any advice?

Hi Hatter , am a nanny myself who also works 3 days a week with my own daughter. I could tell you what I'd be thinking if I were in her position , if it helps.

It appears she is the one who wants to move, and so if it were me and you accepted I'd be really grateful for a start, and be chuffed that you'd let me share your home rather than lose me.

I would definately make a clear cut agreement from the beginning- it would be easy for either side to take advantage.

How old is her daughter? I would think as it is only for two nights a week that it would be reasonable for you not to deduct anything from her wages. I assume you provide their daytime meals now - so could you also provide an evening meal and bfast? Any special items such as baby foods/milk should be provided by her. THen you could ask her to babysit for one/two evenings to compensate for this.

Dont think I would ask her to do extra chores - just to clear up her own mess. hth

Hi Cuppy,

thanks for that. You've kind of confirmed what me and dh were thinking ie in broad terms that a couple of evening meals is probably a fair swap for some baby-sitting. I hope it works - one of my slight reservations is that I enjoy my hour or so of peaceful time with the girls when I get home from work - and that might kind of go and be replaced by an hour of somewhat manic time as when the three kids are all together when I come home they do tend to be quite excited. But it will only be 2 nights. And the truth is I would rather give it a go than loose her. She has pretty compelling reasons to move and though I know she doesn't want to loose us either we can't compete with her reasons for wanting to move.

Hope it works out well Hatter. Reference the time alone with children - could you bring that up at the start? Its quite probable she enjoys time like that with her child too. Im sure she would understand. Is your house big enough for you each to have a room to yourselves for a while? Let all of you wind down for the evening. I know that if you still have each other around in the evening it will still feel like working hours iyswim, and might make it harder to relax.