Costs of a nanny?

Spottedleopard

Oh and of course, you have to provide live in accommodation for an Aupair!

BitterAndTwisted

mysk_girl wrote: »

Do nannies ever do light housework? And all I mean by this is washing up breakfast and maybe a single load of laundry into the machine (I wouldn't expect it hung out or anything, just started off and maybe tossed in the tumble dryer), also keeping the kids toys in relatively neat order, I'm by no means a neat freak so as long as it wasn't absolute chaos I think I would be happy!


Yes, they do. Even the highly-qualified nannies I used to know all did the cooking, feeding and laundry for the children as well and picking up and tidying their toys.

Does anyone have any idea how much this would cost? I take home about £1300 pcm after pension and childcare vouchers deductions, and I drive 200miles a week to work and back. I need to make a profit, obviously, but if it is a tiny profit, it simply won't be worth missing all that time with my children. I do want to maintain my career, which I've worked very hard at - but it won't be at the cost of unhappy children or a stressed mother.

The weekly rate is very dependent on hours worked and the qualifications and experience of a particular nanny. When I worked as one the pay varied hugely. The more children who were cared for during the day, the greater the wage. As you are planning to have only one tiny being cared for all day and the other two collected from school or nursery this would not demand the same wage as looking after three all day. Some nannies I knew were able to be very picky about the families they worked for and some chose to never look after more than one child plus the use of a car as it was then a seller's market at the time. That might not be the same today.

I stepped in as a live-out nanny with no experience to care for one two year old at home all day, one four year-old at nursery in the mornings and a six year-old at primary school. The amount of walking I did to-and-fro every day took up quite a lot of time, but in addition I started at 8am, cooked and served three meals a day, did all of the grocery shopping, all of the whole family's laundry and did all of the tidying up. Plus bathing all three every day and read them their bed-time stories before I went home at 8pm. A cleaner came in twice a week, so she did all the bed-changing and washing and what little ironing was needed. In between rushing about getting all that done I actually still had time to organise constructive play with them and had other people's kids staying to tea most evenings of the week. They valued me very much, took me away to the US for five weeks a year to work during the summer holidays, left me in sole charge when they went on week-long business trips twice a year and I babysat every Friday night. I was worth a whole lot more to them than the £200 a week nett I was being paid at the time. I stayed for two years and became very close to the children. It was a real wrench to leave.

Any ideas? Obviously I have time on my side, but I like to have all my ducks in a row so to speak...

Get in contact with a number of different agencies as soon as possible so you have a decent idea of what pay ranges you are looking at. The more children there are, the more housekeeping duties and the longer the hours, and the more experienced and qualified the person is will all have an effect on the rates of pay.

Sounds like you could do with someone like me!

clairehi

As you have discovered you need to earn £££ to have a nanny...
Personally I think your best option is another childminder. start looking early to find one that can take all 3 kids. if not, does the school have breakfast/after school club.

If you have any flexibility in your working hours, that may give you more childcare options. would you be able to go in later on the occasions your DH is working away? In our area there are no childminders who start work before 7.30am.

Au pairs may be great for older children but there are good reasons they dont look after under 2s, as they are usually young and untrained.

BitterAndTwisted

Any room in your home for a live-in nanny or mother's help? This would be substantially less expensive than a live-out nanny. Someone working 3 to 4 days week has all of the expenses that you do, and would possibly have to make up some more income working for another family. Finding another family for just one or two days a week can be tricky. But not impossible.

An au pair, most especially a foreign-born one with no experience should never be left in sole charge and isn't expected to work full-time either.

An experienced mother's-helper would be paid half-way between an au pair and a qualified nanny but live-out ones might be hard to find.

As there is danger of a very early start you might have to split the child-care time needed between more than one person. This brings about double the risk of unreliability, alas.

FYI I never had an unplanned day off in two years but then I took my responsibilities seriously and my employer didn't work either. I sometimes wondered why she had a full-time nanny at all but then morning-coffee and lunches with friends, visiting galleries and exhibitions plus tennis-lessons can take up an awful lot of time.....

mysk_girl

Wow, loads of good advice - I'd sort of expected to be told off for daring to think I could maintain a career with 3 children...

bitterandtwisted I don't suppose you need a job next September do you?!?

Anyway, yes we would have room for a live-in, but my OH is very private and I doubt he would agree to this so that limits us to live-out care. My job is pretty flexible, but generally speaking I need to be in the office 6 hours a day, so I need to either leave at 7am or I won't get back until after 3pm, and collecting the children from school at least some of the time is very important to me.

So, I talked to MIL and she will do 2 days for us for the baby, but not the eldest 2 - she just can't keep up with the older ones, which is fine. So baby could go to MIL 2 days a week and the local day nursery 2 days, which means baby is sorted (£85 per week)

The eldest will be at school, and the local childminder will have her from 7.30-9am. OH can drop her at 7.30 90% of the time and I will have to find some way of being half an hour late to collect from school on any day when he has to leave early. Doable.

My gorgeous boy can go all day to preschool on 2 days a week (free) and to the nursery 2 days a week (£85). This is only for 1 year as he starts school the following September. The local childminder will do 7.30-9am on 2 days for preschool.

That will all set me back about £200 per week, and is only possible in term time. I've then got 13 weeks holiday to think about, and MIL being ill etc.

Nanny looking attractive option again. Other possibility is to do 2 long days in the office and 2 short days, nanny for the long days and CM/MIL/preschool/school/nursery for the short days. If I did 2 x 8 hour days I would need to to 2 x 4 hour days to make up my hours

I always considered being a SAHM when no.3 came along, never thought it would be because of childcare issues - I naively assumed it would be through choice...

Camelina

Spottedleopard

The fees they charge can be a fair bit BUT for that money you will be sure that the nanny is checked and interviewed before you get to see them(/CRB/First Aid/OFSTED/previous employer refs/nanny qualifications etc) and some agencies will also offer a guaranty on the nanny they find you if things shouldn't work out.

Aupairs are ok and more likely to be willing to do general housework etc BUT they will not be qualified so can you be sure of what you are getting!

BitterAndTwisted

mysk_girl wrote: »

Wow, loads of good advice - I'd sort of expected to be told off for daring to think I could maintain a career with 3 children...

BitterAndTwisted I don't suppose you need a job next September do you?!?

Hahahaha! As it happens I'm sadly unemployed at present.


For an awful lot of families the expense and inconvenience of finding alternative childcare just has to be seen as an investment in your future career prospects and earnings potential, and nothing else. It just depends on what your particular career is and how difficult/easy it would be to pick it up again later.

Lots of families resign themselves to being a one salary household for the duration, some even find that it's cheaper, because of the expense and difficulty in finding good childcare. I'm so glad that it's not an equation I've ever had to balance out.

Think of it this way: you could have until September to impress upon your OH just how life-enhancing it could be to have someone living in your home, despite the lack of privacy. I tried to never impinged on my employer's. I didn't even take their clean laundry up to their bedroom whether they were in the house or not. One of the other nannies who worked across the street from me knew altogether too much abut her employer's private lives and also knew where their safe was.:eek: And so did I once she told me, and what was kept in it! :eek:

mysk_girl

We could be a one salary household. It would work, and the nature of my profession (structural engineering) is such that work from home freelance is possible. But if I dropped out completely, the industry moves quite fast, so getting back into it could potentially be difficult.

Had an initial chat with OH, and we both seem prepared for the possibility of the vast majority of my salary to go on childcare in the short term.

Going to be a suck it and see thing I think, nothing stopping me from quitting if it really doesn't work.

Will draw up a list of options and do a pros/cons exercise with some approximate costs. That's the engineer in me :-)

claire16c

Spottedleopard wrote: »

Some nannies are happy to do some housework if they don't have children to look after full time.

My sister lives in Notting Hill, her nanny has 6 years experience, qualifications, OFSTED registration and looks after my 4 and 2 month old niece 5 days a week and is paid £12 (net) an hour. Most employers pay their nannys tax and NI contributions.

I just skimmed your post but here is a website that gives you a rough idea of the costs: http://www.littledarlingsnannyagency.co.uk/salary.htm
Most people in London pay around the £10net an hour mark

Nannies mainly work 12 hours day- many want MORE hours than less. My sisters nanny works 7-7, M-F.

Then there is expenses- trips out, food for the children when they are out, mileage, parking etc. My sister sets her nanny an extra £400 a month for expenses.

You might be best contacting a few agencies- DONT ASK THEM TO LOOK FOR YOUR NANNY, they charge a ridiculous amount of money! You will get plenty of interest advertising your position on Gumtree and Nannyjob.

You won't find a Nanny who wil accept £243 a month, that is more a weeks salary and then you would have to pay tax and NI on top.

I would suggest an aupair, but they only work 25 (max 35) hours a week and they don't tend to look after under 2s.

So your sister pays her nanny to work 60 hours a week, at £12 net? Thats £720 a week - so £37,440 a year before theyve even paid her tax and NI and £400 a month expenses??

I worked as a nanny for a while a few months back as a temporary thing for someone I know as Im not qualified or anything but like working with kids - perhaps I should have carried on :rotfl:

I got £8 net, but I worked about 30 hours a week (so around £240 a week but more for the parents as they had to pay my tax and NI) as the kids were at school.

I dont think I could have coped with a 60 hour week! So I guess in fairness for someone working that many hours its a fair wage.

Most things I read about nannys - and from my old workmates experience of hiring one through agencies, you can not ask them to do general housework, only small things related to the children. So loading a washine machine would be ok, but cleaning up after anything other than the kids - not really no. But if you were placing your own ad I guess you could always see.

I used to put washing and drying on, and clean up any kids mess but the parents had a cleaner for anything else. I used to make their dinner of course and prepare snacks etc. Also it could depend on the personality of the nanny - I used to make sure everything was tidy and clean before the parents came back because the Dad was quite ocd tidyness wise and I didnt mind, but someone else might be a messier person/not have cared so much.

Would a childminder be cheaper?

mysk_girl

I think a childminder would be cheaper to be honest, as I only need 8 hours care a day and that's only for 1 of them. The other 2 are at least partially free through school and preschool - it's just the very early 7am start that is the problem. I will keep looking and see... Like I said I have time, and a lot might change between now and September 2013. I just got properly thrown this morning!