Full-time nanny with part-time preschool?

[Anonymous]

We love our nanny, pay her well, and are very happy with her performance. We've employed her for a year and hope to keep her until our kid starts school (and longer, if we decide to have another). However, we're starting to think just a little about starting our child in a part-time play school program a few mornings a week, not this fall but the next (still a long way off, I realize). What I don't know is how this works from our employment perspective. If we enroll our child in this program, our nanny will suddenly have 8-12 hours a week of her work time where she is not caring for our child. I think it is unreasonable to cut her pay or her hours, at the same time, I wonder about paying for this playschool and our nanny's free-time. Would it be reasonable to ask our nanny to do other things to help our family during that paid time she isn't with our child, like light housekeeping/grocery shopping/etc.? (Our nanny currently does not do housework, other than keeping up with the dishes she and our kid make during the day and picking up toys.) How have other folks handled this situation?

[Anonymous]

This is exactly what we will be doing, starting this september. We wrote into the contract (so this wasn't a surprise) that when our kids start preschool (three mornings a week) the nanny will run an occasional errand and/or do the grocery shopping.

We also wrote in that she will never be asked to do family laundry, house cleaning, etc...

So this was a way for us to feel like we were getting some benefit, without asking her to take on duties drastically outside the scope of a nanny position.

I also feel that we are paying her for the peace of mind in knowing that when we get the inevitable colds and sicknesses that will increase w/ preschool, she will be there to stay home with one or both kids.

She'll also be responsible for getting them fed/dressed/out the door to school.

Additionally, our kids still nap, but that will probably stop soon (they're approaching 4) so I'm totally fine w/ her having a couple of quiet hours in the morning if they will be going non-stop once she picks them up.

[Anonymous]

Oops, meant to add that it's important that whatever you decide/ask, that your nanny is on the same page. I think this kind of evolution is fairly common in nanny positions, but that doesn't mean that every nanny wants it - it's possible she might want to move on to another position where the role doesn't expand.

So just start talking w/ her about it and see where her comfort level is, and where yours is regarding costs, downtime, etc...

[Anonymous]

If she is a reasonabke and flexible nanny and if she has had long-term positions come up in the past, then she will already be prepared for the nature of her job to change.

Most nannies will not want to take on "light housekeeping" as that often becomes a slippery slope in terms of parents expecting more and more over time. Most nannies I know of preschoolers do once-a-week grocery shopping, all kids laundry and other occasional errands (pharmacy, dry cleaner, etc.). Keep in mind that DC will be out sick a lot for the first year or so.

[Anonymous]

My charge was enrolled in preschool two days a week, and apart from asking me to drop off/pick up dry cleaning a handful of times, the hours were mine and I appreciated that. It really doesn't work out to that much time by the time you've dropped off and driven back home, it's almost time to pick up again! There were lots of days where my charge was sick/school was closed that he didn't go to school. Believe me, you don't want to nickel and dime a good nanny over a few hours a week while your kid is at school!

[Anonymous]

How many days per week is it?

[Anonymous]

Housecleaning is a tricky area, but kid-related cleaning and running errands like grocery shopping or dropping off dry cleaning while the kids are in school is something I've seen a lot.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the input and it is useful to know that asking for a different kind of help isn't unreasonable, as long as all parties are comfortable with it. I certainly don't want to "nickel and dime" my wonderful nanny, but we're talking about kiddo being gone for 4 of the 9 hours she works per day, 2-3 days per week, which is a pretty large percentage of her hours (and given the hours, we'd probably do drop-off, so she'd just being doing pick up a few blocks from our house).

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. I usually use those hours to do a better job cleaning kids' areas, organize toy room, purge outgrown toys and clothes, etc. I have always done kids' grocery shopping with them, and they've always "helped" me cook, but I have done household shopping and errands during those hours as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all of the input and it is useful to know that asking for a different kind of help isn't unreasonable, as long as all parties are comfortable with it. I certainly don't want to "nickel and dime" my wonderful nanny, but we're talking about kiddo being gone for 4 of the 9 hours she works per day, 2-3 days per week, which is a pretty large percentage of her hours (and given the hours, we'd probably do drop-off, so she'd just being doing pick up a few blocks from our house).

Well, maybe one option is that you amend her hours somehow? Having help w/ the morning routines and drop off might be a much bigger thing than you realize.

[Anonymous]

I never knew the extent of our amazing nanny's skills until DS started preschool five mornings a week. Prior to his starting school, she only did directly related childcare chores (his laundry, ironing and some cooking for him). Now she has expanded into making wonderful crockpot meals for us every day. She loves it and is still available for ALL of DS's school holidays and sick days. She also handles drop off which I highly recommend, OP, even if you can do it yourselves. It is better for the child (the continuity) and DS isn't the fastest mover in the morning and neither is our drop off line at school. I am always late when I have to drop DS off even though, on paper, I should be fine.

[Anonymous]

I think as soon as you + your husband make the decision for sure that you will be sending your child off to school, even part-time...You should speak to your nanny about the new situation and let her decide if she wants to accept the new terms or not.

Since she sounds awesome and your ultimate goal is to keep her around long-term, I would try to work w/her. Yes, you can offer her other duties during the time your child will not be in her care. If she doesn't feel comfortable doing housework (some nannies are not), or grocery shopping, you can also offer other duties she may not mind doing. I.e., ironing, laundry care, errand running, organizing, etc.

Hopefully you all can come to an agreement on some type of work that will suit her. I think it would be wasteful to pay her at the same time you are paying for your child's school. Unless of course, you need her to be "on-call" in the event your child needs to be picked up for whatever reason.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

My hours are 7:45-6:30. From 9-1 my charges(3.5 &5.5) are in school. My family pays me $900/wk. during the time they are at school I do laundry, grab items from the market, and organize kids areas, go home and do some things etc. the mom pays me to keep my phone on invade something happens at school and if she needs me if they are or get sick. I've had one family in a share years ago that didn't pay me unless I actually had the kids so it was a huge surprise when one of the moms called for me to grab her son from school because he was sick. I wasn't scheduled to pick them up for 3.5 more hours and was teaching a yoga class at the time and had to tell her no. Another time I'd already been scheduled to stay home with another family's child while the mom had a meeting (not my employers but a reg babysitting client). She was so upset that I was working during the time the kids were at school and denying her. She eventually realized she needed to pay me a stipend or give me guaranteed pay if she wanted that time reserved.