Nanny, cook, cleaning person

[Anonymous]

Odds are this person is going to feel overworked and won't last long. I'd do a nanny who cooks and find a housekeeper to come 1-2x week & FT nanny can help keep clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nannies on this board think ANY job should pay $20.

There are plenty of nannies that want to be a live in for various reasons and employers would hire them. The same goes for a nanny/housekeeper. There are plenty of nannies on the job market with great childcare AND light housekeeping/basic cooking experience.

There is a difference between basic cooking for the kids now and then and actually cooking family meals on a regular basis. There is a difference between doing light housekeeping and doing all housekeeping which usually starts to include more deep cleaning (because why would you hire someone to do the regular housekeeping and not have them do some of the deep cleaning each month or every couple months as well?). Once you add in all the little extras from doing "basic" to doing a bit more, then the pay is going to go up per hour. You want someone that will not only be a nanny, but is interested enough in helping with all this cleaning and cooking (which is harder to find) and that means the costs go up a bit (harder to find someone means less applicants, less applicants means the market rate can be higher). Also, not sure what it is like in your area, but in mine, housekeepers are usually charging at least $20/hr unless they are illegal immigrants, and even some of them are charging $20+ if they have plenty of experience. Remember that rates vary by location and so in MY location, $20/hr is about what you are looking at for someone with at least some decent experience as a nanny, some experience cleaning and cooking and is willing to do all 3. So yes, I stand by the rate that I mentioned previously.

I know I would not do all that work for $15-16/hr when I can make that same rate (or more) for one child and only basic child cooking and cleaning. Cleaning can be very energy consuming, same with looking after energetic kids. To have someone do a bunch of cleaning, and watch 1 or more kids and then at the end of the day have to cook a meal for the family on top of all that can make for a very exhausting day. There is a reason parents don't want to do it all themselves, so they hire someone else to. But if I am doing all that, then I want to get paid a rate that is worth it. Sure, you might find some that are willing to do it for less, but many of those will also realize later on how much work it can be and might become resentful of their employers and angry at themselves for taking on such a position at that low rate.

Also, I don't think the OP mentioned anything about this being a live-in position so I don't know why you even mentioned that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No, someone that does it all usually isn't doing the childcare part FT. This is what happens when the kids are old enough to be going to preschool daily, or kindergarten and up, they need more help with driving kids, running errands, cooking and cleaning than just one thing done

So what exactly does a nanny do when the kids nap four hours a day out of an eight or nine hour work day? How is it that nannies here expect to be able to run there own errands but when it comes to running family errands (while they are being paid by the family) this is somehow shorting the kids? There is huge amount of dishonesty going on here from the nannies.

What? I never said anything about running my own errands. I don't do that while I am working, ever. I do it on my own time.

Not everyone that is a nanny works with infants. Which are the only ones that nap for 4 hours out of a day. The time the kids are napping is not a good time for you to run family errands since you have to be at the house with the kids (since most people don't want their children to nap in strollers). It is also just a fact that someone who "does it all" as I was talking about (doing FULL housekeeping and cooking all family dinners, driving kids around and running errands for the family) tend to be working with older kids. Maybe there is one in preschool for part of a day, others in school all day. Most of the time, when you are taking care of infants or toddlers home all day, you are only doing light housekeeping, cooking for kids, laundry for kids etc. They could be considered to "do it all" but they don't normally do ALL of the job for the parents as well and extras not related to kids (like parents laundry, cleaning all bathrooms, organizing random closets or basement). That is not a true "do it all" person. There is not enough time to do it all with a kid there FT unless the kid gets dragged around on errands like if the parent had the child that day. There is no way you are going to go and start to clean bathrooms when the child might be about to wake from their nap. You cannot mop the kitchen floor then realize that the baby needs a bottle and you have to walk on the still wet floor to go do that. There is a reason the housekeeper normally comes to clean while people are out of the house. Obviously you have never worked a job like this before.

[Anonymous]

OP we have the same arrangement as your are seeking. Our nanny does light housekeeping and cooking. She's great with our kids. Communication and integrity on both sides is what makes it work. Nap times do shift but I've never heard of a non-napping toddler. You know when and how long your kid naps and you just subtract one hour from that time for daily housework/cooking.

I also think it helps if you and your nanny come up with a list of daily tasks, weekly tasks and bi-weekly tasks. Its good to focus on the things that are most useful instead of having a long list of low frequency things. I'm always baffled when nannies here claim that they spend 15 hours a week sorting out outgrown sizes of children's clothes and organizing the closets. It isn't possible to spend 1 hour a week doing this let alone 15 hours a week. Since this is something that doesn't take much time and needs to be done only every few months or maybe twice a year when they are preschoolers, I didn't include it as a task. I prioritize things that give us back the most time in the evenings and weekends. Grocery shopping and laundry(all) are the most useful tasks to include. Dusting, running the vacuum cleaner, and mopping the kitchen floor are good upkeep tasks that will reduce the overall need for deep cleaning because things don't build up.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a different category for housekeeper discussion?

[Anonymous]

My nanny was originally hired mainly to do childcare (my youngest didn't go to school). We told her when DD does go to school we expected more help around the house after a reasonable break (including cooking, cleaning, errands, etc). She could choose what else to do to help out during her free time.

In actuality our youngest ended up going to full time school a year earlier than expected. My nanny chose to do housework (including the heavy housework). She is not a good cook nor does she enjoy it much. In addition to her regular raise, bonus I dropped her hours from 45 to 35 (no change in weekly $$). She also got more PTO due to camp/school.

I think the most important things are to make sure your nanny is ok with the things you are asking of her and not to overwork her. You wont' get anybody to do tons of housework/cooking while taking care of the kids (that would be sahm's job description.. lol)