Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should she have to do anything else? You need her for the times pre School is closed, sick and vacation
You pay her for being available exclusively for you not for extra work.

If you don't need her during hours child is in school then she is free to take another job. You can see the problem this presents as then she will not be available when your child is not in school.

16 hours a week is too much down time to be paid fulltime for, so yes, she should take on more duties for the normal weeks when the kids are in school. Sick days and snow days and breaks are a different story and the employer should be cognizant of that and have different expectations on those days. If you do not have a maid/housekeeper or cleaning service, this may, by mutual agreement include household tasks. A nanny who started with no household tasks may balk at a change in that direction. If that's the case, there may no longer be a match between the family's needs and the the nanny. Then you would need to transition to a new nanny, if not now, certainly when all 3 kids are in school full-time. Some families choose after school care at this point, but if you can afford in home care, it's still better for the children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Grocery shopping twice per week (once at the start and once before the weekend) ~ 4 hours / week to make lists, shop, put away groceries and throw out anything necessary from the fridge

Prepping and Packing snacks and lunches for the following day ~ 1.5 hours / week

Prepping dinner ingredients or starting dinner in slow cooker ~ 3 hours / week


Errands (dry cleaning, store returns, online shopping, scheduling child appointments, etc) ~ 2 hours / week

Child laundry, toy organization, project research and prep ~ 2 hours / week

Whether this will work obviously depends on your nanny, but it is what I look for with a nanny for school aged children.

Do you provide an annual raise if your nanny now gets more down time?

Anonymous wrote:

Grocery shopping twice per week (once at the start and once before the weekend) ~ 4 hours / week to make lists, shop, put away groceries and throw out anything necessary from the fridge

Prepping and Packing snacks and lunches for the following day ~ 1.5 hours / week

Prepping dinner ingredients or starting dinner in slow cooker ~ 3 hours / week


Errands (dry cleaning, store returns, online shopping, scheduling child appointments, etc) ~ 2 hours / week

Child laundry, toy organization, project research and prep ~ 2 hours / week

Whether this will work obviously depends on your nanny, but it is what I look for with a nanny for school aged children.

Anonymous wrote:I have been with my current family for 6 years. I am now at the point where I have 10 hours a week with both kids in school. I am on call if the kids are sick, but those 10 hours are mine to do as I please. I don’t have to come in to work until the youngest is done with preschool at 11:00. Perhaps this isn’t the norm, but certainly is very appreciated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should she have to do anything else? You need her for the times pre School is closed, sick and vacation
You pay her for being available exclusively for you not for extra work.

If you don't need her during hours child is in school then she is free to take another job. You can see the problem this presents as then she will not be available when your child is not in school.

16 hours a week is too much down time to be paid fulltime for, so yes, she should take on more duties for the normal weeks when the kids are in school. Sick days and snow days and breaks are a different story and the employer should be cognizant of that and have different expectations on those days. If you do not have a maid/housekeeper or cleaning service, this may, by mutual agreement include household tasks. A nanny who started with no household tasks may balk at a change in that direction. If that's the case, there may no longer be a match between the family's needs and the the nanny. Then you would need to transition to a new nanny, if not now, certainly when all 3 kids are in school full-time. Some families choose after school care at this point, but if you can afford in home care, it's still better for the children.

Anonymous wrote:When we were in that situation, we had a discussion with our nanny about what else she would be willing to do. We have a maid, and I didn't want her doing our housekeeping, but she is a great cook and was willing to do our grocery shopping as well as a lot of our food prep and cooking. She has also run other errands for me (i.e. taking things to the post office, picking up prescriptions, dropping clothes at the dry cleaner). I also have her do things around the house, like help switch out the kids' clothes when the season changes, organize toys and determine which ones to get rid of, etc. She is definitely not busy for all of the down time, and we've just acknowledged that we will be paying her for hours when she is watching TV at our house and no one is there. Our nanny is young (27), doesn't have kids, has her own car, and was born and raised in Northern VA. I'm not sure what your nanny is like and what she'd be willing or able to do, but I would ask to see what she's interested in.

Anonymous wrote:Why should she have to do anything else? You need her for the times pre School is closed, sick and vacation
You pay her for being available exclusively for you not for extra work.

If you don't need her during hours child is in school then she is free to take another job. You can see the problem this presents as then she will not be available when your child is not in school.

Anonymous wrote:When we were in that situation, we had a discussion with our nanny about what else she would be willing to do. We have a maid, and I didn't want her doing our housekeeping, but she is a great cook and was willing to do our grocery shopping as well as a lot of our food prep and cooking. She has also run other errands for me (i.e. taking things to the post office, picking up prescriptions, dropping clothes at the dry cleaner). I also have her do things around the house, like help switch out the kids' clothes when the season changes, organize toys and determine which ones to get rid of, etc. She is definitely not busy for all of the down time, and we've just acknowledged that we will be paying her for hours when she is watching TV at our house and no one is there. Our nanny is young (27), doesn't have kids, has her own car, and was born and raised in Northern VA. I'm not sure what your nanny is like and what she'd be willing or able to do, but I would ask to see what she's interested in.