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Working Moms
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Anybody WAH with a nanny?
I have a mid-manager level corporate job but I work from home. Right now my kiddo goes to an in-home daycare just down the street because obviously there is no way I could watch him during the day and get any amount of work done.
Lately though I've been thinking about hiring a fulltime nanny that would watch my son at home while I"m working. So he'd still be here with me, and I could spend a few minutes with him here and there during downtime, eat lunch with him, etc. I think the cost would work out to be about the same as our in-home-daycare + weekly housekeeper (yes I'm hoping the nanny can help out around the house during the 2.5 hour afternoon naps my kid takes)
Does anyone do this, or did you try something similar to this? Curious to know how it worked for you.
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Re: Anybody WAH with a nanny?
I am so curious to hear how people make this work. I WAH (and make sales calls). Our issue is my office is off of the dinning room so it is not like I can close the door and take a call. We are thinking of building and office in the basement and getting a nanny if/when we have more kids. I am not excited about moving to the dungeon.
Is your office in a separate part of the house that you wouldn't hear the kids?
It would depend on your house to be honest...in my house no way. Sound carries wayyyy too much and I'm on the phone a lot and I don't want 'kid noise' in the background. Plus I think it would be harder for the kids to know I'm 'here' but can't 'play' since I"m working....when they are at preschool they don't know if I'm here or in the office like I used to be.
I just switched to full time telecommuting though and am still working out the kinks to be honest. But for me at my kids ages they need to be GONE during the day.
I work from home 2 days a week and have a full-time nanny. It is nice to briefly interact with DS throughout the day and hear his giggles with the nanny while I'm working. I think you'll also like the time saved not having to get your DS ready in the mornings to go to DC.
I don't think the nanny is a replacement for your housekeeper, though. Our nanny will sweep, empty the dishwasher, and fold laundry left in the dryer while DS is napping but she initiated these tasks...I never asked her to do them. We still have our cleaning woman.
Knowing my son, it would not work. If he knew I was in the house, he'd want to come and see me and play with me, etc. Going down to see him then leave, he would get upset.
While he likes DC, and he's liked nanny's we've had in the past, he always prefers 'mama' and I just couldn't be that close by!
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
I did part-time while on maternital leave (DS was adopted at 10 months). It was really stinkin' hard. Even though the nanny was there during nap time, he would want ME when he woke up--especially if I had a conference call and he could hear my voice.
During the blizzard, I took a conference call inside a closet to hide from him--and he's now 3! I think most of my colleagues spoke to him that day.
I could work if:
You have an office area out of earshot--so DB can't hear you, and you can't hear crying.
You have limited amounts of client/customer communications.
You have very understanding colleagues who are more likely to be charmed than annoyed by kid stuff.
Yep, I do. It is the most amazing situation... I'm going on 1 year of being able to BF because of it and haven't missed him doing anything. I can see him and comfort him when I have a few minutes if he needs me and I can keep an eye on things around here.
The nanny likes to do other things also, like cook and tidy up (crazy, I know), which is a HUGE help but she doesn't do deep cleaning and for that we still have our cleaning lady. The hardest thing about the situation is that I have to share my queendom... and it's probably hard for her too. I feel like I often criticize things that she does because they are not the way I would do them, but I obviously try to do it too much and I thank her and compliment her all the time, but I'm sure both of us feel it.
I do. I don't spend much time with him during the day, he naps during my lunch hour but I like the extra 30 or so minutes we have in the morning and in the evening together. When he was an infant it was easier, at 18 months separation anxiety is on high and he's very upset if I do see him during the day and have to go back to work. Though, I really love to play for a few minutes during the day. We did this more when he was on two naps per day.
It works for us because my office is on the second floor and they stay on the main floor.
We do it because DH and I both travel and have weird work schedules, it helps keep DS's schedule on track and minimizes the amount of change each week. However, due to our nanny's class schedule, we're putting him in DC two days a week soon. I'll see if I prefer that set up to the nanny.
Edit: Our nanny does some housework but I ask that it only be during nap times, so its pretty limited to light cleaning, dishes and laundry. Not quite a housekeeper replacement here... but we don't have a housekeeper and need one.
I have WFH with a nanny for 3 years. Prior to that I did a year where DD was in a licensed day care where I WFH. 99% of the time this is great. I would mention though at some point you'll want your DC to also do some preschool and you'll probably want to have someone who can take your child places like the library, park, etc for socialization/learning/exercise as being at home all the time can get old.
We are in Texas, so no basements. What we did in our house is there is a room on the 1st floor that is meant to be a home office. We set it up as a playroom. For my office, I use a bedroom on the 2nd floor. While you may hear your kid screaming, I've found no one on the other end of the phone can hear that if your door is closed. The kids learn that when mommy's door is shut, they are not to come in. Since the playroom, kitchen and family room are all on the 1st floor, the only time they come upstairs is for napping.
Great question! I'm planning to do this, so I'm glad it works for some of you.
We have a one-story house, but I have my office in a bedroom. I'm hoping with the door shut, I'll be able to minimize baby noises in the background.
I'm also searching for nannies who do light housekeeping. I'm hoping if she can do dishwasher loading and unloading, some laundry, and maybe light dusting, I can do some of the deeper cleaning that our cleaning lady does (at least enough to cut her back to once a month). But we will see...
If my LOs were at home while I was there, they would want me, not the nanny. If your LO will not be able to see you or hear you, it might be ok. But then every time you leave to go back to doing work, your LO might be upset
I do a lot of WAH and both kids need to be out of the house for me to get any work done.
I'm a PT WAHM (or at least with a part-time nanny - I work weird hours and sometimes from the studio and sometimes from home). Most summers I have a nanny 2-3 days a week and then I have a nanny maybe one day a week during the school year. I think it really depends on your kids and the layout of your house. I've done this since before DD#1 was born and never had much trouble until this summer. DD#2 is my little instigator and 3 is a really rough age. She would stand at the door to my office and scream or tell the nanny she "just needed to tell Mommy one thing". This, of course, would get DS going who rarely even noticed I was home unless DD#2 got him going. I'm not sure if it matters, but we did move last year and this was my first summer in the new house so the office is in a different place and has French doors that the kids can see through. I really think, though, DD#2 would have been a problem wherever we were because that's just the stage she's in...and I'm really really hoping she outgrows it fast. I spent a lot more time going into my studio than I would have liked - wasting time commuting when I only had the nanny for certain hours - and working more in the evenings.
I will say that until this summer, I'd done it for 5 years and it worked really well. My kids understood that when I was working, I was "at work" and they couldn't talk to me or anything. It worked great when I was nursing because if I wasn't on a call, the nanny could bring me the baby to nurse and then take her/him back when they were done so I didn't have to pump. That was really nice! I also liked that I usually tried to take a lunch break with the kids (when my schedule worked) so I saw them at lunch time and that was nice. It was also nice not having to get them all dressed and out anywhere in the mornings and the nanny took the girls swimming in our pool while DS slept almost every afternoon that she was here.
So it usually works, but sometimes it doesn't. You have to be very very clear (as always with WAH) that you are not "really" home and you can't listen for the baby while the nanny goes outside or watch the older girls while the nanny gets the baby up from nap or whatever. You are working and you have to find a great nanny who can understand and respect that without 50 thousand interruptions. It can work great, but it just depends on so much.
I do this. We don't expect her to help around the house, though, which I think lets us keep costs down. Our nanny is wonderful. She's semi-retired and used to work in daycares and has raised four children. She dotes on DS2 and really just seems to love taking care of a baby. I have my own office, so I'm in there 90% of the time, but I do come out to talk to her and say hi to DS.
She also gets DS1 off the bus, which is a huge help. She comes from 9-5. I love, love, love it.
I do this. I work upstairs in a bedroom/office and they have run of the rest of the house. I can hear her crying but I don't think they can hear it on the other end of the phone.
I love that I can BF her on my lunch break and see her a couple times per day. It also makes pumping more comfortable.
However, my DD is only 2 months old. I know it will get harder as she gets older and knows I'm home but can't play so we plan to re-evaluate our child care situation at 1 year old.
I've been doing this for over 18 months. I work in the basement. DD knows I'm there, and sometimes she calls for me, but the nanny is great at distracting her. The nanny also takes her out to different scheduled activities during the day, to the park, etc., so we're not together in the same house all day every day.
I think it can work nicely, depending on the kid. I love popping out to see her at lunch, or putting her down for her nap. I also love the extra time we get together in the morning before the nanny comes and work starts. I'm not running around trying to pack her up and get us both ready to get out the door.