With the economy only slowly recovering, many caregivers are continuing to diversify their services, with many offering additional housekeeping or personal assistant services to help increase their work hours, as well as to make themselves of greater value to families.
As a result, many caregivers are transitioning from a strictly nanny position to more hybrid positions, such as Nanny/Housekeeper. If this is the scenario for you, you or your caregiver may find yourselves in search of the perfect balance of childcare and housekeeping to meets your family’s needs. Here are some things to keep in mind, if so:
* Priorities. Make sure your caregiver is aware of what the priorities are. If you’re like most families and prefer that your child(ren) have the caregiver’s full attention (when they’re not napping or at school), be very clear about that. If there are exceptions (e.g., you need a particular task urgently done on a certain day and it would be okay to complete the task while your child is playing), be clear about such exceptions as they occur.
* A schedule. What works well for many families is to distribute housekeeping responsibilities throughout the week. So perhaps Mondays are for kitchen and living room, Tuesdays are bathrooms and dining room, etc. And along with such a schedule, tidying and keeping all common areas of the home neat can be an every day responsibility.
* Be flexible. Always understand that in a Nanny/Housekeeper position, since childcare is involved, sometimes there simply will not be time for housekeeping. Make sure your caregiver understands that prioritizing is just as valuable as everything getting done. Try to build in times/days where you know the caregiver will be able to catch up on housework if needed so she can have the best opportunity to be successful at (and take pride in) her job!
* Maximize non-childcare time. When your child(ren) are napping, at school, or for whatever reason don’t need care at given times, make sure it’s clear to the caregiver that she is to maximize that time for housekeeping.
As always, feel free to give us a ring if you have any questions!
Your GoNannies.com Team
877-GoNannies
(877) 466-2664
i think it’s hard for some families to understand that housekeeping has to take a backseat to childcare… they think we can do it all, but in reality sometimes somethings gotta give and that’s usually the cleaning. i’m open to taking on housekeeping responsibilities, but the children will always be my #1 priority.
I only take on housekeeping when the kids are in school – it’s not worth an accident happening because I was worried about vacuuming instead of watching my charge.
I like the idea of having a schedule the nanny can follow, focusing on only one or two areas per day. Our kids nap twice a day and that’d be the perfect time for our nanny to tidy up the living room or dust the dining room.
We actually added housekeeping after our kids started going to school for the majority of the day because we loved our nanny so much we needed to find a way to keep her on the payroll! As the kids have grown she’s shifted from a nanny to a nanny/housekeeper and now does more of a household management role. We’re hanging onto her as long as possible!!
i shifted into household management with my current family and couldn’t be happier – while i LOVE working with the kids, i also love having some diversity on my resume, that way when i do need to transition to a new family i can show them that i’m versatile and can do more than just a standard nanny job.