Anyone tried a share nanny or 'mother nanny'?

I am trying to consider all options for childcare and one avenue I'm investigating is having a share nanny (where I share the nanny with one other family and their baby/toddler), or a mother nanny - where the nanny brings her own child to look after at the same time. (Both live out).

Has anyone tried this and able to offer any opinions/experiences?

My situation is that I'm a consultant working from a home office, running my own business. And as much as I would love to give myself maternity leave, it's going to be impossible, and I have to try and run my business before and after the birth, with little break.

I can limit my hours, or do flexible hours for the first three months or so, but after that, I need to find day care or a 'cheap' nanny arrangement so that I can keep my business afloat and pay my mortgage. (Ideally I'd love a 'live out' nanny five days a week, but I just can't afford it.)

I would also like to breastfeed for at least 3 - 6 months, hence looking into the share nanny or mother nanny option, so the baby is in my home.

Thanks for any advice you can give!!

Margot.

Hi Margot,

When # 2 comes along in July, this is something that I too will be looking into, so that I can continue to work from home, breastfeed and make sure that Olivia and # 2 and I have as much time together as possible but also have the help at home so that I can continue to work from home.

So I will be interested to hear what others have to say on this..............

Hi Lucy,

How did you go when you had Olivia? Were you working from home then? A few friends have said that with my first, I will be able to work when the baby is asleep and may not need as much childcare, as with two kids.

What's your experience of this?

Margot.

I worked as a nanny before having Ashlea, and started looking after three kids after I had Ashlea and I would take her with me. She was almost 2.
Four kids under 4 was fun!!
I loved being able to take ashlea to work with me, and it mean she had little friends to play with all day instead of being stuck with me all the time!
I would love to find another part time nanny job where i could take Ashlea with me again, but not alot of people are that open to bringing your own child along.
The share nanny idea is a good one.
Just make sure you check their references, that they have a first aide certificate and ask for a police check too.

Dee, it's a shame you don't live in Brisbane!!

Margot.

Margot,

The first three months were chaotic as I had no idea what Olivia needed and I was trying to establish a flexible routine with her and get her to be able to self settle, so I pretty much put all work on hold and did the bare minimum, which was OK as I had hardly any work lined up anyway.

From when she was 4 months until just recently I have been working on a big consultancy job with the NT government and it has been a big workload. I always swore I would only work whilst she was asleep, which worked really well, as she sleeps brilliantly in the day (2 x 2x hours at least). So it wasn't often I had to do catch-up at night. (And luckily DH understands. Doesn't like it much, but understands).

So with just one baby, it worked really well. But Olivia is, I think, an "easy" baby.

Since I got pg again I found that it was a lot harder to stay motivated as I was v.tired in my first tri, with running round after Olivia and needing my own afternoon nap!

But, with just one, it is easy to juggle.

I have a feeling having a 17 month old and a newborn will be very very different though.........I have just knocked back a big consultancy, sadly, because I kind of know I won't be able to manage it all............