ClareC

I have received a letter from my daughter's nursery requesting I choose sessions for next September. She will be 3 in July, we will become eligible for the 15 hours childcare which I believe is universal regardless of circumstances. There is also information on 30 hours, and a tax free scheme. We have two older children too and have a full time nanny - does anyone know if any of the schemes can be used to contribute to paying for our nanny? All schemes other than the 15 hours free appear to have ?100k income cap per parent. This (I believe) is all income not just salary. I am assuming this cap is gross but am I correct in thinking that two parents both earning ?99,999 pa can benefit from the schemes (ie family income just shy of ?200k) but if one parent earns over ?100k the family is excluded. At what point is the income assessed? It can change.... my daughters nursery can't afford to offer more than 5 places given the pittance the government pay (and the fees have gone up for everyone else (most of which would be eligible themselves for the 30 hours) as a result of the 5 places to be offered). wondering whether the entitlement (whatever it is but assuming definitely 15 hours can be used to pay towards the nanny........ Anyone out there understand how this all works? Seems I have the weekend to work it out as the form needs returning Monday! Thank you

Thank you both, its extremely helpful to have a sanity check that we are not being unreasonable. I genuinely am struggling to understand how she can possibly think this is a reasonable request or the "norm". Of the holiday she has elected to take, pretty much all of it has been during term time. Our eldest two children are at school so we have been unable to use this time as an opportunity to go away ourselves. That leaves us in the position of having our elected two weeks, with anything over that requiring us to pay her to not work AND having another three weeks to pay for alternative child care should we agree to her demands. I would really welcome a nannies view on this one if there are any reading. Thank you

I would be really grateful for your experience / thoughts/ advice on what the ?norm? is surrounding family holiday when a family takes holiday over and above their quota? Our nanny has been with us @ 18 months, she is lovely, the kids love her and we have no complaints worthy of voicing. Contractually she has 5 weeks holiday each calendar year, 3 weeks she chooses and two weeks we choose. This quota contractually includes bank holidays which we have overlooked and have paid her in addition to the 5 weeks holiday. Two bank holidays we paid double because she did work as she skied with us over Easter. She has already booked / taken all her holiday this year plus one additional day. Additional day was paid and an oversight but the time hasn?t been made up. In addition she has taken 2 days unpaid leave. We are taking the children to Lapland for 3 days, these are days our nanny is contracted to work. It was my intention she came to work as usual and used the time to catch up on the kids laundry / bedroom tidying etc. All jobs specified in the contract but which do get neglected, not through any fault of our nanny but because taking care and running around after three children is incredible time consuming. This morning our nanny asked to have a chat about holiday, with specific reference to Lapland and that this would take her over her holiday allocation. I said that I had intended she come in as usual and use the time to sort the kids bedrooms / laundry etc. She told me she didn?t want to do this as sorting their bedrooms is soul destroying as they just mess them again (I agree with her on that one and getting them clearing up after themselves is a bug bear of mine too which she knows) and she doesn?t want the role to be that of a housekeeper. I said I was happy she take the time off unpaid, she wasn?t happy with that because it?s not her fault we are taking the holiday. I then suggested the time was ?banked? for overtime / babysitting (which we pay her each month) but she isn?t willing to do that either. As a ?compromise? she is happy to take one day unpaid leave but wants to be paid and not work the other two, she says this is the ?norm? when families take additional holiday. I would add at this point that we have never requested she does general housekeeping of any description, we have a dedicated cleaner, gardener and send the ironing out. She doesn?t do any housekeeping at our request other than child related as mentioned. She does empty the dishwasher, fold washing etc. I do most of the kids laundry. The contract specifically states duties include kids laundry, maintaining tidy bedrooms (kids), light household duties and babysitting. From the day she started until 31st December this year she has had 21days holiday accrue that she chooses (she has taken / booked 22) and there have been an additional 18 that we choose (we have chosen 19). Last year she worked 4 days per week and didn?t take any holiday other than Christmas, we allowed her to carry it over to this years (she wanted more due to getting married), carrying over holiday isn?t a contractual right. We didn?t specify any holiday ourselves last year either and tend to take all our holiday in the first half of the year. I would be grateful for any guidance of the ?norm? in this situation. We have a good relationship with our nanny (at least I thought we did) but I am struggling to see why we should pay her to not work when there are contractual jobs to be done that she simply doesn?t want to do. I also fail to see how this equates to being a housekeeper. There are parts of my work I don?t enjoy too, I still do them?.. Thank you Clare

I had my daughter at Tommy's (emergency C Sectuon) and son at Kings (elective). I would echo the comment above, both are fantastic hospitals and it really does come down to the luck of the draw in terms of how busy they are, staff on duty etc. I would wholly recommend your friend going to visit both hospitals and having a look around (they do tours of the maternity units) seeing how long the journey time is, how it differs at different times of day etc. Both are fantastic, she needs to go with whichever she is personally more comfortable with having visited and considered her personal circumstances (where she lives / works etc) Good luck

We installed wall mounted electric radiators which are thermostatically controlled into our office (building in garden concerted and had no heating). They work really effectively and are economics. The room is @ 5/6 m square and two heaters have been more than adequate.

Depending on what you used you may have etched the stone - if it's minor it should be able to be polished out / wear in time through traffic. I spent hours this weekend Cleaning a limestone floor, particularly the grout. I used a multi purpose cleaner by "Method" which is safe for stone and with a soft brush worked well. Having started, and then had to continue as you can't do one small part, I've decided to invest in a floor cleaner!

we are having a new kitchen fitted at the end of the month so I've been researching Best Buy appliances. My main source has been which, however they don't appear to have any reviews on boiling water taps... Any recommendations ? Thank you in advance Clare

I owned a house the lordship Lane end, on the stretch before the Castle. Always very happy there, no problems at all with noise and generally easy to park - except on a Sunday evening randomly. Neighbours were all very friendly, and only a 15 min walk to the station / couple of minutes to all bus routes. Would recommend.

amydown Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We have the Suffolk range I think, with leathered > black granite. That's the range we have been quoted on :) Do you happen to know where the kitchens are produced?

Just to add, we used an interior designer for the rest of the house (big renovation), didn't realise at the time but they will design kitchens too as will some architects.

We had 4 designers round, 3 were unimaginative and we were unimpressed (free), the fourth was really good! We paid for that one, (?150) but the fee is deducted from the price if we buy a kitchen from them (Neptune), which is fair enough. Plain English and Fired Earth also have a "paid for" service. The fee is @?1000 with one and @?250 with the other. We actually are ordering the Neptune kitchen however there was no obligation to do so and we didn't feel we had to at all.

I can't believe he can see no wrong doing. As for the girlfriend standing by him, how can she find his actions acceptable? Wrong on so many levels. I wouldn't be able to do my job with even the most minor of convictions (if there is such thing). If he had apologised and shown remorse he wouldn't be getting anywhere near the attention he is receiving.

Is the nanny an in resort one? If so the nanny will have toys / entertainment etc that s/he will bring along. Just take layered clothing, hats , gloves etc like you would for yourself. We took our daughter for the first time at 10 weeks, nannies work out really well.

We have a Touareg which fits 3 across back.

They installed the alarm that was fitted in my house in ED. When I bought the house the alarm was out of contract and I didn't know the code etc. Having got ADT round to get the alarm up and running again they basically quoted an extortionate sum as it was 'out of contract'. I didn't think it worth paying more than a new alarm would cost so asked for a price to remove - another extortionate sum quoted. Totally felt as though thought they had me over a barrel. Didn't use them and wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!