SLad

Herne Hill is a lovely warm school but there are more girls than boys. What did you decide to do?

Monkey puzzle nursery in the old fire station and West Norwood forum on facebook

Hi there,

We moved on from a nanny to my care (2nd mat leave) at exactly the same age so v different circumstances but we told my daughter as far in advance as possible so she became used to it and could talk to her nanny about what it would be like after she had left. She seemed to cope reasonably well with the change (and had about a month with just me as her little sister came 2 weeks late).

We've recently changed nannies again and did the same i.e. tell our eldest (now almost 5 year old) and her little sister straight away that our old nanny was leaving. We interviewed and made our decision within around 3 weeks so had time for a long afternoon playdate with our new nanny before she started. It is literally like our daughters have known their new nanny all their lives, but that is a lot to do with our new nanny having an awesome personality and her own little boy who comes to work with her which is fab all round.

So, my headline recommendation is to share the news openly and give the child chance to talk.

Good luck with finding a new nanny. As brilliant as your current one is, there are lots of very special nannies out there to be found who will fit right in to your family and build new bonds with you all.

We just had an amazing holiday in Aberdeenshire - glorious Cairngorms and amazing beaches. Loads of castles and NT places to explore. Very cheap to fly and hire a car. Really lovely people/.

Ruskin park is good. Also Clapham Common I think.

Sorry to be a thicko but could someone please explain what a gite holiday is please? I've heard it said a lot and just assumed it was a sort of chalet style thing but Mayo's description of a play barn has me excited that this might be the perfect solution for my 5 and 2 year olds.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/google-executive-calls-police-in-neighbour-row-over-4cm-of-wall-a3770841.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1519119899

Hey Elphinstone's Army,

Why don't you stop trolling Megan? What are you doing to stop plastic in the oceans?

Good luck Megan. I love what you're doing and will keep a watchful eye on your progress.

All the best,

SLad

koru kids apparently pairs uni students with families for just this kind of afterschool care. Haven't used it myself but looks good.

Paxos is lovely and largely unspoilt. Fly to Corfu and then quick ferry to Paxos

reward chart helped us when our daughter had this phase.

Do not pay fees up front.

Our daughters were spotted by Kids London and we have not had to pay a single penny for them to be taken on and just sent I phone photos.

If an agency is suggesting you need to pay for a portfolio then they are probably making their money off parents, rather than by getting work.

There is still an issue with breastfeeding in public because certain places still require bfing mothers to cover up or move, and there are some shithead people who think its either okay to denigrate someone for feeding their baby in public or (worse) ogle a breastfeeding mother.

That mothers face the threat of either kind of unwanted attention does put a lot of women off breastfeeding because it effectively ties them to the home or to feeding in loos or b-feeding rooms (usually next to loos).

So, yes, there is still an issue about breastfeeding in public which I suspect is much more pronounced outside London in places like Barnsley.

Happily I don't give a monkeys where I whap my boobs out to feed my babies but I can totally empathise with women who do.

There?s a Waitrose very nearby so get a stack of beautiful overpriced food from there and then head in. We found the restaurant food a bit dire but okayish if you just want to avoid cooking.

Don?t book so many activities that you can?t spend time in the pools which are amazing and kept us happy for 2 hours or so a day (with a 3 yr old and me at 6 mths pregnant).

Or on further order. So you could apply for some different date.

For various reasons including using the fire first thing in the morning on week days when we will not light a real fire, I am considering installing an electric wood burner fire like a Yeomans. It's to supplement underfloor heating which is lovely to walk on but doesn't quite take the chill out of the room on very cold mornings.

Does anyone have one and can help me with any pros or cons please? At the moment, the only cons I can think of is my inherent snobbiness at having an electric fire in my house (we have a real open fire in the living room) and, perhaps, high running costs.

Gunpowder. Best Indian my Gujarati husband has ever had.

If you are generally happy with her then it may not be worth falling out over this and just aim to run next year on the contractual basis so there?s no feelings that your generosity is going unobserved by the nanny.

That being said, we give our additional holiday days to our nanny for free but also stick to the contractual holiday entitlement.

Good luck. It?s horrible when these things happen.

Sadie

Rate of pay is between you and the nanny.

We used to pay ?10 net/hour and now pay ?11.50 net/hour for a much more experienced nanny who is now looking after 2 kids. When we interviewed, we saw Mums with their own child who were offering to work for net figures below the London Living Wage (which would always represent our base minimum as a net sum).

Essentially and without any derogation, you are an employer so must give everything to your nanny that you would expect for yourself in the workplace, that includes paid holiday, SSP, maternity or parental leave, pension (depending on your commencement date and assuming the nanny elects to take up the pension), overtime if not provided for in the contract and full employment rights including redundancy pay if you need to release the nanny more than 2 years after they start working for me.

I really hope you find a great nanny and that you give to them all the employment rights they are entitled to receive.

OpenRent is great as it provides private landlords with access to the big internet search portals. We've found a couple of tenants using the site. Good news all round for us.

Scout hut dulwich woods, st saviours, room in a pub, etc

Streatham and something cricket club?

Indian

Dulwich wood

Paxos, Greek Island. Inland or away from any of the towns. Beautiful and glorious walks but some great opportunities for food too.

Or Ronay Island, Scotland: http://www.ronayisland.com/