TEN-HOUR working days, plus a further hour toiling at home in the evening preparing projects for the next day and writing up activity diaries for the children in her care, are all part of Debbie Pepper’s daily routine as a live-out nanny.
At 29, Ms Pepper has been a nanny for six years and earns £27,000 a year for a 4½-day week, with four weeks a year of paid holiday.
She bought her own flat in Sutton in Surrey last year, works in South London and has seen her pay rise about £100 a week, pro rata, in the past 12 months.
“People think it’s an easy job. When you tell them what you do for a living, they think you are ‘just a nanny’. They don’t realise what goes into your day or that as a nanny you are constantly learning and acquiring new skills.
“It’s very hard work and very long hours. Not everyone is cut out for it, but for those who are, there can be few jobs that beat it. I absolutely love it,” she said.
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“I used to work as an auxiliary nurse and this is much more interesting.
“When I started my first job, the child was just 9 months old. When I left he was 4 and going to school. I would hear him say the most amazing things and I would think to myself, ‘I planted the seeds for that’.”
Ms Pepper is highly ambitious and plans to open her own nanny agency in about four years, when her youngest charge has started school.
“I very much regard myself as a professional and I believe that we should have a governing body that we can be members of,” she said, adding that this would serve the needs of parents as well as nannies by helping to ensure basic minimum standards.
Like many nannies, Ms Pepper is able to take advantage of the growing demand for part-time childcare.
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She splits her time between three families — looking after three children (Millie, Jake and Toby) from one family for three days a week, one child from another family for one day a week and another child for half a day a week.
“It brings variety to my job and makes it much more exciting,” she said.
Although there is now a wider acceptance of childcare as a serious profession, Ms Pepper believes that some things never change.
“Parents tell you that what they want for their children are manners, discipline and good hearty meals. I agree totally with that.
“At my last job, when I walked in the door, they would say, ‘manners and patience has just walked back in’,” she said.