It rarely starts with a job-description meeting.
The baby is sleeping, so you ask if she can quickly fold the washing. A few months later, there is a school uniform to iron. Then children’s meals become family meals. Then the kitchen after lunch. Then the floors on a Friday because the housekeeper did not come.
None of the requests feels unreasonable on its own. Then one afternoon you walk into the lounge and your toddler is playing while your nanny is mopping the passage, and you realise the job has become something nobody deliberately designed.
| Jobs at home grow without a meeting. That is one of the most common ways a clear role becomes an impossible one. |
For Nanny Recognition Week, we think role clarity deserves as much attention as thank-you messages. Recognition starts with knowing what somebody is actually being employed to do.
Can a nanny also do housework?
The supplied SHC legal notes say the issue is not a blanket prohibition on housework. The employment arrangement should describe the work, ordinary hours are limited, and overtime has rules of its own. The original draft cited a 45-hour ordinary working week and specific daily limits; those figures should be checked against current law before publication.
But there is a practical question that matters just as much as the legal one: can one person do all of these things well at the same time?
Childcare and housework compete for the same minutes
A five-year-old wants help finding her school shoes. The baby has woken up. There is food on the stove. The washing machine has finished. Someone needs to wipe the high chair. None of those jobs is imaginary, but they cannot all be the priority at once.
When families say, “We need someone who can do everything,” what they often mean is, “Our household has become too much for us to carry.” Those are not the same problem.
This is especially important when the family grows
The nanny who managed beautifully when there was one preschooler may be in a completely different job after twins arrive. The family may also move house, change working hours, add school runs or begin travelling more. The employee did not suddenly become less capable. The household changed around her.
That distinction matters because replacing the person will not fix a role that is structurally too large.
Three ways to structure the job honestly
- Childcare first. The nanny’s main responsibility is the children, with child-related tasks such as their meals, laundry and spaces clearly defined.
- A combined role. Childcare and selected household tasks are agreed upfront, fit within the available hours, and are reflected in the employment arrangement.
- Separate the roles. A nanny focuses on the children and a housekeeper focuses on the home, whether permanently, part-time or when extra support is needed.
Before you advertise for another “all-rounder”
Write down everything your household needs in a normal week. Not the person you think you need – the work.
- Morning childcare and school preparation
- School runs or transport
- Baby care
- Cooking
- Children’s laundry
- Family laundry and ironing
- Bathrooms and floors
- Bedrooms
- Groceries or errands
- After-school supervision
- Bath and bedtime support
Now look at the list as a workload rather than a wish list. Which tasks need the same hours? Which require undivided attention? Which could be done by someone else? This exercise often tells a family more than another round of interviews.
This is where a placement agency should do more than send CVs
At SHC, the conversation we want to have before a placement is not simply, “Do you need a nanny?” It is, “What is happening in your household, and what kind of support would actually make it work?”
A family with one school-age child has a different support problem from a family with newborn twins. A parent working from home has a different rhythm from two parents commuting across Johannesburg. A household that has had three failed placements needs more than another list of candidates; it needs clarity about what failed and what should be different this time.
That is the hand-holding layer we want SHC to represent: understanding the need, helping define the role, supporting the selection and remaining useful after day one.
Recognition begins with a role a person can succeed in
Nanny Recognition Week is not widely embedded in South African household culture yet. We have an opportunity to make it mean something useful here. Before buying a gift, look at the job itself. Is it still the job you hired her for? Can it realistically be done in the hours available? Does she know what good performance looks like?
Sometimes recognition is saying thank you. Sometimes it is removing three tasks from an impossible list.
Over to you
Do you think one person can realistically be both nanny and housekeeper in a busy family with young children – or does it depend entirely on how the role is designed?
