I have a dilemma.

I have a friend who I don't know very well, but shortly after we met and spent time together socially, I hired her to be my cleaning lady. She is a full-time cleaner so it's her job, but I also like hanging out with her socially. I have spent some time with her and her boyfriend, and their two children - ages 4 and 6 months. They are a wonderful family and I love the kids -- the 4 year old is fun to be around and I like spending time with her as well.

My dilemma: I am paying her to clean the house so that I can work instead. I work from home and it's hard enough keeping my focus on client work especially since I'm kind of burnt out by what I do and don't really like it anymore. I hired a cleaning person because I was getting really distracted by household chores, and found myself cleaning in the middle of the day instead of working. She was my solution to that -- take the chores away from me so that there is one less excuse.

However, she always brings her 4 year old with her. Sometimes the baby, too, but her boyfriend often cares for the baby. The 4 year old is, as I said, a lot of fun and she loves me. However, if I were going to take the time to babysit, I might as well just clean my own house and save myself the money.

I don't really manage people on a regular basis, so I'm unsure how to talk to her about this. Today, when they arrived, I explained that I have to get a lot of work done and that I hope that she brought a book or a movie so that her 4 year old could entertain herself. She said no problem, she understood. But, what I REALLY want to ask is if there is any way of leaving the 4 year old home with her boyfriend and the baby instead. He works from home, too, so I imagine that he is asking that the 4 year old go along on the house cleaning trips, but I'm the one paying for it. And of course I feel bad because I don't want the 4 year old to feel shuffled around.

Advice?