New to hiring a nanny ... experienced parents, give me a tutorial

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP have you considered having your nanny's full time hours later in the day?
Instead of having the nanny come in at 9 am to an empty house and filling the hours with chores, could your husband use extra help when he gets home--so your nanny stays on after he arrives?
I see that your kids are 12, 11, and 4--are the older kids in activities? Do you ever have nights where each of the older kids has to be in a different place at the same time, and you have to juggle drop offs, pick ups, or carpools?
Does your 4 year old end up getting dragged out to all their events and you wish there was another an adult that could stay with him at home instead?
Maybe you could schedule the nanny to stay on later to help out with that.

OP here. We do have evening stuff, and while theortetically extra help would be nice, it is do-able for DH and the little one likes tagging along. Also help around the house is a more important need for us, and I also want to have someone regularly scheduled so we don't have to scramble for school holidays / teacher work days, weather cancellations, summer of course, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can make this work. I think you’ll need to find a housekeeper who babysits, rather than a “nanny” which has an educational component associated with it. Your child is in preschool so he’s getting all of that anyway. I feel like it’s semantics but there are certain expectations associated with nanny versus babysitter. Just my .02

OP here. Thanks. That's interesting. I'll try that approach. It probably makes sense I guess to bill it more as a housekeeper as the main element because the little one will be in kinder next year. I do just want to be sure we hire someone who is good with kids too though. I definitely don't need an educational component. She is well on track for kinder and we read to her all the time, sing together, rhyme, play board games etc. We just want someone who takes loving care of her / gives her attention when she's home. But ... if we look for a "housekeeper" per se is the expectation that they'll really clean the house when time is available? Because we are going to have a cleaning service too. We need someone to do basically the little things I do daily as a SAHM . .. load the breakfast dishes, put in laundry, fold and put away, straighten up a bit, do grocery runs. We were thinking we need a second employee or service for house cleaning so I don't know if using the term housekeeper will confuse this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can make this work. I think you’ll need to find a housekeeper who babysits, rather than a “nanny” which has an educational component associated with it. Your child is in preschool so he’s getting all of that anyway. I feel like it’s semantics but there are certain expectations associated with nanny versus babysitter. Just my .02

OP here. Thanks. That's interesting. I'll try that approach. It probably makes sense I guess to bill it more as a housekeeper as the main element because the little one will be in kinder next year. I do just want to be sure we hire someone who is good with kids too though. I definitely don't need an educational component. She is well on track for kinder and we read to her all the time, sing together, rhyme, play board games etc. We just want someone who takes loving care of her / gives her attention when she's home. But ... if we look for a "housekeeper" per se is the expectation that they'll really clean the house when time is available? Because we are going to have a cleaning service too. We need someone to do basically the little things I do daily as a SAHM . .. load the breakfast dishes, put in laundry, fold and put away, straighten up a bit, do grocery runs. We were thinking we need a second employee or service for house cleaning so I don't know if using the term housekeeper will confuse this?

Basically you need a sister wife. I kid. Use words like housekeeper/house manager and as long as you were crystal clear in your expectations you will be able to find somebody who is loving towards the kids and takes care of the home in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can make this work. I think you’ll need to find a housekeeper who babysits, rather than a “nanny” which has an educational component associated with it. Your child is in preschool so he’s getting all of that anyway. I feel like it’s semantics but there are certain expectations associated with nanny versus babysitter. Just my .02

OP here. Thanks. That's interesting. I'll try that approach. It probably makes sense I guess to bill it more as a housekeeper as the main element because the little one will be in kinder next year. I do just want to be sure we hire someone who is good with kids too though. I definitely don't need an educational component. She is well on track for kinder and we read to her all the time, sing together, rhyme, play board games etc. We just want someone who takes loving care of her / gives her attention when she's home. But ... if we look for a "housekeeper" per se is the expectation that they'll really clean the house when time is available? Because we are going to have a cleaning service too. We need someone to do basically the little things I do daily as a SAHM . .. load the breakfast dishes, put in laundry, fold and put away, straighten up a bit, do grocery runs. We were thinking we need a second employee or service for house cleaning so I don't know if using the term housekeeper will confuse this?

Op- you are not being unreasonable. Go with an agency. Their entire job is to match your needs with candidates skillets. It's worth the investment for a great long term employee.

[Anonymous]

I'm a middle aged nanny whose workload increased dramatically during covid. I got a little burned out so when my old kids (I did a share) all went to school in the fall, I took jobs similar to OP where there was a good bit of housekeeping tasks and less kid duties--just to get a breather for a bit. It's really nice to be able to pop in the AirPods, listen to music-library book-podcast and tackle some laundry and kitchen cleaning. It's been really nice.

This person exists, OP and it's not going to cost anywhere close to $40. Look for someone a bit older and calmer--someone who maybe had a rough year and is ready for some calm. Someone a bit on the introverted side, and a little older and calmer. She's out there, I promise!

[Anonymous]

PP here--I found these families through an agency. One of them had hired me for a share 3 years ago, but their baby died so it didn't work out. I was delighted to get another chance to work for them, albeit in a different capacity. The other family is a single mom with a school aged child who largely needs me to be on call certain hours, and do some school pick ups or drop offs and occasional overnights if she's working.

An agency and also asking around might be good ways to find the person your looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here--I found these families through an agency. One of them had hired me for a share 3 years ago, but their baby died so it didn't work out. I was delighted to get another chance to work for them, albeit in a different capacity. The other family is a single mom with a school aged child who largely needs me to be on call certain hours, and do some school pick ups or drop offs and occasional overnights if she's working.

An agency and also asking around might be good ways to find the person your looking for.

OP here. Thank you for your posts! I don't suppose you'd be willing to share the name of the agency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Items that haven't been mentioned:
1) Advertising the job. We posted on DCUM, Care.com, and other boards. We didn't get good candidates for our position, and often folks applying didn't even read the position description. We worked with a nanny agency/recruiter and got qualified candidates in a shorter amount of time. Of course, we paid the agency fee, but it was worth it as we were spending far too much of our own time screening candidates.

2) Car and insurance. If your nanny will be "shuttling kids to camp, etc" make sure you identify who's car will be used, is it insured, etc. We chose to have our nanny use one of our cars and put her on our car insurance. Make sure you conduct a background check and driving record check.

3) Overhead. Having a nanny means you are now an employer. Expect to devote some time to employee management and administrative stuff, like troubleshooting direct deposit and taxes.

4) Health. Pre-COVID, we required a TDAP vaccine and a negative TB test for our nanny. Also, it's a two-way street - make sure potential applicants know your children's health status, like if they're on a childhood vaccine schedule different from CDC's or have medical conditions.

5) Commuting distance. Sure, reliable transportation but also consider commute. Having a nanny that lives closer means a greater probability they arrive on time consistently (hopefully) and a happier nanny.

Do you mind sharing the agency / recruiter you used?