Does your nanny use her own car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what is a car "note"?

the monthly payments on a car loan.

[Anonymous]

Let me break this down. Let's assume a nanny is making $75k. They are taking home approximately $63,000 per year or $5300 per month. An average 1 bedroom in the DMV is $2300. Private health insurance runs $400-800/month. Now she has $2400 left after that. But wait, she needs her own car for your job. So a car payment plus insurance plus gas is $600/month. Now she has $1800/month left for groceries, household items, necessities, utilities, phone, internet, student loans. Not to mention any unexpected expenses like car repairs. Likely zilch for savings or retirement.

I'm not saying $75k per year isn't a lot for someone to be paying out of pocket for childcare- it most definitely is. I'm just saying when you are in one of the highest COL areas in the country, that covers the bare basics of living. A vast majority of nannies are living pay check to pay check and just scraping by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ask her to use hers and pay her a mileage reimbursement.

Mileage is not enough as children make a mess in cats with food, muddy shoes and dirt in general.

Cars ^^ not cats!

My nanny drives two kids around at least 2 days per week and her car is pristine. Where is your nanny driving your kids that they need a snack? And damn how dirty are your kids?

Your children aren't overscheduled, so she doesn't need to feed snacks or meals in the car, and your nanny has time to make sure they're clean before they get into the car. Other families schedule the days and weeks such that snack (and meals, possibly) only occur while driving, and if there's no time to take 5 minutes to eat a mandarin, there's not enough time to scrub the mud off after soccer practice. Washing hands before eating in the car may be the only possibility, or it might be just a bit of hand sanitizer (also in the car).

[Anonymous]

When we had a nanny, she used my car and I Ubered / worked from home / carpooled with DH. When we had an Au pair, we gave her my old car and I bought a new one (so we had three cars total).

I think having a nanny use her own car is just asking for trouble. I didn’t want to worry about moving car seats, my kids messing up her car, insurance issues, mileage reimbursement, etc etc etc. If you can swing a third car or use Uber, do that! Keep it simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we had a nanny, she used my car and I Ubered / worked from home / carpooled with DH. When we had an Au pair, we gave her my old car and I bought a new one (so we had three cars total).

I think having a nanny use her own car is just asking for trouble. I didn’t want to worry about moving car seats, my kids messing up her car, insurance issues, mileage reimbursement, etc etc etc. If you can swing a third car or use Uber, do that! Keep it simple.

DC area has great public transit, so if you're within 1-2 miles, why not just use that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea of someone buying a new car with all of the safety bells and whistles and then having their kids ride in the nanny's s$%t box seems odd to me.

My nanny doesn't have a pod car because I pay her $72,000 a year.

Unless the nanny lives with you on $72k a year they can’t afford a nice car. My 23 year old daughter makes $75k a year and can’t afford a car at all and needed a roommate to pay for her small non air conditioned walk up apt.