Nanny’s car is falling apart

[Anonymous]

What kind of shape is your car in? I would probably get myself a new car and have her drive your existing car, when she is working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of shape is your car in? I would probably get myself a new car and have her drive your existing car, when she is working.

I’ve thought about this, but we have an SUV and she’s told me that in her previous jobs, she hasn’t wanted to drive an SUV because she’s not used to it (her car is a sedan).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot force her to go into debt and buy a new car! You are ridiculous. If you don't like her car then you BUY a car for her to use. Your entitlement is beyond comprehension.

Agreed!

When you update her contract include the fact that her vehicle needs to be maintained.

Unless you help her to make that happen, you are not solving the problem. Bare minimum: have the car inspected by your mechanic and you help pay for the repairs so she can afford it. Also get a AAA card for your nanny. The bonus idea is also fine but the car will be hers whether she stays in your employ or not. That would not bother me because our nanny is like a member of the family.

[Anonymous]

All the vehicle issues you mention are small issues, OP. What might be more concerning is the age of the car, as airbags have more risk of malfunctioning if they're old. If the car is less than 10 years old, I'd say it's perfectly fine with regular maintenance.

You can of course buy or lease her a car, and propose rewriting the contract to include that.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Buy, lease or rent a car for her to use when she is with the kids. Although she prefers to use her own car, explain that while she is welcome to use it when she is on her own, you are not comfortable with her driving your kids in the old car due to the issues that is has been having. Until she can resolve the maintenance issues, she should use the car you provide when driving the kids.

Options 1 and 4 are non-starters. Unless you are paying for it entirely, you do not get to dictate that an employee must replace their car.[/quote]

This is the best solution. We have done this with our nanny successfully for many years and she is an insured driver on our policy. It allows us to have a safe and well-maintained vehicle for our nanny to drive our children around. It's not an "annoying" expense if you think of the alternatives. [/quote]

+1 This what the families I know who have nannies that do a lot of driving do (it's also what all au pair families that need driving do). They buy a used car for this purpose (usually a used sedan). That's what some of the families at our preschool do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of shape is your car in? I would probably get myself a new car and have her drive your existing car, when she is working.

I’ve thought about this, but we have an SUV and she’s told me that in her previous jobs, she hasn’t wanted to drive an SUV because she’s not used to it (her car is a sedan).

Hmmmm. I guess this depends where you live, but I don't generally drive an SUV and still prefer it with my kids (I commute from Alexandria to DC in my sedan and DH drives our third-row SUV all the time, but I take it on sports runs and weekends). Assuming it is not some behemoth of a car, I would be concerned that someone who couldn't navigate with an SUV wasn't a great driver overall, if they were driving my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We really like our nanny overall. We have two kids, ages 3 and 1. She drives the kids in her own car and we reimburse her for mileage and wear-and-tear. She told us that she prefers to drive her own car and has always done this with her nanny families, even when they have a nicer car available for her to drive. We do have a car but we need it to commute.

Twice in the past 6 months, she’s had issues with her car and we’ve had to call her an Uber to get her home. The first time, she couldn’t get it to start. She ended up having to take it to the shop to get it repaired, but she was vague about what the issue was. The second time, she couldn’t get her key to work, so she couldn’t even get the door open. I’m guessing that there was an issue with the battery in her key, and for some reason we couldn’t get the physical key to work either. She had an extra set of keys at home and has been using those. The AC in her car also doesn’t work when it’s super hot, which is concerning to me.

She has admitted to us that she probably needs a new car, but she’s also said that cars are so expensive right now that she wants to wait. At this point, we’re not comfortable with her continuing to drive our kids in this car. What if the key hadn’t worked while she was out and about with them, and they were stranded there?

We’re trying to come up with a way to resolve this issue. Our contract says that she will drive her own car, but we didn’t think to put anything in it about maintaining the car to a certain standard. Here are the options as far as I can tell:

1. Tell her to buy a new car. I don’t think this is the route I want to go because I don’t think she can afford it and I don’t want to be a mean employer.
2. Lease a car for her to use. This would be annoyingly expensive but doable for us.
3. Buy a used car for her to use while she’s driving our kids around. Again, annoyingly expensive but probably doable.
4. Give her a one-time bonus and tell her the intent is for her to put it toward buying a new car. I don’t know if this would be appropriate or how much we would even give her.

What would you do?

Those are not big issues. Not starting is most likely battery or starter. Key thing is probably key fob battery related. Why not just fix and let her drive?

[Anonymous]

I would buy a used safe car for her to use at work. Keep in mind as your kids get older their may need to be carpooling happening, play dates etc. I would consider getting a van. You can use it evenings and weekends as well as the kid car.

[Anonymous]

^ AC works or doesn't work?? Does it blow cold air at all?

[Anonymous]

We bought a third car for our nanny to use while she's working. Used but in good condition, and a make and model known for safety.

The car was ours, so she didn't use it on her own time. Getting to and from work were her responsibility. Sometimes she Ubered or bummed a ride off her boyfriend.

We added her to the insurance policy. We expected scrapes here and there to happen.

Yes, this is not financially available to everyone, but it was good for my peace of mind. I stayed on top of the car's maintenance. I think she drove more carefully, knowing it wasn't her vehicle. No moving carseats between cars. No need to reimburse her on mileage (I paid for all gas, since all trips were kid related).

After we finished the nanny / au pair age and no longer needed the car, we sold it and got a decent return.

[Anonymous]

How much is the wear and tear reimbursement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of shape is your car in? I would probably get myself a new car and have her drive your existing car, when she is working.

I’ve thought about this, but we have an SUV and she’s told me that in her previous jobs, she hasn’t wanted to drive an SUV because she’s not used to it (her car is a sedan).

Hmmmm. I guess this depends where you live, but I don't generally drive an SUV and still prefer it with my kids (I commute from Alexandria to DC in my sedan and DH drives our third-row SUV all the time, but I take it on sports runs and weekends). Assuming it is not some behemoth of a car, I would be concerned that someone who couldn't navigate with an SUV wasn't a great driver overall, if they were driving my kids.

Disagree. I'm a great driver, but unused to SUVs. Do you really want me to become accustomed to driving one while your children are in the backseat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy, lease or rent a car for her to use when she is with the kids. Although she prefers to use her own car, explain that while she is welcome to use it when she is on her own, you are not comfortable with her driving your kids in the old car due to the issues that is has been having. Until she can resolve the maintenance issues, she should use the car you provide when driving the kids.

Options 1 and 4 are non-starters. Unless you are paying for it entirely, you do not get to dictate that an employee must replace their car.

This is the best solution. We have done this with our nanny successfully for many years and she is an insured driver on our policy. It allows us to have a safe and well-maintained vehicle for our nanny to drive our children around. It's not an "annoying" expense if you think of the alternatives.

Thanks for this, it’s helpful to hear from people who have done this.

I'm the "buy, lease or rent" PP. I have a friend who was a SMBC and she did this. She bought a used car for her live-in nanny to use with the kids. The nanny was not supposed to use the car when she was on her own time. This became helpful when her parents and brother came to visit, they also had a car available to them to use while visiting (as long as the nanny didn't need it for the kids). I also remember a time when her own car was in the shop and she and the nanny juggled the one car until she got her car home). Having an extra car around, periodically because helpful and even after the kids were older and going to school and the nanny had moved on, she kept the car for another couple of years before she sold it.

[Anonymous]

Am I missing something as far as where she is driving these kids?? They are young enough that driving is not necessary. I would just tell her that she needs to walk, use buses or keep the kids in the house during the day.

[Anonymous]

We always had our nanny drive our big safe tank cars . . . because they were safer and the kids and nanny were more protected should they be hit.