Child care when youngest goes to Kindergarten

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this and had a good solution.

I have three kids - 12, 7, 4.5. My nanny has been with us since I was pregnant with the youngest. She is fabulous. My job and my husband's are both very cyclical and unpredictable, so we give her a schedule a week ahead of time. She usually works between 37 and 45 hours a week (more in the summer when there is no school or during busy times of the year). She does the entire family's laundry, keeps the house neat (though we have a every other week housecleaner, whom my nanny never thinks does a good enough job...) drives the kids to activities, and cooks a lot.

We pay her very well - last year she made $44k plus a $4k end of year bonus plus $300 a month that goes towards her health care. She is 63 year old.

My youngest is going to kindergarten. I can't imagine not having her, but I don't know how to give her as many hours as she needs. Technically, yes, we could pay her the same even if she only works 15 hours a week. I am considering seeing if there is another kindergartner she could watch after school and get paid for, so that our cost is lowered a little bit. Or maybe a stay-at-home mom would like a babysitter on a regular basis for a few hours in the middle of the day a few times a week? Or do I ask her to do more housework?

Has anyone gone through this transition, and has useful advice or suggestions? thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this and had a good solution.

I have three kids - 12, 7, 4.5. My nanny has been with us since I was pregnant with the youngest. She is fabulous. My job and my husband's are both very cyclical and unpredictable, so we give her a schedule a week ahead of time. She usually works between 37 and 45 hours a week (more in the summer when there is no school or during busy times of the year). She does the entire family's laundry, keeps the house neat (though we have a every other week housecleaner, whom my nanny never thinks does a good enough job...) drives the kids to activities, and cooks a lot.

We pay her very well - last year she made $44k plus a $4k end of year bonus plus $300 a month that goes towards her health care. She is 63 year old.

My youngest is going to kindergarten. I can't imagine not having her, but I don't know how to give her as many hours as she needs. Technically, yes, we could pay her the same even if she only works 15 hours a week. I am considering seeing if there is another kindergartner she could watch after school and get paid for, so that our cost is lowered a little bit. Or maybe a stay-at-home mom would like a babysitter on a regular basis for a few hours in the middle of the day a few times a week? Or do I ask her to do more housework?

Has anyone gone through this transition, and has useful advice or suggestions? thanks!

So basically you pay someone to parent your kids and now you want other moms to pay her to help you guys out financially?

[Anonymous]

No advice but she sounds heavenly.

Do you know she needs full time? Have you asked her? Maybe PT could work for her as she ages?

[Anonymous]

We have an au pair and a cleaner who comes X2 week and does the laundry. Still cheaper than a nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this and had a good solution.

I have three kids - 12, 7, 4.5. My nanny has been with us since I was pregnant with the youngest. She is fabulous. My job and my husband's are both very cyclical and unpredictable, so we give her a schedule a week ahead of time. She usually works between 37 and 45 hours a week (more in the summer when there is no school or during busy times of the year). She does the entire family's laundry, keeps the house neat (though we have a every other week housecleaner, whom my nanny never thinks does a good enough job...) drives the kids to activities, and cooks a lot.

We pay her very well - last year she made $44k plus a $4k end of year bonus plus $300 a month that goes towards her health care. She is 63 year old.

My youngest is going to kindergarten. I can't imagine not having her, but I don't know how to give her as many hours as she needs. Technically, yes, we could pay her the same even if she only works 15 hours a week. I am considering seeing if there is another kindergartner she could watch after school and get paid for, so that our cost is lowered a little bit. Or maybe a stay-at-home mom would like a babysitter on a regular basis for a few hours in the middle of the day a few times a week? Or do I ask her to do more housework?

Has anyone gone through this transition, and has useful advice or suggestions? thanks!

So basically you pay someone to parent your kids and now you want other moms to pay her to help you guys out financially?

I don't agree with your characterization of OP, but I do feel that OP is trying to help the woman stay employed rather than just fire or drastically reduce her hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this and had a good solution.

I have three kids - 12, 7, 4.5. My nanny has been with us since I was pregnant with the youngest. She is fabulous. My job and my husband's are both very cyclical and unpredictable, so we give her a schedule a week ahead of time. She usually works between 37 and 45 hours a week (more in the summer when there is no school or during busy times of the year). She does the entire family's laundry, keeps the house neat (though we have a every other week housecleaner, whom my nanny never thinks does a good enough job...) drives the kids to activities, and cooks a lot.

We pay her very well - last year she made $44k plus a $4k end of year bonus plus $300 a month that goes towards her health care. She is 63 year old.

My youngest is going to kindergarten. I can't imagine not having her, but I don't know how to give her as many hours as she needs. Technically, yes, we could pay her the same even if she only works 15 hours a week. I am considering seeing if there is another kindergartner she could watch after school and get paid for, so that our cost is lowered a little bit. Or maybe a stay-at-home mom would like a babysitter on a regular basis for a few hours in the middle of the day a few times a week? Or do I ask her to do more housework?

Has anyone gone through this transition, and has useful advice or suggestions? thanks!

So basically you pay someone to parent your kids and now you want other moms to pay her to help you guys out financially?

yourself. Do you just stalk the board looking for working moms to criticize?

Signed,
A SAHM who wishes women like you would stop making us look bitchy

[Anonymous]

I know someone who tried to keep her nanny one extra year but it was stressful (talk about first world problems) to come up with things for her to do everyday from 9-3 until the kids got picked up. There's only so much clothes sorting, food prepping, grocery shopping you can do.

So they found another family who only needed care 3 days a week. Her kids do aftercare at school on those 3 days, and the other 2 days, the nanny comes back and does household errands during the day and picks up the kids from school. There isn't any flexibility on the days though since the other family needs those set days.

They are on year 3 of this arrangement, so it's actually working.

[Anonymous]

It seems like the best alternative would be finding someone who needs part time care to share the nanny with. Maybe someone is only looking for mornings. Maybe they just need 2-3 days and you can have the others. Start letting your friend groups/etc know you are looking for someone amenable to this arrangement. Of course, you probably need to discuss all possibilities with your nanny and see what she is open to. She may prefer a completely different option.

[Anonymous]

We were the beneficiaries of an arrangement like this. A family wanted to keep their nanny in the afternoon and we needed part time help in the morning (8-2.) It worked great for us for the 3 years we had her but it was hard on our nanny to bounce back and forth. She eventually went back to a full time situation.

[Anonymous]

If you can afford her I would keep her. You still have to think about summers and after school. She sounds like a wonderful lady and you're lucky to have each other!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: If you can afford her I would keep her. You still have to think about summers and after school. She sounds like a wonderful lady and you're lucky to have each other!

This. And sick days. And snow days when the roads are clear. I wish we could afford this kind of arrangement!

[Anonymous]

Another vote for keeping her if you can, at least for another year or two. We ended up hiring an au pair when our kids were in elementary school because the days off were just too many and we had no flexibility with our jobs. After care might have worked if we just had one, or maybe two children, but with three kids there are so many days when one or more of the kids are at home.

[Anonymous]

I'm a little shocked that you consider that a good salary for the hours she puts in and the hard labor she puts in at her age in addition to childcare!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little shocked that you consider that a good salary for the hours she puts in and the hard labor she puts in at her age in addition to childcare!

when you add it all up hey are paying her $52K/yr which is not a bad salary at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little shocked that you consider that a good salary for the hours she puts in and the hard labor she puts in at her age in addition to childcare!

when you add it all up hey are paying her $52K/yr which is not a bad salary at all.

It's more than what my DH makes at Wegman's and he's full time.