S/O I am a nanny AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, fellow nanny here. That's quite a few hours there. So you're a live in and make $20/hour, work between 70-75 hours total a week, so around $1800-$1900 a week, correct?

Does the family pay for your health insurance? Your car insurance (as you mentioned you drive the boys frequently, hence asking)?

Do you get PTO beyond the 3 weeks vacation, holidays? Meaning, whether or not they need you, are you paid 52 weeks a year without a reduction in pay if it goes beyond the 5 weeks that are agreed upon?

Do you have family in the area or that you are close with? How often can you see them if so?

If you're ever not available to work for whatever reason, or just need a day during the week to reset, is back up care available?

I couldn't imagine working this type of schedule. If I work more than 50 I feel burned out but I'm sure you get used to it after a bit. I wish you the best and hope you're happy with this position.

Closer to 70 hrs most weeks. No other benefits, but yes, I have guaranteed hours. Grandprents are backup care. I am not particularly close to my family but I travel to visit family or friends at least once a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you the same ethnicity as the parents?

Yes, we are all white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, fellow Nanny here:

A.)How do you find your Nanny job(s?)
Do you go through an agency or do you use childcare websites such as Care.com or Sittercity.com??
Have you ever found a nice family using Craigslist?

I have done agency, word-of-mouth and online. I don’t use Care.com on principle. I haven’t personally found a job on craigslist but I would post there if I were looking

B.)Are you responsible for doing your charge’s laundry?
Do you have any household duties to perform or are you strictly childcare.
I am responsible for basically every aspect of the children, so I do their shopping, make all their food from scratch, manage all their laundry, all their appointments, school paperwork, etc. I also volunteer often at their school.

C.)Working such long days - do you ever nap when the children do?
Because no one could blame you if you did.

The children don’t nap anymore but we all lay down and listen to an audiobook and sometimes I doze off. The parents don’t mind. I am literally laying with my arms around the kids so it’s not as if they could get up and wander off without me noticing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is your living situation like? Are your quarters nice? Lots of light, space? Do you have your own kitchen?

Also, who got up with the kids in the night when they were babies?

The live-in aspect is new due to COVID. Before I lived with roommates. My lease was ending anyway so we all decided I would just stay in their guest room for now to limit exposure. It’s just a basement guest room. I am the primary person who uses the bathroom but it’s not exclusively mine.

I was originally hired as an NCS so I did all the overnight wakings until they were sleep trained

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you being filmed while working?

Such as are the parents using NannyCams in the home??

No. I don’t object to it though as long as parents are honest.

[Anonymous]

Hiya OP.

I’ve worked both 24/5 and 24/7, in addition to grueling 70-90 hour positions that didn’t involve overnights. I’m also someone who happened into nannying and found my calling.

1. What do you enjoy most in your current position? Is it something you can look for when interviewing for your next position or something that just will have to happen organically?

2. Do you like living with the family? Is it something you will look for or accept in the future?

3. Do you take any time to do networking at nanny conferences or NNTD events? Have you done any training or education dealing with early childhood education, ncs, discipline, special needs?

4. Did you enjoy switching from nanny to nanny/household manager? Is that something you will do in the future, or will you look to move on when the family transitions the children to full time care/school outside the home?

5. Did you negotiate legal pay and a contract or just accept what the family offered? $20/hour for a live-in isn’t bad, especially if you started at $15-16 with the family, but it’s not high enough for an ncs. Did you have a separate contract for ncs prior to three months?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you finish your degree in Early Childhood Education, you could be getting $30 an hour base with your experience. Please think about it, OP. You could do a lot of it online.

You sound like a natural nanny! You just need the paper to really get ahead.

Are you a teacher?

No, I’m a nanny. I had my degree in liberal arts and worked in another field. When I decided to become a nanny, I took the ECD classes. I’m earning $35 an hour now for two little children with no household chores and a retirement contribution as well as full healthcare insurance and a car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hiya OP.

I’ve worked both 24/5 and 24/7, in addition to grueling 70-90 hour positions that didn’t involve overnights. I’m also someone who happened into nannying and found my calling.

1. What do you enjoy most in your current position? Is it something you can look for when interviewing for your next position or something that just will have to happen organically?

It’s always a special bond when you are there right from the beginning. I also love working with twins. And I value how much freedom I have in this position to structure our days and plan outings.

2. Do you like living with the family? Is it something you will look for or accept in the future?

I am sort of neutral on live-in vs live-out. I have done both and there are pros and cons to each.

3. Do you take any time to do networking at nanny conferences or NNTD events? Have you done any training or education dealing with early childhood education, ncs, discipline, special needs?

I was a certified NCS under the previous system so I completed all the training, testing and hourly requirements for that. I have been to INA and Nannypalooza and NAEYC conferences. I do a lot of reading about positive discipline and take a course every 2 years or so to keep me centered, usually online.

4. Did you enjoy switching from nanny to nanny/household manager? Is that something you will do in the future, or will you look to move on when the family transitions the children to full time care/school outside the home?

I have always been a household manager-type nanny. Even when the boys were infants I did the majority of what I do now.

5. Did you negotiate legal pay and a contract or just accept what the family offered? $20/hour for a live-in isn’t bad, especially if you started at $15-16 with the family, but it’s not high enough for an ncs. Did you have a separate contract for ncs prior to three months?

I was placed through an agency as an NCS, then at 6 months they paid a fee to the agency to continue working with me and we negotiated A separate contract. I was originally paid $19 per hour and was working fewer hours and had only two weeks paid vacation. I have received two raises of $0.50 each in the 5 years as well as additional PTO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you finish your degree in Early Childhood Education, you could be getting $30 an hour base with your experience. Please think about it, OP. You could do a lot of it online.

You sound like a natural nanny! You just need the paper to really get ahead.

Are you a teacher?

No, I’m a nanny. I had my degree in liberal arts and worked in another field. When I decided to become a nanny, I took the ECD classes. I’m earning $35 an hour now for two little children with no household chores and a retirement contribution as well as full healthcare insurance and a car.

Please, OP, listen to this poster. Move through hell and high water to get your degree. There is no advancement without it.

[Anonymous]

Is there a mother in this couple?

[Anonymous]

I would ask for more competitive wages and less time. try pricing out quality daycare/pre-k for 2 kids. Get something close to it minus the room and board.

[Anonymous]

This sounds like the typical hours of a SAHM.

[Anonymous]

I would bet that these are two dads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like the typical hours of a SAHM.

Most nannies who work 24/5 or 24/7 are effectively taking on a parental role. We’re up before the kids are, sleeping after kids, and up with them overnight. I’ve had two families for whom the only contact (at least 5 days of the week) with a parent was either a phone call or FaceTime in the afternoon or evening and possibly another call in the morning.

To be clear, I look for positions in which the family, children specifically, NEED me. Unlike a nanny with a spouse or children of her own, I can devote myself to children who truly need 24/5-7 love and care.

[Anonymous]

OP, what advice would you give to parents who are home with their nannies now? We work from our office about 50% of the time right now and the rest, we are home. We pay our nanny full time regardless, but the days we are home she works about 5 hours unless we have something going on. We mostly just try to give her space, but I really love her and want to keep her for a long time!

And thank you for this thread and for ignoring all the unsolicited advice about your life choices.