Do you let your nanny drive kids?

[Anonymous]

For those of you with infants and/or toddlers - do you let your nanny or babysitter drive your kids, both in normal times and during covid? If so, how far away from your home are you comfortable with them going for outings? And how frequently?

We’re not sure how we feel about this regarding our 7 month old and 2.5 year old.

[Anonymous]

Why does your nanny need to drive 7m and 2.5 yo? No close by playground / park / library that she could walk to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does your nanny need to drive 7m and 2.5 yo? No close by playground / park / library that she could walk to?

There is only one small park which is 15 minutes walking distance, and we do have a decent back yard. Other than that everything else needs driving to. I guess she’s partly bored and partly she believes that kids need new experiences (this is where we probably disagree, at least at this age). Not really sure why.

But would you be comfortable with that?

[Anonymous]

Our nanny has been driving our now-2.5 y.o. around since shortly after she started working for us when DD was 10 months old. Never had any concerns; we trust her completely. We did provide the car seat for her (which DH installed - that was what he was most anxious about being sure was right). They don't take hour-long drives or anything but a lot of good places are 10-20 minute drives away and it's completely reasonable to me that a nanny might like to have some options rather than one park to go to over...and over...and over. And I do think DD enjoys seeing different places at her age, though I agree with you that your 7 month old probably doesn't really care.

[Anonymous]

In a nanny share, nanny came to our house in am while other kid was in preschool. Drove our kid to pick up older kids and then went to other family's house. She took super long walks with kids and also drove to indoor play places when raining. So I am comfortable with her driving.

No highway and not more than a few miles but I felt very safe be with her driving

[Anonymous]

Yes they go everywhere. We don't have a distance or time limit. Shes taken them far away pumpkin patches, apple picking, hiking, etc. Our rule is just if they are going somewhere other than the typical parks, libraries, museums, playdates then she checks in with us first. They go out and about 1-2x a day.

[Anonymous]

In the olden days, of course. Now, they have no place to go.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. I have always had pretty broad range to take my charges whereever. If it’s something outside our normal routine, I run it past the parents but we have a solid rotation of places we usually go (obviously cut way, way back right now).

I do think that by 2.5 kids benefit from variety. When my charges were barely 1 (twins), we went to a fall festival and they experienced a bunch of new things—petting farm animals, a hay ride, and the pumpkin we brought home with us. They loved it and it really sparked something for both of them. I supported their interest by reading them books about farms and animals, carving the pumpkins together, toasting the seeds and making pumpkin pie from one and jack o’lantern from the other. On my list of their first 20 words, there are a lot of words linked to that outing (pumpkin, sheep, chicken, and TRACTOR, which became an obsession for the next year of their lives.

I don’t do a big outing every day, but I try to do 3 little outings (neighborhood park), one medium outing (slightly further-away park), and one BIG outing each week.

Our big outings in the last month or so have included visiting the Lincoln Memorial (after reading several books about Lincoln/Harriet Tubman/the civil war), and socially distant berry picking (after planting our own garden and afterwards we did lots of different cooking projects with our berries).

It’s just a nice, fun way to expand their horizons.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course.

[Anonymous]

I was a Nanny and drive my kids. It’s too hot to go to the park unless u go super early in the morning so I drive to play dates, took them to the pool, etc. Now I am a parent my kid is 6 and we have a collage she sitter who works for us 3 hours a day twice a week. She drives DD places but always asks first, or I ask her to drive her somewhere and she does. I think you should let the Nanny but don’t give free reign in the beginning, ask her where she’s going and to let you know when she’s back. Assuming that goes well you can relax a bit.

[Anonymous]

Drove not drive.

[Anonymous]

NP. Such young toddlers don’t need big outings. They should be fine with 3-4 different parks on rotation, combined with various backyard activities and arts and crafts. They need to dig, smell, climb, run, jump, play pretend etc. And I wouldn’t want my child spending a large part of their awake time strapped up in a car rather than exploring in nature for example.

When we had a nanny we were ok with a 15 minute drive and there were plenty of things to see within that range.

I feel like any nanny that argues that kids that age “need” longer and bigger outings probably is very uneducated about kids developmental stages, is bored and/or does not put the kids needs first.

[Anonymous]

Op, you make it sound like there's something special about nannies and they can't be trusted driving.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Why wouldn’t I?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for your responses. I didn’t say that we don’t let our nanny drive our kids. We have been fine with 15-20 minute drive but she wants to take the kids 1h one way, each day or at least 4 out of 5 days. We’re not comfortable with anyone outside family taking our kids that far away nor do we think it’s developmentally necessary nor beneficial at this age. We weren’t sure if we were the crazy ones but it seems from here and from asking around among friends that 10-20 minute drives are the norm. Some of our friends are not comfortable at all with nannies driving their kid.