Afternoon nanny from 3-6? Impossible to find?

[Anonymous]

We’ve had the same nanny for 7 years, but now that my 7 and 4 year old will be in school until 3 next year, we really don’t need full-time help. How impossible is it to find a nanny that wants to work 3-6 and the occasional school holiday?

[Anonymous]

Impossible. Unless you are willing to pay like $50/hour.

[Anonymous]

You’d have to adjust expectations for what this nanny may be willing to do, price and demographic. You may need to work with 2. I realized that 3-6 could be either a pensioner who lives close by and who wouldn’t mind making a bit extra with the 3-6 hours. College students but you’d need to work around their schedule as well. Or a nanny who is already doing part time, e.g. 8-1 but this arrangement is hardest to find. Otherwise, you will not entice someone to commute to your house for 1.5-2 hours round trip to put in 3 hours or work, unless you compensate very highly, but then you may as well just keep a full time arrangement as add some housekeeping responsibilities. I did this for a couple of years, where I had nanny come at 11, do some housework, and then pick kids up from school and stay with them. You’ll find eventually, but be creative and open to different solutions - which may be much harder now with Covid.

[Anonymous]

Do 2-6 the hours slightly and pay closer to $30 per hour.

[Anonymous]

Impossible. Its what everyone wants.

[Anonymous]

It will only work if your hours and location are absolutely perfect for her. We've had babysitters to watch our kids from 4-530pm daily for several years before COVID. Three were teachers at local schools and one was a college student who lived near us and had another job that began at 6pm nearby.

[Anonymous]

High school or college student

[Anonymous]

PP with the babysitters from 4-530pm. Want to add that you may need to be willing to split up your 5 days. With the exception of one year, we've always had at least two babysitters covering our week, each with the same regular weekdays. The teachers had later meetings on certain days of the week and the college student had her own recurring commitments. One year we actually had three babysitters for the 5 days.

[Anonymous]

Really hard! We agreed to do 2-7 and paid about $25/hr but that was a few years ago. (She quit with covid otherwise I assume we’d be closer to 30 this year). We got lucky hecause she was an empty nester who liked to be able to sleep in and get errands done and such before coming to our house. But most people who want part time work want mornings so they can be home for kids/spouses in the afternoon or early evening. You might get lucky with someone who has a pension or a working spouse and just wants a little extra to put towards vacations and such, but the typical nanny who is working to pay the bills is not going to want an afternoon setup.
It turned out to be nice to have the extra hours because she would start the kids laundry before they got home, or could do little errands for me. And on the many school half days, we shifted her an hour earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had the same nanny for 7 years, but now that my 7 and 4 year old will be in school until 3 next year, we really don’t need full-time help. How impossible is it to find a nanny that wants to work 3-6 and the occasional school holiday?

Very, very hard. My brother hung on his can’t kids nanny by adjusting her hours from 12 to 7 plus a date night (precovid). Their nanny covers sick days at a moment’s notice and school holidays. She does the kids’ laundry, errands, cooking, grocery shopping for whole family, shuttles kids to games/practices and classes after school, gets their homework done and piano practice in. My brother has repeatedly said that he and his spouse need the nanny more now than when they were little.

Think about it, OP. Everyone wants those afterschool hours and the few who want those jobs are either flakey college kids who leave after a semester or a nanny who can ask for $30 an hour easily. Keep your nanny and pray she’s interested.

[Anonymous]

You might be able to do this if you look for a college student, but you will have to pay well and can't expect them to do housework beyond the sort of tidying up after activities that a babysitter would do.

[Anonymous]

I think the "occasional school holiday" will be especially tough.

[Anonymous]

You already have a nanny so I would keep her and add more hours and see if she wants to transition to housekeeper role when kids are in school. We did find a reliable college age sitter for those afternoon hours and she was with us for 2 years but that was only because we moved to a different area and and I think we just got lucky.

[Anonymous]

What....we easily found a college student that is mature and pay less than 20 for 1 kid. Hours 2:30 to 5. Started out at 5 days and now 4 due to her schedule availability changing. There are many college students looking for afternoon hours. We are in N. Arlington by the way so not in low cost area either. Look on Sitter.com or Care.com. Alternatively go through an agency like college nanny and sitters. The cost will be up with agency though.

[Anonymous]

I would think it would be quite easy to find. Perfect for a college student or a teacher looking to make a few bucks. I just graduated and now work as a teacher. I know the teachers would love a position like this.