Part-Time Nannies - Opinions?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience hiring a part-time nanny? I am due this summer and thinking a nanny may be a better fit than daycare right now, but I cannot stomach the cost of full-time in-home care. I am thinking of getting a part time nanny to care for baby a 2-3 days a week for the first year (MIL will watch the other days). How hard are they to find? Are there hourly rates comparable to full-time? What benefits do you offer or pay for? Do most prt-time nannies work for multiple families (thinking of viruses and covid risks here). Any experience you have with hiring part time nanny is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

We have had a part time nanny for 7 years. The pool is smaller, and therefore it took a long time to find a good one. We offer competitive pay, and really generous benefits (she gets 4-5 weeks of paid vacation per year). She doesn’t work for other families. I would recommend you start interviewing early.

[Anonymous]

It is much, much harder to find a good part time nanny than a full time. You have to set guaranteed hours (day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:30 to 4:30) and pay well. So that’s her work week. Generally two weeks vacation/PTO the first year.

And interview well! Ask questions to find out why’ve she’s wants a part time job (kids at home; another job) or else you’re going to get someone looking for a full time job who will just take your job until a better one comes along.

Total sidenote: please rethink the grandmother babysitting. This never works out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is much, much harder to find a good part time nanny than a full time. You have to set guaranteed hours (day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:30 to 4:30) and pay well. So that’s her work week. Generally two weeks vacation/PTO the first year.

And interview well! Ask questions to find out why’ve she’s wants a part time job (kids at home; another job) or else you’re going to get someone looking for a full time job who will just take your job until a better one comes along.

Total sidenote: please rethink the grandmother babysitting. This never works out

Haha. So true.

Another thing to consider is that it’s a lot of transitions for your baby. There’s going to be you (the parents) the nanny and grandma all doing things differently. Babies thrive on routine. This is going to make everything harder. Sleep training, naps, schedules, rules. Daycare would be more consistent, for example — be a even though there are multiple people working, they’re following the same routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is much, much harder to find a good part time nanny than a full time. You have to set guaranteed hours (day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:30 to 4:30) and pay well. So that’s her work week. Generally two weeks vacation/PTO the first year.

And interview well! Ask questions to find out why’ve she’s wants a part time job (kids at home; another job) or else you’re going to get someone looking for a full time job who will just take your job until a better one comes along.

Total sidenote: please rethink the grandmother babysitting. This never works out

As someone who has had a wonderful experience with a grandparent as childcare, I have to disagree. It's often a disaster. I have friends for whom it's been a disaster. But sometimes, like in our situation, it's great.

I pay the same rate I'd pay a childcare provider. Grandpa follows my lead like he would if he were any other employee, although he definitely does things an employee wouldn't, like forcing my children to look at the photo albums of their dad when he was a little boy, and taking them with him when he went on vacation to the beach. But it works really well.

[Anonymous]

If I were you I would look for a nanny share instead. Part time care is difficult to find, more expensive per hour and notoriously unreliable. With a nanny share you could have consistent care so that your kid gets into a good nap routine and has fewer wake ups overnight, you can hire an excellent nanny instead of scrambling to find anyone who’s willing to work the hours you need, and grandma can provide back up care as needed.

[Anonymous]

You might find that to hire a truly good PT nanny with the experience you want, the weekly cost won’t be much less than a FT nanny. Since it can be remarkably hard to find a second PT nanny job that fits with the first PT nanny job, nannies charge a premium hourly rate to work PT.

A nanny share might be a good choice for you, since you (and the other FT family) would be paying 2/3-3/4 of the nanny’s typical hourly rate. Or, you could do the work to find another family that needs a nanny on the days you don’t, and seek a single nanny to alternate work days.

Only you know if the grandmother is up to the task of infant care. Does she know current safety rules, or is she willing to learn? Or will she insist on putting your baby to sleep on their belly, think car seats are silly, and insist she gave you honey to eat at 6 months old “And you were just FINE!”?

[Anonymous]

We hired a part time nanny but she works 5 days a week with a guaranteed min number of hours and we’ve included sick and vacation leave as part of the contract ; this is her first nanny job though so if you are looking for an experienced person it may be harder.

[Anonymous]

I'll just say that we've been looking for a nanny the past couple months as our current nanny is moving away and I have been surprised to see how many people ARE looking for only part-time nanny work. I've contacted five separate potential nannies who said they only wanted to work 20-30 hours/week. It was a mix of older women with grown kids (so I guess looking to fill some time during the day, but not wanting or needing full time work) and younger women who had other things going on (part-time school, mostly, but one was a musician who I guess wanted part-time work to augment whatever she makes in her chosen field).

I do think that's kind of unusual - I was researching a particularly limited pool because we were really hoping to find a nanny who speaks my DH's native language, and it's not terribly common around here, so I was throwing my net as wide as possible and sort of hoping I could entice someone into more full-time work - but they're definitely out there, OP. I was finding all of these through Care.com, which is where we found our current nanny, so you might try looking there. You can post a job or search listings nannies who are looking for work post themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I were you I would look for a nanny share instead. Part time care is difficult to find, more expensive per hour and notoriously unreliable. With a nanny share you could have consistent care so that your kid gets into a good nap routine and has fewer wake ups overnight, you can hire an excellent nanny instead of scrambling to find anyone who’s willing to work the hours you need, and grandma can provide back up care as needed.

+1 A consistent full time nannyshare is so much more stability for all involved and if you and the other family pay well you will get someone much more experienced-a professional nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We hired a part time nanny but she works 5 days a week with a guaranteed min number of hours and we’ve included sick and vacation leave as part of the contract ; this is her first nanny job though so if you are looking for an experienced person it may be harder.

This is what we did (just since the pandemic for our pre-schooler. She comes 24 hours a week, 830-1230 every day plus an extra 2 hours on Monday and Tuesday. This works for us. Our nanny is experienced but this suits her since she also works as a freelance reporter on the side...

[Anonymous]

You’ll have much more luck doing 2 or 3 8-10 hour days than others have finding aftercare. It’s much easier to cobble together full time hours with two decent full day partial weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were you I would look for a nanny share instead. Part time care is difficult to find, more expensive per hour and notoriously unreliable. With a nanny share you could have consistent care so that your kid gets into a good nap routine and has fewer wake ups overnight, you can hire an excellent nanny instead of scrambling to find anyone who’s willing to work the hours you need, and grandma can provide back up care as needed.

+1 A consistent full time nannyshare is so much more stability for all involved and if you and the other family pay well you will get someone much more experienced-a professional nanny.

This is what we did. You get much better quality care if you pay fairly for a full time nannyshare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is much, much harder to find a good part time nanny than a full time. You have to set guaranteed hours (day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:30 to 4:30) and pay well. So that’s her work week. Generally two weeks vacation/PTO the first year.

And interview well! Ask questions to find out why’ve she’s wants a part time job (kids at home; another job) or else you’re going to get someone looking for a full time job who will just take your job until a better one comes along.

Total sidenote: please rethink the grandmother babysitting. This never works out

As someone who has had a wonderful experience with a grandparent as childcare, I have to disagree. It's often a disaster. I have friends for whom it's been a disaster. But sometimes, like in our situation, it's great.

I pay the same rate I'd pay a childcare provider. Grandpa follows my lead like he would if he were any other employee, although he definitely does things an employee wouldn't, like forcing my children to look at the photo albums of their dad when he was a little boy, and taking them with him when he went on vacation to the beach. But it works really well.

Guarantee OP isn’t paying grandma