Reply to New to hiring a nanny ... experienced parents, give me a tutorial

Forum Index » Childcare other than Daycare and Preschool

Reply to "New to hiring a nanny ... experienced parents, give me a tutorial"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I am returning to work after a long stretch at home. I will begin in January, and we plan to hire a nanny to make it all work. DH is government, goes to work early and is home by 4-5pm. I'll work a later shift, get the kids off to school, and won't be home until 6:30. I think we'd like a full-time nanny to work 9-5. We have two school-aged kids who will be out of the house much of that time, and one preschooler who the nanny would pick up from preschool at noon and care for until DH comes home. But I'm going to need help picking up slack around the house, so I think it makes sense to hire someone full time.

Can experienced parents help answer some general questions we have before beginning the search:

1. What can we expect to pay an experienced nanny for 40 hours per week? In addition to base pay, what are the other usual benefits? Do we cover healthcare, and if so, how? Do we give a stipend and let her figure it out? Or is that all expected to be covered by base pay? How much vacation do you give? She'll likely get two weeks in the summer when we are on our own vacation, as well as holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and probably a good deal of federal holidays since DH and the kids are usually home for those. In addition to that, would it be typical to give her, say 2 weeks of her own choosing? Or is 1 week sufficient since she'll have off at least a couple more weeks when we are away? We want to make a competitive offer but within the market range.

2. Is it usual to expect a nanny to housekeep while the children are at school? There will be about 2 hours and 45 minutes each day where the house will be empty. I'd like to ask her to do all the laundry and dishes, neaten up around the house, do some simple food prep so dinner is quick for DH to make (like chop veggies and fruits, marinate meat, etc.), and do 2 grocery trips per week. Is that all reasonable? In the summer, this would lighten up because all 3 kids will be home, they can help with chores, and she'll need to shuffle them to camps and stuff.

3. How do taxes work? I find this confusing. What is our responsibility as the employer for taxes?

4. How hard is it to find a great nanny? Should we expect some false starts? Just want to have reasonable expectations. The top priority is someone who adores kids and is warm and loving toward them. I've been home awhile, the kids are used to the comfort of mom all the time, and I want to leave them in loving hands. Second priority is probably someone who can really keep the house neat and running smoothly because that will really help me return to work more smoothly after a long time out. Safety obviously is very important too.

Thanks for your help!

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics