Reply to Nanny Share Experiences and Cost

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Reply to "Nanny Share Experiences and Cost "

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We started our nanny share recently, so I can't speak to all of your questions, but can to a few.  We have one baby and we are in the share with one other baby.  A lot of people seem to pick a share house, but we are rotating houses.  I think there are typically just two children in a share, and maybe three children on occasion if two are from one family (but I think that would be more common when kids are older).  We explored daycares in Arlington before going the nanny share route and the costs varied.  More formal centers were around $600/month, in-home options seemed to be around $350-400/month and really varied in size, formality, structure, etc.  We found the average rate for a nanny for a share to be around $25/hour (which the families would presumably split in half), but this also varied depending on the nanny and her years of experience.  There were many nannies who requested lower rates and some who requested higher rates, but we did not have anyone (even with many years of experience) ask for a rate over $30/hour.  There are a couple local Facebook groups where people post for nannies and regularly offer rates of around $20-22/hour for a share.  There are always people who respond to those posts with interest, but that rate felt too low to us.  Some people just pay a flat rate for hours over 40, some people offer OT (which is the appropriate way to pay).  DCUM seems to have a large number of nannies who suggest rates should be higher than this (and whether they *should* be is a different discussion).

As far as pros/cons, I think most are obvious.  As far as cons of daycare, all of these can vary depending on the daycare, but generally: Daycares typically have more children and fewer caretakers, so individualized attention may be lacking.  More kids often means more illnesses.  You have to drop your kid off and pick your kid up every day at daycare, pack bags, etc.  Right now parents cannot go into daycares because of covid restrictions, so there is typically less of a connection to what is going on day to day.  Some daycares send photos, some do not.  Some daycares will not cater to your child's individual scheduling needs.  Pros of daycare: Larger daycare centers often have longer hours, which we found to be a pro since our hours may vary a bit on the front end or back end of the day from one day to the next.  There is more oversight and less risk of a rogue caregiver.  They are state regulated and there are inspections (pre covid).  If there are multiple providers and a provider is sick, there is still daycare.  You don't have to manage an employee, an employee's vacation, tardiness and other issues of the like.  It's typically a more affordable option.  Kids get socialization.

Cons of a nanny also are really going to vary depending on your nanny, but generally: it's just one person with your child so no real oversight.  You have someone in your home space all the time (unless the share is held at the other house).  You have to become a manager and deal with personnel issues, vacation time, tardiness, illness, etc.  A nanny share is often more expensive than daycare, but not always.  Pros of a nanny: you have a lot more control over the day to day, schedule, activities, etc.  You can ask the nanny to do certain activities or send pictures/videos.  The relationship between a nanny and a child is normally a much deeper, personalized one.  Your child will typically get more attention.  You don't have to drop off/pick up your kid, pack bags, etc. (unless the share is held at the other house).  The nanny will often do the child's laundry and tidying related to the child.  Your nanny may become like family and integrate well with your day-to-day life.

The pros/cons of a share depend on how you set it up and where the kids are located, but has the benefit of being more economical and offering socialization.  These are the two reasons we chose a share.  However, you have to deal with the dynamics of another family/baby, which can be easy or not (in our case, it has been easy so far).  Some nannies are good at balancing two kids/families, but not all are.  We may further consider daycare when our baby is older, but we felt like the share offered a great compromise for when he is younger.                 [/quote]

You mean a week with those daycare prices...[/quote]

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