Just for an alternate perspective, I’m extremely uncomfortable living in the red and I’d be looking for the best arrangement I could afford, not the best arrangement money could buy. If you aren’t saving then you’re borrowing from other future needs your kids will have.

I struggle with budget too so I’m not being preachy! Just sharing my view. In my world that translated to sending both kids to daycare. I can still afford to have our old nanny share nanny come one Saturday per month to watch the kids while we go out. She sees them and likes the extra $

Why does the share need to break up? Is it the feeling that 4 kids is too many? I guess it is a lot with infants, but still seems like keep some aspect of share would be a good idea.

But I also agree - generally, a nanny share nets more $$ for the nanny that one family with two kids.

Anonymous wrote:I would choose option one despite the financial crunch because, as you point out, it's a temporary issue.

One thing I'd look into is whether his PK has a summer camp that you could enroll in next summer, thus reducing the total amount of time you are paying for the nanny on your own (since if your oldest is in summer camp all day, you could find a family to do a share with your youngest and defray the costs of the nanny). That way he would basically start PK early.

But yes, all temporary, and if you can just swing it financially, that's good enough because these costs go away as your kids age out of them. I think the advantages of keeping things consistent with your older child, maintaining a good relationship with your nanny, and decreasing the number of

OP here - great idea about the summer camp! Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Wait, so are you goin to pay the nanny the total she was paid for the share? The rate for a nanny for two kid (one family) is typically less than 2 kids in a share. What is your hourly rate you are paying? Where do you live? Many benefits to a nanny, especially when you have two kids, but it sounds like you are paying more than you need to. Maybe a new nanny for both kids at a lower rate?

OP here.

This is an interesting point. We pay $12 per hour now, so the nanny makes $24. On the books. We do not pay health insurance, but we do offer paid time off, paid holidays, and paid sick leave.

We would definitely not get a different nanny. We won the lottery with this nanny, she's wonderful. And $24 for DC is pretty reasonable.

If we were continuing the share, we would give her a $1 raise to $25, as it's been a year. In my numbers I put in the initial post, I was assuming we'd be paying $25 per hour moving forward. But since it would move from a share to just us, do you think it would be okay to keep her at $24? That would move our monthly cost down to $5k, which would help keep us out of the red, but then I also want to keep her happy, she really is fabulous.

Anonymous wrote:I would keep the nanny full-time to care for both of your kids for the next one year, then start your DC2 in preschool and add another 1-year-old to the share.

OP here. Yes, that would be our plan. Wasn't sure if people would be into that (coming into an established nanny situation) so I posted this as a test case here, from the other perspective, and was pleasantly surprised with the positive responses. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1014190.page

Wait, so are you goin to pay the nanny the total she was paid for the share? The rate for a nanny for two kid (one family) is typically less than 2 kids in a share. What is your hourly rate you are paying? Where do you live? Many benefits to a nanny, especially when you have two kids, but it sounds like you are paying more than you need to. Maybe a new nanny for both kids at a lower rate?

I would choose option one despite the financial crunch because, as you point out, it's a temporary issue.

One thing I'd look into is whether his PK has a summer camp that you could enroll in next summer, thus reducing the total amount of time you are paying for the nanny on your own (since if your oldest is in summer camp all day, you could find a family to do a share with your youngest and defray the costs of the nanny). That way he would basically start PK early.

But yes, all temporary, and if you can just swing it financially, that's good enough because these costs go away as your kids age out of them. I think the advantages of keeping things consistent with your older child, maintaining a good relationship with your nanny, and decreasing the number of

I would keep the nanny full-time to care for both of your kids for the next one year, then start your DC2 in preschool and add another 1-year-old to the share.

Oh my gosh this seems obvious to me. Stay with the nanny for both. There is no guarantee your next share will work as well, and with ds constantly sick in daycare you will have the issue of what to do with him (add him to the share??). I would pay it if you possibly can.

Either choose both kids with nanny or both kids in daycare. Separate childcare for kids this young is insanity.

Plus if you do option 2 what’s the plan for the many times your son will be home sick from daycare? Having a nanny will be zero help if you’re constantly taking off work to take care of your 2 year old. The other family is not going to be happy about a sick kid being around their baby — as that defeats the point of paying for a nanny instead of daycare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you in DC with universal PK3?

Because if you aren't, you should pick a place that does 2s through 4s for the older one.

Yes, in DC, our kids will go to our in bound school, and it seems like its fairly easy to get a PK3 slot there if you're IB.

Sorry forgot to identify myself as the OP - I'm the one who posted the above comment.

Anonymous wrote:Are you in DC with universal PK3?

Because if you aren't, you should pick a place that does 2s through 4s for the older one.

Yes, in DC, our kids will go to our in bound school, and it seems like its fairly easy to get a PK3 slot there if you're IB.

Keep the nanny for your two kids. Much easier and not much more expensive than Juggling nanny share for one kid and daycare for another.

Are you in DC with universal PK3?

Because if you aren't, you should pick a place that does 2s through 4s for the older one.

We are at a bit of a crossroads with childcare, and are interested in people's perspectives.

Our 2 year old son is in a nanny share that we host. We love the nanny, we love the other family, it's been wonderful. However, both families now have new babies, so the share is breaking up. It looks like the nanny will be staying with us. We essentially have two options:

1) Pay the full nanny salary and have her watch our two kids.
2) Put our older son in daycare, and find a new family to do a nanny share with our new baby.

We're not interested in daycare for the baby.

Option one would be easier on us - no daycare drop off, no finding another family, no finding a daycare, plus as I understand it, when it's your own nanny, there are some perks - potentially a little more food prep for the kids, assistance with the kid's laundry, etc. There would also be continuity of care for our toddler (he LOVES the nanny) and we'd avoid germs/illness. However, it's more expensive. Option 1 would cost about $5,200 a month. Option 2 would probably be more like $4,400. There are some other benefits to option 2 as well - more socializing for our son (he'll miss his share buddy for sure, although he has friends at the park that he sees each day) and a better alignment on naps for the new baby. If we started a new share, it'd probably be with a baby her age, so she'd get to nap at home for all naps, whereas if we go with option one, she's probably going to end up taking her morning nap in the stroller pretty much every day. On the other hand, that probably will provide us a bit more flexibility as she gets used to that.

The money difference is not small for us - we're really stretching to afford even the $4,400. If we went with option 1, we may be in the red by a couple hundred bucks a month that would essentially be coming out of our emergency fund. It would only be for about 18 months until our son goes to PK3, though, so it's a short term problem. And my husband is in line for a promotion that would make this a bit less of a concern.

Thoughts? What would you pick and why? Other factors I'm not considering?