our kids are older now but years ago we had a nanny who was a full blown professional with a great resume and references. She had an “oops” baby in her early 40s and came to us when he son was 2yrs old and i let her bring him. We got a steep discount on an AMAZING nanny that was with us 12 years until our kids hit middle school. She even enrolled her son in our local neighborhood school which was way way better than the school she was mapped to. Once all of the kids went off to elementary we kept her FT and she transitioned to housekeeping and grocery shopping and very basic meal prep while the kids were at school. it was straight up luxurious. The most stress free time of my life were those years. My boys are still friends to this day with her son and I have one in college and one a senior in high.

One on one childcare, a.k.a. nanny is a luxury and it’s expensive.

You would have to be fairly rich to afford a nanny for a single baby--but lots of people in the DC area do nanny shares (2 babies from different families, 1 nanny).

I am wondering if OP is from another country where it is more normal to have in-home workers.

My mom had her first babies in the 1950s and also had this idea that I could find a nice retired lady from church that would come in for part week at a reasonable rate, as that's what she did with her first babies. I think those ladies worked for "pin money" and also just because they liked babies. But that's not hte world we live in.

$1000 a week seems low to me, because you also have to play employer side taxes, workers comp, and unemployment insurance. It definitely cost us more than that.

Thinking about it as a straight percentage of your take-home salary is not really the best way to analyze iit, from a financial perspective. Take a woman that makes $80K after taxes and is paying $60K for childcare -- she might say, that's not worth it. But that $20K put in the bank and earning interest really is meaningful. Plus, each year she is likely to get a salary increase (that likely will exceed the increase in childcare costs). And, more imfportantly, she needs to think about her entire career. If she stays in the workforce and her salary increases every year by even 2%, then after 30 years of working, she will have significant savings for retirement and her kid's college, etc. If she takes five years out from the workforce, will she be able to re-enter the workforce at the same rate and in the same type of job, or will her alary be set back significantly? This depends a LOT on the field -- historically, people like teachers and nurses could re-enter their professions easily and without much of a hit to their salary. But for people like lawyers or doctors, it is much harder to re-enter after you've been out of practice for years. You have to think about your whole career trajectory, not just "gee, this seems like a lot of money to spend at this particular moment."

But I also agree that most working parents do not use a nanny, because it does not make financial sense. For some profesionals that work late with longer commutes, it may be the only viable choice though.

Anonymous wrote:You also need to be handling taxes and payroll properly. You can't just write $1,000 checks every week.

+1 Not clear if you're including employer taxes in the $1000 a week. We paid a company to handle the payroll/nanny taxes for us which wasn't cheap. Also keep in mind that nannies will expect an annual bonus, raises over time etc when you're budgeting.

You also need to be handling taxes and payroll properly. You can't just write $1,000 checks every week.

We paid our nanny $50K a year for 50 hours. She got lots of time off and was guaranteed her pay even on weeks we didn’t need her 50 hours. This was in 2013 and went through 2017 until she went part time. She was a fabulous nanny and was 50 years old at the time she started.

Obviously only the rich can have a nanny.

That being said, try have two kids. $500 a week is average for daycare, which easily brings you up to that amount.

bottom of the pay range, but with jobs in the area weakening you might be able it to find someone decent.

That's $25 an hour - so you can, but that's at the bottom of the range in DC, in my experience.

We paid about that (a smidge more). I made $180k and DH made $120k then. . We did it legally with overtime and taxes. We did it for 3 years.

That's $25 an hour for a 40 hour week. On the low side, but perhaps a less experienced nanny would be ok with it. But if you work outside the house 40 hours a week, you need the nanny for more than 40 hours, and that will cost more. Don't forget about the cost of health insurance and taxes.

Not in DMV.

My corporate co-worker whose wife works at a big company said he was spending half his salary for a nanny. That was probably a $50K a year nanny job with taxes filed to make it legit. So he was probably spending $70K.

We are highly paid for our area but are not bosses. His household would probably make more in DC. He lives in a Bethesda-type neighborhood. His kids - 5 and 3 - now go to public school/pre-school.

You can probably find someone inexperienced for $25/hour, but don’t you need more than 40 hours if you work 40 hours? You could also join a nanny share. I would assume that childcare with nannies will get a lot more expensive with all of the deportations and people willing to work under the table.

it’s normal or common to pay $1000, a week for Nanny services for 40 ahours of work. Or only the Rich can afford to have a Nanny and pay that amount for one baby.