You get the absolute worst candidates for jobs like this.
You get people who either are looking for a full time job and cant find one (and therefore ditch you the minute they find one, or are crap candidates for any job) or have other obligations that come first BEFORE your job (school, another job, etc.) They will be extremely flaky.

You are also essentially competing with gig work that allows them to have flexibility in addition to earning money, and might save them commuting time. For example, are they better off just finding sitting gigs on care.com? If they are college kids with good English skills, can they just pick up tutoring work or Editing jobs without having to even get in their car?


Also if you are looking for a good driver to put wear on tear on their car driving your kids around, which actually shrinks the pool even more. Yeah, there are people around here with licenses that don't have much experience driving in DC or a big city that I wouldn't trust carting my kids around.

Anonymous wrote:$35+ for three hours or less. You might be able to get away with $30/hr if guaranteed hours. Morning times are hard to fill!

This. You need to pay appropriately. Or get a neighbor to do you favors. Of course you reciprocate.

Anonymous wrote:I'm copy/pasting a response I wrote in a previous thread.


We've had the same morning nanny for going on 3 years. M-F 6am-8am, $250 weekly guaranteed 52 weeks whether we go on vacation, holidays, etc and gas reimbursed at IRS mileage rate. She has a full-time job after, so can't use her for school days off, but still worth having someone we know will be here and not flake.
I would say check Care.com and really weed through there.

That’s because you need morning shift. She can easily get to a job by 9 after leaving your house. OP wants morning and afternoon/evening.

Anonymous wrote:So I see lots of postings for these type of positions on care.com and urbansitter paying anywhere from $10-$15/hr. Are these families actually finding ppl and keeping them? Who are the nannies applying for these positions?

BTDT. You get the minimum and they leave the second they get a full time job. Trust me. We learned the hard way. Once I got a call thirty minutes before rotten-sitter was supposed to pick up DC that she wasn’t coming back. I had to run out of work and was twenty minutes late to pick up my crying child.

Do aftercare or hire a full time nanny and work out other things she can do (not cleaning!) while the kids are in school. Our nanny manages our house and does all the grocery shopping while kids are in school as well as the kids laundry and errands.

Anonymous wrote:So I see lots of postings for these type of positions on care.com and urbansitter paying anywhere from $10-$15/hr. Are these families actually finding ppl and keeping them? Who are the nannies applying for these positions?

Oh, hilarious. NO.

So I see lots of postings for these type of positions on care.com and urbansitter paying anywhere from $10-$15/hr. Are these families actually finding ppl and keeping them? Who are the nannies applying for these positions?

$35+ for three hours or less. You might be able to get away with $30/hr if guaranteed hours. Morning times are hard to fill!

There’s always someone who will do it for some
Price, only question is how much you are willing to pay.

I'm copy/pasting a response I wrote in a previous thread.


We've had the same morning nanny for going on 3 years. M-F 6am-8am, $250 weekly guaranteed 52 weeks whether we go on vacation, holidays, etc and gas reimbursed at IRS mileage rate. She has a full-time job after, so can't use her for school days off, but still worth having someone we know will be here and not flake.
I would say check Care.com and really weed through there.

What do you think is “above market rate”? The people willing to work these hours and be reliable can easily demand $30 an hour.

If the price is right....

Yes but they are very expensive and generally stay in the job for a very short time.

This is why people choose au pairs -- who can work a split schedule and help in the mornings as well.

It exists, but it’s very difficult to find. Some people pad the hours/pay for more hours than they need and ask their nanny to run errands/sort toys/meal prep.

I constantly see people advertising (e.g. on MONA) for part time help. Someone to get the kids to school in the morning. Someone to get kids off the bus and drive to activities in the afternoon. Do people fill these jobs? Or do these jobs go unfilled? I would LOVE to find someone reliable to do this- but have a hard time finding a person, and getting them to last. I would be willing to pay significantly above market rate- but I have trouble figuring out who would want the job, especially in a close in expensive area like Arlington. I'm left wondering if 1) I am not advertising in the right places; 2) there is a way to make the position more attractive that I am missing; or 3) other people aren't finding these types of help either- the positions go unfilled and the parents get off lists for after-care etc. While I would take someone who wanted to work both before and after-school- I actually only need one or the other.