Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with infants and/or toddlers - do you let your nanny or babysitter drive your kids, both in normal times and during covid? If so, how far away from your home are you comfortable with them going for outings? And how frequently?

We’re not sure how we feel about this regarding our 7 month old and 2.5 year old.

Why would you hire someone to take care of your children that you don't trust to drive them?

It’s not mainly about trust. It’s about the fact that I don’t want my children to spend a significant portion of their day in the car. It does nothing to their development. And then it’s about not wanting them too far away from our house or workplace IF something were to happen, no matter who is taking care of them.

Anonymous wrote:What happens if nanny is in an accident?

If she tells her car insurance company that she was driving for work, will they still cover it or will the employer have to cover all the costs?

What if the nanny gets hurt in a car accident? Is the employer responsible for her medical care? Will workman’s comp cover it?

Similarly, if you child gets hurt in the car accident, will your health insurance cover it if the nanny was driving?

We tried asking our car insurance company if we could add the nanny to our policy, which we could and then let nanny drive our car, but it was still unclear if claims would be paid if she was driving for us as an employee.

Am I just crazy paranoid?

These are the reasons I worry about our nanny driving. I trust her and I know they get stir crazy. I sometimes drive them. Maybe I worry too much.

If she’s on your insurance, in your vehicle, she and all passengers are covered.

~Nanny, Btdt

I let our nanny take my kids for drives during the pandemic just to let them get some air (rolling down the windows) and see new things.

I do not let her drive them on the highway, ever. There is no good reason that she needs to do it, and it's not worth the risk to me.

Driving around NW DC is fine, though.

What happens if nanny is in an accident?

If she tells her car insurance company that she was driving for work, will they still cover it or will the employer have to cover all the costs?

What if the nanny gets hurt in a car accident? Is the employer responsible for her medical care? Will workman’s comp cover it?

Similarly, if you child gets hurt in the car accident, will your health insurance cover it if the nanny was driving?

We tried asking our car insurance company if we could add the nanny to our policy, which we could and then let nanny drive our car, but it was still unclear if claims would be paid if she was driving for us as an employee.

Am I just crazy paranoid?

These are the reasons I worry about our nanny driving. I trust her and I know they get stir crazy. I sometimes drive them. Maybe I worry too much.

Anonymous wrote:For those of you with infants and/or toddlers - do you let your nanny or babysitter drive your kids, both in normal times and during covid? If so, how far away from your home are you comfortable with them going for outings? And how frequently?

We’re not sure how we feel about this regarding our 7 month old and 2.5 year old.

Why would you hire someone to take care of your children that you don't trust to drive them?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I once worked for a family who didn’t authorize me to drive anywhere.

So we ended up walking to the same park every single day.

Even my charge told me that he wanted to go somewhere else.
I felt the same way!!

But they just didn’t feel comfortable w/another person besides them driving their child.

That park got old and I was bored....then later became resentful.
Then Covid-19 occurred and I am so relieved that I no longer have to see that playground anymore!!

Parents:
Do you really want a bored Nanny working for you?
If not - let them drive so your child isn’t attending the same playground 5x a week!

It’s not about the nanny being bored!!! It’s all got to be about the child.

It is about the nanny, in some ways.

If you’re a family who doesn’t want your child driven ever, you need to state that during the interview. Find a nanny who is a homebody, or if your area is walkable, find a nanny who doesn’t drive who will walk everywhere.

My typical shift is 10-16 hours. I’m not cut out for staying at home with a nonverbal child all day everyday. I teach children about the world, different cultures, expose them to multiple languages. But I can only do that if I drive them around. Find the person to fit your position, don’t try to force a nanny to fit a position when you weren’t clear during the interview.

Yes, it was important to us that our nanny had a perfect driving record and a safe, reliable vehicle. Nanny took DD to little classes or play groups every day and nothing was walkable.

Anonymous wrote:I once worked for a family who didn’t authorize me to drive anywhere.

So we ended up walking to the same park every single day.

Even my charge told me that he wanted to go somewhere else.
I felt the same way!!

But they just didn’t feel comfortable w/another person besides them driving their child.

That park got old and I was bored....then later became resentful.
Then Covid-19 occurred and I am so relieved that I no longer have to see that playground anymore!!

Parents:
Do you really want a bored Nanny working for you?
If not - let them drive so your child isn’t attending the same playground 5x a week!

It’s not about the nanny being bored!!! It’s all got to be about the child.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for your responses. I didn’t say that we don’t let our nanny drive our kids. We have been fine with 15-20 minute drive but she wants to take the kids 1h one way, each day or at least 4 out of 5 days. We’re not comfortable with anyone outside family taking our kids that far away nor do we think it’s developmentally necessary nor beneficial at this age. We weren’t sure if we were the crazy ones but it seems from here and from asking around among friends that 10-20 minute drives are the norm. Some of our friends are not comfortable at all with nannies driving their kid.

Wow. I wouldn’t do 1 hour for the younger one. It might mess with his/her head shape.

Yes. We bought last summer’s nanny a car seat for the purpose.

I worked as a nanny for years. My first job involved driving one of kids carpools, but they were older. As part of the hiring process, the mom asked me to do a driving trial with her. Most families who have had elementary school age kids or older have wanted driving. I only did hour + drives for special occasions, such as when kids were going on day trips in summer.

Most families with infants or one year olds have not wanted driving. They want their kids to stay at home and play indoors in winter or near their home, at local playgrounds and such. Walks were always fair game with kids those ages. Even with families that have only had one two year old, most have required no or very minimal driving. It can be very hard to manage kids those ages in the car and to plan hour long trips around kids nap times.

If you do decide to allow nanny to drive, I agree with a PP who mentioned about installing car seats! It is very easy for them to be installed incorrectly, so make sure it is to your liking. Make sure you get a copy of her driving record to check for any points/violations. I personally wouldn't want my kids to go that far most days. I probably wouldn't agree to have them both driven under regular circumstances, but certainly not during COVID and not an hour each way.

I once worked for a family who didn’t authorize me to drive anywhere.

So we ended up walking to the same park every single day.

Even my charge told me that he wanted to go somewhere else.
I felt the same way!!

But they just didn’t feel comfortable w/another person besides them driving their child.

That park got old and I was bored....then later became resentful.
Then Covid-19 occurred and I am so relieved that I no longer have to see that playground anymore!!

Parents:
Do you really want a bored Nanny working for you?
If not - let them drive so your child isn’t attending the same playground 5x a week!

I do movement-based activities and an educational outing Tuesday and Thursday. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are movement outings and educational activities. For a toddler, that would mean a rotation of 3-5 parks m/w/f, with a random new park every once in a while; if we weren’t dealing with covid, it would also include indoor play spaces. During covid, educational activities are also somewhat movement-based due to being outside (nature center paths with signs, zoo when it’s not crowded, berry picking, botanical garden, community garden, etc). When not worrying about covid, some of those activities are incorporated into the rotation for movement and educational activities are story time, craft hour, play date (with craft/game), nature center (inside and out), zoo, aquarium, museums, etc. At this point, your infant is taking in the world through sight, smell and sound. The more exposure they have to other languages, other cultures, the wide world, the better it is. However, young children learn best through spiral-learning. The other nanny gave a perfect example by visiting the monument after reading several books (likely coloring or doing a craft and maybe incorporating the same theme in other ways). When I do farm animals, we count animals, coloring animal pictures, use toilet paper rolls and a plastic bottle (and a pipe cleaner tail!) to make a pig, make a sheep from cotton balls and tooth picks, read books about farms, look at pictures of animals and tractors, play games involving animal noises, play phonics games using the sounds animals make and/or animal names (depending on child’s age and ability), all culminating in a trip to a petting zoo.

I’ve been all over the dmv with kids. I’m trusted on the highways, I’m more paranoid about car seat safety than any employer I’ve had, and if kids were going to be in the car for 45 minutes to 1.5 hours (once every couple of months, if that), I either timed it to coincide with naptime, or we stopped at 1-2 preplanned locations on the way to and from to run around and play. Most trips were 15-30 minutes, no more than one trip per week which required 30+ minutes in the car seat each way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does your nanny need to drive 7m and 2.5 yo? No close by playground / park / library that she could walk to?

There is only one small park which is 15 minutes walking distance, and we do have a decent back yard. Other than that everything else needs driving to. I guess she’s partly bored and partly she believes that kids need new experiences (this is where we probably disagree, at least at this age). Not really sure why.

But would you be comfortable with that?

With the 7 month old, no. She should be entertaining them in the park and backyard. That’s plenty for a kids your age during a pandemic. If no pandemic, may be drive to a library.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for your responses. I didn’t say that we don’t let our nanny drive our kids. We have been fine with 15-20 minute drive but she wants to take the kids 1h one way, each day or at least 4 out of 5 days. We’re not comfortable with anyone outside family taking our kids that far away nor do we think it’s developmentally necessary nor beneficial at this age. We weren’t sure if we were the crazy ones but it seems from here and from asking around among friends that 10-20 minute drives are the norm. Some of our friends are not comfortable at all with nannies driving their kid.

I am the nanny who posted about doing big outings sometimes for introducing or elaborating on things we are learning. I wouldn’t drive my charges more than 45 minutes for an outing 4 times a MONTH, let alone 4 times a week. No, that is dicey.