It's really hard to find a quality person that is willing to do both childcare and housekeeping. If you find such a person, you do whatever you can to keep them. Not paying them when you take a vacation is a non starter.

Yes.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To clarify, I am looking more for a housekeeper than nanny- 1 hour of childcare a day, 4 days a week (I care for the child full time except for that hour) and the rest of the time it’s cleaning and house care. So it’s not the traditional nanny set up.

k

NP here. In this case, it is even more definite that you pay for her time. She should be coming to your house for the rest of the time doing cleaning and house care. She can take in the mail, water plants, vacuum carpets (yes, dust and link can build up even when people are not walking on carpets), mop floors, dust, clean bathrooms, clean the inside of windows, pack up off-season clothing to be put into storage. So give her the housekey and let her come in and clean the house while you are gone. She may not be working fewer hours, but she can still work in your house doing many of the same tasks that she'll be doing when you are there, since as you said, she's only doing childcare one hour per day anyways.

Anonymous wrote:100%! Can’t believe this is even a question!

OP either can’t really afford a nanny or is very cheap.

OP, you know the saying: when you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Anonymous wrote:Negotiating with a couple of candidates now. We go away a few weeks a year and it seems so costly to pay for a service you’re not using.

Does your employer pay you while you’re on vacation?

Why don't you check with their landlords, mortgage lenders, utilities companies, and grocery stores. If they're all okay going without pay for those weeks of the year that you guys are out of town, I bet you could find someone who would agree to this.

And agree with PPs that this is even easier if it's more of a housekeeper role because you could have her do lots of stuff when you are away. What a great time to have her do stuff like clean the oven, clean out the fridge, do deep cleaning of other rooms, organize pantry, etc. Those things can be hard to get done when people are home, especially if one or more members of the family work from home or if there are older kids around who are in and out of the kitchen or playing/lounging in the house during the day.

Look, offer to only pay for the hours you need and see who you end up with. Most families will provide consistent pay because they want a consistent service. If you don’t need that offer to pay only the weeks you use and see if the free market will support that.

A housekeeper is different than a nanny anyway; they don’t need you to be present to complete some work.

When we go on vacation our housekeeper comes and gets the mail and does some bigger projects.

If She is doing house stuff I would probably still have her come some of the times. Like if you go away for a week have her do a deep cleaning of the bathrooms or something or organize the pantry, coat closet or whatever. Big tell her she can do it when she wants and pay her as normal.

The general answer is yes. But how many hours a week are you paying for total? If you want this person to be available this hours to you you have to pay for those hours all the time.

Yes

How high quality a candidate do you think you’re going to find if you don’t, and how likely do you think it is they won’t quit if you don’t?

Honestly you’re asking for a unicorn candidate already. I am not sure you’ll find a reliable person even paying for the weeks off.

Yes!!! Our housekeeper comes whether we’re here or not and gets paid. She usually does deep cleaning on those days and is welcome to leave early or not come at all some days.

But yes, your housekeeper needs to be paid her regular hours.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. To clarify, I am looking more for a housekeeper than nanny- 1 hour of childcare a day, 4 days a week (I care for the child full time except for that hour) and the rest of the time it’s cleaning and house care. So it’s not the traditional nanny set up.

Yes, of course, it’s the same with a housekeeper. Again, why should the housekeeper starve because you decide to go away? She’s is available and willing to work and you pay for that.