OP, my best suggestion is a starting nanny. No education. No experience beyond date night type babysitting. $10/hour or minimum wage, whichever is higher and room and board MIGHT net you a nanny. Be aware that MD requires overtime pay for live-in nannies after 44 hours.

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure someone on this thread has already suggested a nanny share, have you looked into it?

For an 11 hour a day share?

Anonymous wrote:Ugh poor nanny

Poor kid! He will hardly ever see his parents!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg... this is op, I am not sure if I can afford $20/hr, $30/overtime hr plus benefits & taxes. That costs more than my after taxes monthly salary. That is $4700 monthly base salary plus benefits/taxes for taking care of my 4 year old. Is that how much what everyone is paying?

I always wonder, when I see responses like this, what the OP was expecting? Did they expect to see people quoting rates of $10/hr?

They’re the same people who expect to buy in this area for $100K total.

They don’t look until they’ve already leaped. OPs kid is 4 for god’s sake. I was researching prices before I even conceived.

Yeah they don’t even think about it. No sh*t a full time worker for just your kid for 11 hours a day is expensive. What do you expect?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg... this is op, I am not sure if I can afford $20/hr, $30/overtime hr plus benefits & taxes. That costs more than my after taxes monthly salary. That is $4700 monthly base salary plus benefits/taxes for taking care of my 4 year old. Is that how much what everyone is paying?

I always wonder, when I see responses like this, what the OP was expecting? Did they expect to see people quoting rates of $10/hr?

They’re the same people who expect to buy in this area for $100K total.

They don’t look until they’ve already leaped. OPs kid is 4 for god’s sake. I was researching prices before I even conceived.

Anonymous wrote:This is why au pairs are so popular. $ vs $$$

Au pairs can’t work these hours.

7 to 5:30 is too long and the ot will cost you. And nobody will do a share for those hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We began at 16 with a dollar raise a year. She had a week off at Christmas and a week off in the summer, her choice of week. We paid her a flat rate, so if we has a doctor's appointment or trip and we didn't need her, she still got paid. We paid her and our portion of social security taxes through a nanny tax service. We also never monkeyed with her hours - at first 35 and then 40 a week. We didn't have paid sick time, but the one time she was out for a week very sick, she got paid. We didn't have any of this in writing, we worked on trust. We went into a nanny share because it was a way to get her more money and lower our costs though only marginally. I paid 15 then. We also did a Christmas bonus worth almost a week's salary. This was a decade ago, so things may be more expensive now.

Nannies are HOURLY employees and it is illegal to pay a flat rate even if she agrees. I hope you get caught as you are cheating her. You are disgusting. Was she legal? Probably not.

It sounds like it was guaranteed hours (minimum ), not salary (flat).

And it is legal topay a flat rate. I’ve worked 24/5 and 24/7. When you know exactly what the shifts will be and what the pay is, it’s easy.

Anonymous wrote:We began at 16 with a dollar raise a year. She had a week off at Christmas and a week off in the summer, her choice of week. We paid her a flat rate, so if we has a doctor's appointment or trip and we didn't need her, she still got paid. We paid her and our portion of social security taxes through a nanny tax service. We also never monkeyed with her hours - at first 35 and then 40 a week. We didn't have paid sick time, but the one time she was out for a week very sick, she got paid. We didn't have any of this in writing, we worked on trust. We went into a nanny share because it was a way to get her more money and lower our costs though only marginally. I paid 15 then. We also did a Christmas bonus worth almost a week's salary. This was a decade ago, so things may be more expensive now.

Nannies are HOURLY employees and it is illegal to pay a flat rate even if she agrees. I hope you get caught as you are cheating her. You are disgusting. Was she legal? Probably not.

The above is really sound advice. I also had to find a way to swing a nanny this year and I think I first had to just grieve a minute for the fact that the year was not going to be as planned and I had to make hard decisions.

OP, the realistic cost of a nanny share would be at least $15/hour plus overtime, taxes, and all the other extras other posters have already listed. The only way you’d get the education chores you want would be if the other child was in your daughter’s age range and prepared to do virtual schooling with her.

Finding a family to share with would also be a challenge. They’d need to have a child who meshed with your daughter, the family would need to have parenting/childcare beliefs very similar to yours, and both sets of parents would need to be willing to allow their nanny to manage the day-to-day without stepping in to overrule her decisions.

So you have 2 choices. Either you accept that continuing to work means working to pay for a solo or shared nanny, not for “profit”. You would be working to continue your career instead of having to start over in a year or two. Or, you or your partner stop working for the next year and stay home, or work PT from home, or become a consultant to keep your foot in the door of your profession, all while taking care of your own child 24/7.

If you can’t afford a nanny but can’t afford to stop working/reduce your work burden, the only other option is to pay a SAHP who has a child in your daughter’s preschool class to provide childcare. The care won’t be nanny quality, you’ll be expanding your Covid bubble more than you might with a nanny, but you won’t pay quite as much.

Anonymous wrote:Omg... this is op, I am not sure if I can afford $20/hr, $30/overtime hr plus benefits & taxes. That costs more than my after taxes monthly salary. That is $4700 monthly base salary plus benefits/taxes for taking care of my 4 year old. Is that how much what everyone is paying?

I always wonder, when I see responses like this, what the OP was expecting? Did they expect to see people quoting rates of $10/hr?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg... this is op, I am not sure if I can afford $20/hr, $30/overtime hr plus benefits & taxes. That costs more than my after taxes monthly salary. That is $4700 monthly base salary plus benefits/taxes for taking care of my 4 year old. Is that how much what everyone is paying?

That costs more than your salary?

This realization has caused many mothers to just stay home with their kids. They found it was a lot cheaper than childcare, transportation costs, weekly work lunches etc. You may want to consider looking into a possible year off with your job and/or working with your spouse to see if expenses can be wiggled around a bit to allow one to stay home. You can also cut the amount of hours you use the nanny each day. 9-4 saves you about 3.5 hours per day = 17.5 hours saved per week

Why mothers?

Many people can't afford private care. Such is life.

I’m sure someone on this thread has already suggested a nanny share, have you looked into it?