Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, can you tell us more about what you do not like in your nanny's personality? I have been interviewing a few nannies and they all seem to be hiding their personalities, what if, when I hire one, I do not like her personally? does it even affect anything? What should I be looking for?

DP but it really depends on if your kids like her. I’ve found younger adults (under 30) have more energy. I also require born and raised in the US. That has resulted in really lovely candidates and we love our nanny.

Also, only one person ever asked for $30/hour and that was because she was trying to move on from a share with 4 kids. We never reached out to her again based on that rate.

Anonymous wrote:PP, can you tell us more about what you do not like in your nanny's personality? I have been interviewing a few nannies and they all seem to be hiding their personalities, what if, when I hire one, I do not like her personally? does it even affect anything? What should I be looking for?

DP but it really depends on if your kids like her. I’ve found younger adults (under 30) have more energy. I also require born and raised in the US. That has resulted in really lovely candidates and we love our nanny.

2 kids for $25 per hour

Anonymous wrote:PP, can you tell us more about what you do not like in your nanny's personality? I have been interviewing a few nannies and they all seem to be hiding their personalities, what if, when I hire one, I do not like her personally? does it even affect anything? What should I be looking for?

Sure, just so you know, we’re a pretty laid back family and the nannies we loved were similar, they just enjoyed us, they enjoyed spending time with the kids, playing with them. Most of them would tidy up after themselves and the kids but we didn’t expect more. They always took the kids out and just had fun, showed them new dances, helped them through tricky social situations/friendships, taught them fun songs. We’d always ask them to stay for dinner or take them out for treats and they always seemed to love to hang out. When they are back in town they ask to see us and the kids.

Our most recent Nannies spend way less time just playing and enjoying the kids. They’ll buy crafts and then expect the kids to just do them by themselves. We constantly see them on the phone or computer, the way they talk to the kids feels really condescending, constantly asking for raises, more leave, despite taking tons of time off. They seem to want to focus on cleaning or laundry ( which we tell them not to focus on) rather than just playing with the kids. Don't get me wrong, I do like having laundry done, but i much prefer someone who my kids feel happy with and love, not someone they dread showing up in the morning. I prefer someone who is not constantly asking for money, or using our credit card to buy a million crafts a week, as well as going out for lunch constantly, and the always claiming she need more money. She admits she likes to shop. And she’s scaled back but this is still insane. She was initially spending upwards of $60/day on lunch outings with my 4 yo and infant. Crazy.

I work from home 2-3 days a week and I hate having to deal with her. I don’t even know why she is always there, we bought ALL the museum passes (at her request), we have all the activity passes, we live like 6 blocks from a great library and multiple playgrounds but she is ALWAYS there. I even tell her to leave the napping baby with me and take my older kids out. But she still ends up just hanging out at our place, insists my older kids take an hour of quiet times, but I’m sure she drags it on longer. My so. Says he feels so lonely. She’s hung over a lot, and I know this bc she forgets to leave us our car keys which have Apple tags on them (she is aware of this) and I can see that she’s at the bar. Also I have a mutual friend on instagram that sees all of her bar hopping pics and sends them to me. I have no issues with the nannies drinking in their own time as long as it doesn’t effect work, but it’s annoying when it makes her irritable. She actually told me once she was going to let my 4 yo watch tv bc she was so hungover. Then she gets upset when I don’t give her a bonus!

I recommend a trial period, before you get her on the books, to just see how she treats you and the kids. But otherwise, no clue. This one has exhausted me and I’m just done. None of them are worth this exorbitant new price tag they are all expecting

PP, can you tell us more about what you do not like in your nanny's personality? I have been interviewing a few nannies and they all seem to be hiding their personalities, what if, when I hire one, I do not like her personally? does it even affect anything? What should I be looking for?

NP here and I'm just here to say how relieved I am that we got into a daycare. So sick of nannies trying to drive up their market rate. Tired of paying ridiculous amounts for a "professional nanny" (yes, whose references we checked meticulously) who does hardly any better than our former college summer nannies who we paid much less to a couple years ago (who we would GLADLY pay more for now b/c at least they had great personalities and actually played with our kids). I'm seeing so many available nanny posts now and it seems like the rates are coming back down a bit. Thank goodness.

Anonymous wrote:Noone pays $20, stop trolling, this is 6 yrs ago rate I was getting as a nanny. It is true that a lot of people think they can get nanny for 20 while just getting unqualified "help"

PP here. I’d say this post proves my point.

Noone pays $20, stop trolling, this is 6 yrs ago rate I was getting as a nanny. It is true that a lot of people think they can get nanny for 20 while just getting unqualified "help"

Anonymous wrote:What is the going rate for a nanny for one child if these are the rates for a share?

PP here.

I think you can get someone right now for $20/hour if you don't expect a lot of 'official' qualifications, and $22/hour for someone very solid. I currently pay $28/hour for 2 kids but my husband is in a super hardcore job and I work FT as well. We are paying this amount because we wanted this one very specific person who works for our very specific needs, and because we want to make sure we are paying more than anyone else we know to prevent poaching.

From my conversations with fellow moms, and with my current nanny (who is extremely qualified in most of the things that the '$35 for one child!' nannies tout), we are paying extremely well. Many Bethesda moms I know (with two parents with big jobs) are not paying more than $23/hour for 2 kids.

I also think it helps if you don't go through an agency as I think the expectations there are pretty inflated. I had a college senior babysitter I found randomly who also worked for White House Nannies and she was very clear that she would not really recommend any of the people she met randomly at trainings, particularly at WHN prices - she was only college student, she said.