Why do people feel entitled to have a nanny?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only real answer here is that some people make a lot of money.

The second answer is that a ton of people get financial help from their parents. It makes a huge difference.

Well, yeah. Private schools are full of ppl in social justice jobs, writing etc. with parents paying the tuition, too.

I'm a nanny and I get it. Childcare choices in this country suck! Just keep in mind that I cost my family closer to 60k a year and after taxes I can just about afford rent in this area, a car, a phone and food. Health insurance is a no go. I get vacations but can't afford to travel anywhere. So while I understand that sole child care is very expensive for the average family, nannies do need to make some kind of living.

Nannies have never been a possibility for us, as much because of space as money. We definitely can't afford the $40K/yr that some of our friends pay for their professional nannies, but we could probably do a nanny share or an au pair. The problem is we don't have room for either, and we just haven't had the luck of finding a nanny share where we wouldn't be expected to host at least one day a week.

Childcare is such a dividing line. We've struggled since I was first pregnant with childcare. Struck out on finding a share, struggled to find daycares, struggled to find reliable sitters for one-off things, etc. It's the number one thing I talk about when people ask what the hardest thing about having kids is. But it's interesting how many people will look at you like you're crazy when you say this. They either have money or are lucky in other ways (like having a basement apartment in their house in which to host an au pair). The idea of struggling literally for years to find and then afford reliable childcare is so foreign to them. It makes the conversation around fixing childcare in this country really hard. People who don't get it... just don't get it.

Short answer: without a nanny right now given DL and lack of other childcare. I would lose my job. I would not be able to get it back. Thus even if nanny makes more than me I pay her from savings if I can. Welcome to 2020!!

Anonymous wrote:The only real answer here is that some people make a lot of money.

The second answer is that a ton of people get financial help from their parents. It makes a huge difference.

Anonymous wrote:Am I missing something? A nanny makes between $20-25 an hour, so at minimum $800 a week if 40 hours. That's almost my whole salary as a teacher. I have a baby and an elementary kid and have no clue what we are doing for child care once schools open up.

Why did you think that as a teacher you could afford a nanny? Does your DH make tons of money? Find a daycare.

Do a nanny share. We paid the going rate, and taxes. It worked out to about 24k every year from each family. Dayare would have been about 20k/year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We hired a live-in nanny for 1 year when my DH was working in another country. How we afforded it: DH had a relatively high salary, and we both worked full-time. We saved $ by avoiding most unnecessary expenses whenever possible.

It's a privilege to be able to afford a nanny. Most families I know who have hired one have two parents working full-time and earning very high salaries.

I would say most people I know who have hired one have two parents working more than full-time.

PP. DH was definitely working more than full-time, although I wasn't.

I know a few families who had one parent working normal hours and the other trying to make partner (ie that spouse ate, slept and wept law).

A lot of military officers’ wives have 9-5 jobs but because the deployed spouse is completely gone, they have nannies. I work with a few officers’ wives and they all had nannies when the kids were young. One plus for them is that nannies are fairly easy to find if you are a military officer—there are usually a lot of enlisted guys who have young wives with no kids that need a job.

Live-in nanny here. I’ve worked for dual military families twice, and they NEED a nanny, no way to get around it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We hired a live-in nanny for 1 year when my DH was working in another country. How we afforded it: DH had a relatively high salary, and we both worked full-time. We saved $ by avoiding most unnecessary expenses whenever possible.

It's a privilege to be able to afford a nanny. Most families I know who have hired one have two parents working full-time and earning very high salaries.

I would say most people I know who have hired one have two parents working more than full-time.

PP. DH was definitely working more than full-time, although I wasn't.

I know a few families who had one parent working normal hours and the other trying to make partner (ie that spouse ate, slept and wept law).

A lot of military officers’ wives have 9-5 jobs but because the deployed spouse is completely gone, they have nannies. I work with a few officers’ wives and they all had nannies when the kids were young. One plus for them is that nannies are fairly easy to find if you are a military officer—there are usually a lot of enlisted guys who have young wives with no kids that need a job.

Also, believe it or not, for people with 3-4 or more kids, having a nanny can be cheaper than paying for daycare or camps.

The only real answer here is that some people make a lot of money.

About half of my friends who were teachers quit working after having kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We hired a live-in nanny for 1 year when my DH was working in another country. How we afforded it: DH had a relatively high salary, and we both worked full-time. We saved $ by avoiding most unnecessary expenses whenever possible.

It's a privilege to be able to afford a nanny. Most families I know who have hired one have two parents working full-time and earning very high salaries.

I would say most people I know who have hired one have two parents working more than full-time.

PP. DH was definitely working more than full-time, although I wasn't.

I know a few families who had one parent working normal hours and the other trying to make partner (ie that spouse ate, slept and wept law).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We hired a live-in nanny for 1 year when my DH was working in another country. How we afforded it: DH had a relatively high salary, and we both worked full-time. We saved $ by avoiding most unnecessary expenses whenever possible.

It's a privilege to be able to afford a nanny. Most families I know who have hired one have two parents working full-time and earning very high salaries.

I would say most people I know who have hired one have two parents working more than full-time.

PP. DH was definitely working more than full-time, although I wasn't.