Nanny salary as a percentage our household income - gross

[Anonymous]

We pay about 25%. Sigh. it is pretty expensive but paying a good wage even though our salaries are not super high is very important to us.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

No one is interested in your pathetically transparent attempts to provoke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

No one is interested in your pathetically transparent attempts to provoke.

Sometimes stating the obvious, isn't what you want to hear. So be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

No one is interested in your pathetically transparent attempts to provoke.

Sometimes stating the obvious, isn't what you want to hear. So be it.

Well what answer do you want? It's no secret that in our society extended families don't tend to live together. And "friends" "helping out as a favor" with full-time child care doesn't even make sense.

[Anonymous]

Very few parents earn enough to support a FT household helper. Those who do, are called "rich".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

Okay. Want to be friends with me? Oh, and would you watch my 2 year old twins for 40 hours a week for free? I'll get my cousin and her mom to cover the other 15 hours I need, and my aunt can probably bake you a loaf of bread as a thank you once or twice a month. No? Shocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

Okay. Want to be friends with me? Oh, and would you watch my 2 year old twins for 40 hours a week for free? I'll get my cousin and her mom to cover the other 15 hours I need, and my aunt can probably bake you a loaf of bread as a thank you once or twice a month. No? Shocking.

What's shocking is that people don't have a network to help out each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

Okay. Want to be friends with me? Oh, and would you watch my 2 year old twins for 40 hours a week for free? I'll get my cousin and her mom to cover the other 15 hours I need, and my aunt can probably bake you a loaf of bread as a thank you once or twice a month. No? Shocking.

What's shocking is that people don't have a network to help out each other.

What's shocking is that you think friends or family should be expected to watch each other's kids while they work full-time careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

Okay. Want to be friends with me? Oh, and would you watch my 2 year old twins for 40 hours a week for free? I'll get my cousin and her mom to cover the other 15 hours I need, and my aunt can probably bake you a loaf of bread as a thank you once or twice a month. No? Shocking.

What's shocking is that people don't have a network to help out each other.

Who are you significantly helping out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

Wow, it went there? Our closest extended family lives 250 miles away in either direction. Honestly, I sometimes wish DH and I could move to be closer, but unemployment is 10% in my home state and while I could find a job, I don't think DH could. And, all of our extended family (parents, siblings, aunts and uncles) either work FT, or are taking care of their own kids, or otherwise could not be expected to provide reliable, consistent, FT childcare.

Outsourcing childcare is a luxury for some and a necessity for others. I am one of the PPs who makes WAY less than the OP and I pay my nanny what I think is a fair wage with benefits. I work part-time so I can be home with my kids as much as possible, but I make twice per hour what I pay our nanny, which means that if I opted to stay home instead of working we would lose a very significant amount of income. We are fortunate to be able to make choices like this; I truly worry about friends who ALSO have no local family support and who MUST work and who struggle to make ends meet due to the high cost of child care.

And I DO have a network of friends who can help out, as a favor. Sometimes one of them watches one of my kids for a couple of hours so I can go to the dentist alone on a day off; sometimes I have their kids over for a play date so they can run an errand or two. But I cannot imagine how close I would have to feel to someone to ask them to watch my children for 9-10 hours for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

Okay. Want to be friends with me? Oh, and would you watch my 2 year old twins for 40 hours a week for free? I'll get my cousin and her mom to cover the other 15 hours I need, and my aunt can probably bake you a loaf of bread as a thank you once or twice a month. No? Shocking.

What's shocking is that people don't have a network to help out each other.

"Help out each other" means a TWO-way street, people. I do something you need, you do something I need. It's called being creative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Seems like both parents who outsource the childcare, is quite the luxury that few can really afford. What happened to extended family and friends who could help you out, more as a favor?

They all work.

[Anonymous]

We are at 10%, too, but we have a live in.

[Anonymous]

to get back on topic: we gross 215 and spend 40k on childcare, so about 18 percent. It would have been fine until one of the children turns out to need very expensive therapy not fully covered by insurance at the tune of 12k/year. DH also pays for private school for his child (my stepchild) so that's another 28k. Nearly all our income after taxes goes to our reasonable mortgage or childcare. If we are not successful at finding a nanny share soon, we will probably have to let our nanny go, but I would hate to do that until she finds another good job.