Sanity Check: How hard is it to find and keep an afterschool sitter/driver - 3:30-7pm daily?

[Anonymous]

To the "teaming up" PP - I think this works best with young kids. My kids are 12 and 9. They're not in the same schools or activities, and I'm sure no other family matches our exact profile (locations, drop-off/pick-up times, afternoons when they are at home). So, teaming up will not work.

I think adding hours (and some housekeeping duties - namely, laundry) could work for us. Also, I'm getting my head around whether I'd be OK with this being a semester-long deal. So, recognizing that I may need to contend with onboarding a new person each college semester (and summer).

[Anonymous]

I've had very mixed luck with college students. I've hit the jackpot a couple of times with very reliable, conscientious young people.

More often, though, I've gotten people who cannot commit to a regular schedule, and who genuinely don't see why you would think it's a big deal that they're working on a project on Thursdays now. Or they quit because they just don't want to do a 5-day-a-week gig. Or they take what seem like bi-weekly trips. Anyway, good luck. If you give yourself enough time, you will find someone.

[Anonymous]

doodlebug wrote: Seriously, team up with a couple other families with school aged kids, each of you pays $40-50 a day or whatever, and the nanny gets $150-200 a day and can live on that with those short hours. Will she be able to Take Billy to soccer, Sally to girl scouts, Timmy to lego club, Tara to math tutoriing etc? No. But if your kids lead normal lives with one activity a week at the most, then you can manage carpools for that one kid on one day while the after school nanny looks after the other four or five kids at someone's home. They can be working on some homework, having a snack, having some down time etc so they're more refreshed when the parents get home.

Aftercare centers and day care centers already have this setup.

[Anonymous]

If it takes $20-25/hr to get a reliable person for 20 hrs/week worth of work, then you're already in the AP weekly cost zone, so might as well get some one who really is available during those core hours and will easily scale up hours in the summer.

As a college student who worked most semesters, I would not have been a reliable sitter because my studies came first and I really blacked out my schedule for finals and midterms.

[Anonymous]

When I was teaching in a half day program I did this for a family 3 days per week. They had gone through 3 different girls and said it was so hard to keep someone so by the time they got to the girl before me they began offering a bonus of $500 when the school year wrapped up. It was in my work agreement and so was guaranteed pay as long as they were the ones to cancel on me. It was like an incentive to keep someone through may

[Anonymous]

I did this kind of job when I was a student and I'm doing similar now. I work in a preschool from 8 to 1, and then from 2 as an after school nanny. I have about an hour before picking up the kids, so I do laundry and start on lunch in that time, and then it's like any other nanny job in the world. We've been doing this for two years and everyone seems happy!

[Anonymous]

We have this, and basically I overpay and bend over backwards to keep her! She's a college student, and I built a lot of flexibility so that she can take time off for finals etc. DS can go to aftercare on days she can't come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it takes $20-25/hr to get a reliable person for 20 hrs/week worth of work, then you're already in the AP weekly cost zone, so might as well get some one who really is available during those core hours and will easily scale up hours in the summer.

As a college student who worked most semesters, I would not have been a reliable sitter because my studies came first and I really blacked out my schedule for finals and midterms.

But what if you don't want an AP living in your house ...

[Anonymous]

So op you can see that I was right when I mentioned paying $800 a week to get a reliable person.

You don't want an au pair living with you.

College students aren't reliable at all ( I am one as well so know what I am talking about trust me).

No serious nanny will work from 3:30-6:30 and survive on for long.

Your children have different activities so can't band with others to stay in one place.

Other people are overpaying for this.

So now that you have all the info, good luck.

[Anonymous]

We also keep our nanny and pay her full time. She's works full time in the summer for us - and all school holidays/ teacher days/ half days and if our daughter is home from school with a cold, she's available. She will pick up, organize, run errands and is invaluable. Plus she's been with us for 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So op you can see that I was right when I mentioned paying $800 a week to get a reliable person.

You don't want an au pair living with you.

College students aren't reliable at all ( I am one as well so know what I am talking about trust me).

No serious nanny will work from 3:30-6:30 and survive on for long.

Your children have different activities so can't band with others to stay in one place.

Other people are overpaying for this.

So now that you have all the info, good luck.

LOL. This is unfortunately true. Put yourself in the same category as one of the PP who was evaluating ditching AP and literally moving for family support. Unless you have the $$$ to fork out, you are in a tough spot like 95% who have both parents working.

[Anonymous]

OP - Do you have an email address I can write to? I am in my early 30's, work in healthcare (early shift), and am looking for something along these lines. Let me know if you would like to talk!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We also keep our nanny and pay her full time. She's works full time in the summer for us - and all school holidays/ teacher days/ half days and if our daughter is home from school with a cold, she's available. She will pick up, organize, run errands and is invaluable. Plus she's been with us for 5 years.

We are a year from doing this - what hours does your nanny work and what kind of stuff does she do 8-3 ?

[Anonymous]

The days that our daughter is in school, she gets to our house in the afternoon depending what is going on. She'll go to the grocery store, do light cleaning, organization, go to the post office, etc. We don't have enough to fill her days - but I'm willing to pay to have that time when needed. I travel a lot for work and having back up is invaluable for those weeks.

[Anonymous]

As someone who did this in college and grad school, even finding a reliable student to commit to five days a week will be hard as a students schedule usually varies day to day and week to week. Also, as a PP said, when I did it as a student my studies were my first priority. So, while I loved my families, there were definitely days I had to ask off for unexpected school commitments and I tried to squeeze in my own studying while babysitting whenever I could. Combine this with finals, spring break, and going home for most holidays, you'll be needing a lot of backup care if you go the student route.