If your nanny drives your kids - what car?
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Anonymous
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Do you provide a car for your nanny to drive your kids, or do you expect the nanny to have a car for this use?
We have had a car for our Au pairs to use, the last three years. Next year we will switch to a live out nanny. I think we need to keep the car, for a future nanny to use with the kids (ages 4 and 6 months). DH thinks we should sell it and put the money towards paying the nanny. He wants the nanny to have a car and use it with the kids. I think that brings up all sorts of potential issues. What do you do? |
Anonymous
What issues are you concerned about? I'm a nanny who uses my own car. I think there are two considerations - how safe your car is vs. how safe a nanny's car is likely to be and which is more cost-effective. With a nanny who drives her own car you'll want to reimburse her for mileage/wear and tear - not just gas (for example, with all the mud the kids track into my car, smush into the backs of the front seats I have to either take the time to clean my car regularly or pay someone else to, and my mileage allowance goes toward that cost) - so it may make more sense to keep the car you already have? |
Anonymous
I posted this exact question of reimbursement for "wear and tear, cleaning, etc" and the MB's here flipped their shit and said I should only get gas repayment... |
Anonymous
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Nanny here...I have been in both situations. Some of my employers provided a car for me to use. Other employers, my current ones included, expected their nanny to have her own vehicle and be willing to use it for work purposes.
I have always been reimbursed for use of my vehicle to cover gas and wear-and-tear. My current auto coverage covers me in the event of an accident during work so I didn't need to add anything extra to my insurance (relative works in insurance industry and has me covered for everything and then some). If you decide to require your nanny to use her own car you'll want to have her check her insurance coverage to see if she is covered in the event of an accident during work hours. She may need to bump up her coverage for business use in which case you'll want to cover her extra monthly premium. Your children are still young and need carseats. It's best to have a set of car seats that can remain installed in her car. Some people will argue that it's inconvenient for the nanny to have the seats remain in her vehicle if she needs to use the backseat for something. In my opinion it's more inconvenient to uninstall and reinstall seats every week. If the nanny every needs to uninstall and reinstall the carseats you'll want to make sure she knows how to do it properly. My current DB checked the seats after the first time i had to uninstall and reinstall them (he installed them initially) and was satisfied I knew what I was doing. I had a former employer who tested everyone who drove her kids to make sure they knew how to properly install a carseat. If she wasn't satisfied you didn't drive her kids until you learned how to properly install the carseats...even though the carseats rarely, if ever, left the car. The other possible issue is making sure the nanny's vehicle meets your safety standards and she maintains the vehicle. I only buy vehicles with 5 star (overall) ratings so it's not an issue my employers have to worry about. Be sure that the nanny's vehicle has a high crash rating if that's important to you. It's ok to ask her to provide proof of maintenance. |
Anonymous
If employers agree to the IRS mileage rate it covers wear and tear. Problem solved. Some MB's don't realize that use of our vehicles increases the frequency of maintenance. I also solved the issue of the backs of the front seat getting covered by foot prints. The kids now clean the back of the seat in front of their car seats on a regular basis. I don't have to clean it and my car doesn't look like crap. They also now try to refrain from putting their feet of the back of the seat in front of them that way they don't have to clean them as often. |
Anonymous
Do link. I've never seen a post like this where the majority of the respondents said you should reimburse at the iRS rate, which covers both wear and tear and gas. Now, if you were the poster who thought she should get multiple detailing devices paid for, yes, that's unreasonable. |
Anonymous
| Pp, with a correction. I've never seen a post like this where the majority opinion /wasn't/ that you ahold reimburse IRS rate, not just gas. |
nannydebsays
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Keeping the car means: You pay for maintenance and gas, you also pay for insurance on your nanny when she drives the car. You get to ensure the car seats are properly installed and that they REMAIN properly installed. You know that the car your kids ride in is safe and well maintained. Selling the car means: You pay standard IRS rate (56.5 cents a mile as of 1/1/13) to nanny when she uses her car for work. You have to trust that nanny has sufficient insurance AND a business rider to cover you for liability if she has an accident. You cannot control whether the car seats remain properly installed. You do not know that nanny properly maintains her car, and you have no control over whether she drives a beater or a brand new sedan. As a nanny, I would absolutely prefer that my employers provide a "nanny car". In my current job I use my car. We drive between 100 - 200 miles a month, which adds up fast when it comes to mileage money. I also insisted my employers buy an expensive highly rated car seat, so that my charge can rear face for a LONG time. I drive a mid-size sedan, and I want as much protection for my LO as possible in case of a crash. Honestly, if you've paid for the nanny car, it makes more sense to keep it, from a liability and safety perspective. From a cash perspective, it seems to be best to keep an item you've already sunk money into. |
Anonymous
| Yes, you will never get as much money back for the car than you have put into it and you don't know if you might end up needing it again in the future. Not all nannies can afford to buy a nice good working car for work purposes, and so if you already have one then it is best to keep it. I would rather drive your car while working with your kids than my own. |
Anonymous
| We've been torn on this, too. We own two safe vehicles and we have two drivers in the house hold (me and DH) but we live on a bus line and in walking distance to the train station. So we don't technically need two cars, but we have always provided one for the nanny and then made it work between us with the one car. Recently DH suggested that we require the pending new nanny (assuming we find one, sigh) to use her/his own vehicle and we just pay mileage, etc. I'm iffy on this. |
Anonymous
| yours |
Anonymous
Her car. Car seats go in her car. They come out if she knows she needs the room on the weekend. Our neighbors have middle schoolers. Nanny drives them to their after school stuff, which is much farther than our pre-schoolers go, in her car as well. that's what we do and hired a nanny that was fine with that arrangement. |