Back-up Care- No Driving?

[Anonymous]

I just scheduled back-up care through an agency and was told that the nannies are not allowed to drive with the charges and are not allowed to walk more than 15 minutes from the care location. Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

What?

[Anonymous]

Would that sitter be your employee or theirs?

[Anonymous]

I am OP. My nanny is going on vacation and I hired (through an agency) a temporary nanny for the time she is gone. The agency informed me that it is their policy that the nannies not drive children nor walk more than 15 minutes. They are allowed only to take public transportation or use taxis. Just wondering if this was normal or just this agency.

[Anonymous]

She is an employee of the agency and this is their policy because they don't want the liabity. You want someone to drive your kids, hire a chauffer.

[Anonymous]

What agency, OP?

[Anonymous]

Not sure why posters are being rude... I'm a nanny, OP, and while I've never heard of the 15min walking rule, no driving is a common policy for back up care.

[Anonymous]

Every choice you make has trade offs, at least when it comes to child care. Haven't we seen this across the board? No MB gets everything she wants, all the time. That's the undeniable cost of delegating child care.

[Anonymous]

Whoa. What snarky responses. It was through Bright Horizons- I just hadn't used an agency for back-up care before and didn't know if this was usual or not. My son attends pre-school about a 20 minute walk from my house and it seems a little outrageous to hire a driver to pick him up in the afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Tell them to walk fast lol

[Anonymous]

Normally you'd ask another mom that you know and trust. Can you do that?

[Anonymous]

i don't find it surprising that they do not allow driving, but a limit of walks on 15 minutes sounds ridiculous, especially w/ kids in tow. Sometimes it can take me that long to walk 2 blocks w/ them (or even 1 if the toddler is walking).

[Anonymous]

omfg why all the snark?!

OP your post was as reasonable and non-inflammatory as they come, I cannot explain what has happened in this thread but I apologize on behalf of everyone who's been so unnecessarily rude.

No driving is understandable - they probably don't screen their on-call nannies for insurance/clean driving records/etc. as that's a bigger cost to them, so they don't want the liability of having them drive on the job. The walking is weird and inexplicable and I've never heard of that. As PP said, with a toddler 15 minutes of walking might not even get you out the driveway!

My agency DOES allow on-call nannies to drive, but we go through the same screening process as FT and PT nannies do, so it might just be that agency?

[Anonymous]

Maybe more than a 15 minute walk could result in a nanny heart attack? No one wants that.

[Anonymous]

People are frickin rude! OP, I've never been asked by an agency to NOT drive or alk more than 15 min, but if that is an issue, I would look at another agency.