Nanny share question - for parent and nanny

[Anonymous]

Good morning, all....
I'm just starting to come up with an alternate plan for child care should I not get a spot in day care. I'm hoping to go back to work part time, and my husband is allowed to telework one day a week or do alternate work schedule (every other friday off).

What I am wondering is this, based on the experience of nannies and families...

what is the chance of finding or starting a successful nanny share? If we wouldn't need 5 days a week from normal times (like 7:30-4:30 Monday-Friday), is it more difficult to find a share with a nanny who will stick around? I'm trying to decide - if I'm even allowed to come back part time - if I'm better off still working 5 days a week, just shorter days...or taking a day off. If our nanny share need is 3 days a week and it's too difficult to find one that lasts with a nanny who is happy with the schedule, I will can that idea and look for shorter hours Monday-Friday.

Anyone's experience is welcomed. Baby hasn't been born yet, and even though we'll have almost a year between putting our names on day care lists and needing care, I'm not going to hold my breath on finding a center, so I want to be sure to have a back up plan and be ready to find a good share and good nanny.

thanks, all!

[Anonymous]

I nannied for a share where one family was part time. My suggestion to you would be to make sure that her weekly rate is not drastically different than what she would receive in a full time share. For instance if a normal share rate is $16-$20/hour, paying anywhere near the lower end will not result in her staying for long. I worked in my share for 8 months and they paid on the lower end couple with one family being part time. They made it waaay too easy to find a better job.

[Anonymous]

thanks, PP - but I wouldn't be responsible for the full week's worth of pay, right? just at the higher end of the hourly rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:thanks, PP - but I wouldn't be responsible for the full week's worth of pay, right? just at the higher end of the hourly rate?

No I don't think that is necessary. What I'm saying is that the share rate should be on the higher end to compensate for the lower amount of hours.

[Anonymous]

OP your best bet is to find the other family before the nanny. A family who needs a FT nanny but doesn't want/can't afford to pay a FT salary would welcome your contributions during the hours you need to share her with them and you wouldn't need to worry about her sticking around or not because she'd have plenty of hours with the other family as well.

This is not an uncommon arrangement.

[Anonymous]

I am a vote for working fewer hrs each day unless your commute is horrible. Kids go to sleep so early that you could miss seeing them much just for 1 long day with them. I also think it will be easier to find a share if you are willing to contribute about half the total salary. I have located 4 different share gamieabover the years and would not have considered someone who wanted to only pay for part time since I need help paying Nanny's full salary - that is why I share to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a vote for working fewer hrs each day unless your commute is horrible. Kids go to sleep so early that you could miss seeing them much just for 1 long day with them. I also think it will be easier to find a share if you are willing to contribute about half the total salary. I have located 4 different share gamieabover the years and would not have considered someone who wanted to only pay for part time since I need help paying Nanny's full salary - that is why I share to begin with.

This is what I'm thinking is going to be the only way I'll be able to return part time - be physically in the office, just not for a full 8 hours. However, if I don't need my child in a nanny share for 40+ hours a week, I think it would be a bit ridiculous for the other family to make me pay for the time I'm not using it.

Hopefully I'll find someone who wants a shorter day, I'm liberal....but not into subsidizing another person's time (I wouldn't expect it of my time, either).

the politics of a nanny share are all very new to me!

[Anonymous]

"I think it would be a bit ridiculous for the other family to make me pay for the time I'm not using it." "I'm liberal....but not into subsidizing another person's time"

I'm the PP you replied to. In my view you're looking at it wrong. I "pay" for Monday even though I only use the nanny 4 days a week. I do this because paying a weekly rate that amounted to only 4 days' worth of time would make it impossible to retain our nanny and much harder to find nannyshare families since I need most of the week, but not all of it. So I figured out the amt needed to help secure the childcare I wanted (same nanny, willing share partners) and divided backwards to calculate hours. I do not see me as bailing out the other family at all. I am reserving time that is not easily otherwise filled. It's hard to find someone for just 2 days a week. Also hard to find someone for 2 hours a day if you only need 6 hours. The other family and the nanny can't simply find someone else to plug the gap in the "non FT" sections you leave. So while you can certainly give it a shot to see if you can find someone OK with only letting you pay for sub-FT usage of a share slot, I know that in my experience that wouldn't have been somethign I'd be OK with. And if I found a family willing to do FT with me instead, I'd have been strongly inclined to try to switch to them since they would be helping shoulder a greater amt of a virtually fixed cost. It's not as if the nanny simply accepts $10 / hr when she only has kids from 1 family.

[Anonymous]

You might be better off just looking for your own pt nanny, because then that's just on other person whose schedule needs to match yours (rather than another family and nanny). And nannies looking for pt work are generally doing so for a reason (other work, school, family obligations, etc) and don't want to take on all the complications for a share for those reasons.

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I shouldn't expect if I can work part time that there'd be any savings in terms of my cost for a nanny?

I figured that a full time share is over 40 hours a week (because most people work 40 hours a week, so if you consider when they'd need a nanny to arrive, and when they'd need to get home, it's probably more like 45-50). I calculated that based on when my husband and I leave for work (so, I'd need a nanny ideally from 7:30-5PM to account for possible late arrival of a nanny and a late metro ride home). That's 50 hours a week. If I worked fewer hours every day (Monday-Friday), it would be more like 8/8:30-4PM, which is a 38 hour work week.

I wasn't talking a 2-5 hour stint of nanny time -I apologize if that's what it sounded like. I am hoping for a regular schedule, just not so many hours a day. I can't tell if this is something marketable to other families, but I definitely can't afford a full time nanny for one kid for 37-38 hours a week - Yikes!

I apologized if it sounded like "hey, you have a nanny...I'll pay you a few bucks for yours to watch my kid for a couple of hours a day!". No, not at all - I am just trying to see what's marketable to other parents and other nannies. I'm not sure if a nanny would want less than 40 hours a week (or just 40, no more), but not "part time".

[Anonymous]

Oh, I would hardly call 38 hrs a week part time. That's why you're getting so much confusion. If you're willing to pay for 40 you shouldn't have a problem finding a share. Even if your share partners need say 45 hrs, navigating a single child rate for a few extra hours is much simpler than for an extra 20-30 hrs like I was thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, I would hardly call 38 hrs a week part time. That's why you're getting so much confusion. If you're willing to pay for 40 you shouldn't have a problem finding a share. Even if your share partners need say 45 hrs, navigating a single child rate for a few extra hours is much simpler than for an extra 20-30 hrs like I was thinking.

+1 I think I misunderstood you OP. if you're willing to guarantee 40 hours, you will have no problem. I was thinking you were looking to be part time in a full time share.

[Anonymous]

OP, it shouldn't be a problem. Here's an example:

Family A needs nanny 40 hours per week.
Family B needs nanny 45 hours per week.

Family A pays nanny $10/hr for 40 works.
Family B pays nanny $10/hr for the first 40 hours, and $20/hr for 5 hours.

That way, nanny is making $20/hr for 45 hours. If both families needed the nanny for OT hours, the rate would change to them each paying $15/hr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it shouldn't be a problem. Here's an example:

Family A needs nanny 40 hours per week.
Family B needs nanny 45 hours per week.

Family A pays nanny $10/hr for 40 works.
Family B pays nanny $10/hr for the first 40 hours, and $20/hr for 5 hours.

That way, nanny is making $20/hr for 45 hours. If both families needed the nanny for OT hours, the rate would change to them each paying $15/hr.

*Should have been hours. Sorry, tired.
And I was using $10/hr for an easy, round number example, if you were wondering.

[Anonymous]

ok, thanks all.
Ideally, we'd be able to find people with similar hours because I don't want it to be a situation where there's weirdness over who pays more in taxes and all that. But I consider 38 hours "part time" just because I know a nanny's week is more than 40 hours!

Trying to figure this all out is difficult!