Do you pay nanny while kids are in school?

[Anonymous]

Hello all - I do not want to nickle or dime my nanny. I am just trying to understand what is the most appropriate practice that is as fair as possible to all parties. My kids are in school five mornings a week for four hours a day. Do folks in similar situations still pay for a full-time nanny or do you just hire the nanny for the hours your kids are out of school? Thanks. I know there are other considerations, like if school is cancelled, sick kid, etc. but I am just generally trying to get a rough idea of what folks do. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello all - I do not want to nickle or dime my nanny. I am just trying to understand what is the most appropriate practice that is as fair as possible to all parties. My kids are in school five mornings a week for four hours a day. Do folks in similar situations still pay for a full-time nanny or do you just hire the nanny for the hours your kids are out of school? Thanks. I know there are other considerations, like if school is cancelled, sick kid, etc. but I am just generally trying to get a rough idea of what folks do. Thanks!

Sorry, I meant, do you just PAY the nanny for the hours your kids are out of school.

[Anonymous]

Some people pay the nanny for the hours they expect her to be available. Those parents have full coverage at all times and rarely have to worry about finding last minute coverage.
Some parents choose to employ a nanny for only the hours the children are home. Should a child be home sick or a snow day (or 2 or 3) pop up, they will have to scramble to find last minute coverage or take vacation time to stay home.
Decide whether you'd rather pay more money for a full-time nanny or rush around trying to find care or take off time yourself.

[Anonymous]

We have a part-time live-in nanny who we pay for before and after school care. Our kids are in full-time programmes so this means she works 7-10 a.m. and 3:30-6:30 p.m. This is how we advertised the job and it suits her as she is a university student and artist so makes good use of the time she is not on the clock. If she is available to look after the kids when they are sick, which she usually is (yay!) then we pay her an additional hourly rate. She will also work full time in the summer for a few weeks when the kids are not in camp. This is how we advertised the job and we didn't have tons of applicants but if you are patient you can eventually find someone who is a good fit.

If you are looking at live-out, I don't think you are likely to find someone who is willing to sit at your house for four hours not getting paid. And if you don't pay her for that period, you can't expect her to be available when the kids are sick etc. If you already have a nanny, it would be wrong to stop paying her for those hours if they were part of your original agreement.

Have you considered an au pair? It sounds like that might be your best option as they tend to be more flexible, but of course they live in with you, so you really have to be open to that and have the space to accommodate them.

If not an au pair, then maybe a nanny share, where another family can use her for those four hours every day? Note however that again you will not have first dibs on her time if your kids are sick, and you might have to be willing to host the share and have some overlap when all the kids are together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a part-time live-in nanny who we pay for before and after school care. Our kids are in full-time programmes so this means she works 7-10 a.m. and 3:30-6:30 p.m. This is how we advertised the job and it suits her as she is a university student and artist so makes good use of the time she is not on the clock. If she is available to look after the kids when they are sick, which she usually is (yay!) then we pay her an additional hourly rate. She will also work full time in the summer for a few weeks when the kids are not in camp. This is how we advertised the job and we didn't have tons of applicants but if you are patient you can eventually find someone who is a good fit.

If you are looking at live-out, I don't think you are likely to find someone who is willing to sit at your house for four hours not getting paid. And if you don't pay her for that period, you can't expect her to be available when the kids are sick etc. If you already have a nanny, it would be wrong to stop paying her for those hours if they were part of your original agreement.

Have you considered an au pair? It sounds like that might be your best option as they tend to be more flexible, but of course they live in with you, so you really have to be open to that and have the space to accommodate them.

If not an au pair, then maybe a nanny share, where another family can use her for those four hours every day? Note however that again you will not have first dibs on her time if your kids are sick, and you might have to be willing to host the share and have some overlap when all the kids are together.

+1 on all of this ^^^

If you're looking for just afternoon care then hiring part-time would be the best solution. That being said a part-time nanny won't guarantee her availability for sick days/snow days/ etc.

[Anonymous]

Do you need help in the morning before school? If so, then yes. Pay her for the hours.
If not, then you might be able to find a part time nanny for the hours after school. Like others have pointed out, that means you will have to find back up care on sick days, school holidays, snow days, etc.

[Anonymous]

although some families may try to do this, i've heard that it's harder to find nannies who want this type of arrangement. most would obviously prefer FT jobs of at least 40 hrs guaranteed. I know a friend of mine who had to pay more per hour since she was only needing morning and afternoon pick-ups/drop-offs.

I think that's why some families go the au pair route. we have a FT nanny, and this fall our older daughter will be going to preschool a few hours a week. since we have an infant at home, we will be paying her for all of the hours for both kids. of course, once my older one is in school for more time, i don't know if this is entirely sustainable (i.e., full time tuition and nanny for two kids).

if you don't want to go w/ an au pair, which I understand is at least $20K/yr after you add up all the additional costs of hosting someone not to mention the loss of privacy, maybe you can find a responsible college or grad student?

best of luck,
from another parent who is not looking forward to the juggling once kids are a bit older.

[Anonymous]

What do you want to pay, OP?

[Anonymous]

How navy hours would she be working
Before and after school? Probably not enough
to live on and unlikely she will find work for those
Few hours each day

[Anonymous]

Yes, you need to pay your nanny for the hours when the kids are in school if you need her to be available for school holidays, when a child is home sick, etc. If you don't need those sick days/holidays covered then you should look for a part-time nanny.

We needed our nanny to cover sick days and the countless school holidays and teacher conference days so we arranged for her to start at noon on the school day, do the kids grocery shopping, kids laundry, starts their dinner, etc. until she picks up the kids at school and takes them to their countless after school activities and tutoring. We couldn't be without that kind of coverage.

[Anonymous]

It all depends on what your expectations are of her OP.

If you expect her to pick up one of your children in case of illness, school emergency, etc....In other words, if you want her to be on stand-by, then I would say you should pay her a certain flat rate for that. Because if she is going to save those hours for you, then she will not be able to give those hours to another family and thus will be losing money in the process.

But if your kids are in school and she will not be needed to be on call/stand-by, then no you do not need to pay her.

However, if she needs the hours, and you can afford to pay her the hours along w/paying for your children's tuition, you can make a deal w/her.

Perhaps she can do some housekeeping during those 4 hours for you. Or run some errands, buy some groceries, do some family laundry/ironing, dog walking or any other household task.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It all depends on what your expectations are of her OP.

If you expect her to pick up one of your children in case of illness, school emergency, etc....In other words, if you want her to be on stand-by, then I would say you should pay her a certain flat rate for that. Because if she is going to save those hours for you, then she will not be able to give those hours to another family and thus will be losing money in the process.

But if your kids are in school and she will not be needed to be on call/stand-by, then no you do not need to pay her.

However, if she needs the hours, and you can afford to pay her the hours along w/paying for your children's tuition, you can make a deal w/her.

Perhaps she can do some housekeeping during those 4 hours for you. Or run some errands, buy some groceries, do some family laundry/ironing, dog walking or any other household task.

No, nannies do not do your personal housekeeping tasks.
Now if she's really your "mother's helper," not a nanny, that's different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all depends on what your expectations are of her OP.

If you expect her to pick up one of your children in case of illness, school emergency, etc....In other words, if you want her to be on stand-by, then I would say you should pay her a certain flat rate for that. Because if she is going to save those hours for you, then she will not be able to give those hours to another family and thus will be losing money in the process.

But if your kids are in school and she will not be needed to be on call/stand-by, then no you do not need to pay her.

However, if she needs the hours, and you can afford to pay her the hours along w/paying for your children's tuition, you can make a deal w/her.

Perhaps she can do some housekeeping during those 4 hours for you. Or run some errands, buy some groceries, do some family laundry/ironing, dog walking or any other household task.

No, nannies do not do your personal housekeeping tasks.
Now if she's really your "mother's helper," not a nanny, that's different.

I'm a nanny, and I think most nannies will easily agree that some sort of task should get done during the hours the kids are at school. Each nanny will have her own threshold of which tasks are and are not acceptable (personally, I'm fine with running errands but wouldn't be up for heavy cleaning), and those need to be agreed upon between family and nanny. IMO I think it's a bit unreasonable to demand to be paid for those hours but refuse to do any work during them, in no other job would that be acceptable.