How would you advertise this before-care help job? Mother's helper? PT Nanny? Babysitter?
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Anonymous
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My wife and I are still trying to figure out how to get both of us, in addition to our 3 y/o and 6 mo old, dressed, fed and out the door in the morning.
The morning schedule we're looking at doing would have me walking the dog at 6am, kids waking up around 630, and her out the door at 7. The kids and I need to be out the door at 8am to get the older one to preschool on time. We're ideally looking for help M-F from 7am-8am. This is mostly getting the boys fed, dressed, and entertained while I'm taking a shower and getting ready for work. Extras that we'd be willing to pay for could include straightening up the house once everyone is out (just getting dishes in the dishwasher, picking up toys), and potentially even taking the kids to school/daycare on occasion. It seems like it could be a decent fit for someone who had a nanny job in the area (Columbia Heights) who starts at 8am - not sure how many this will apply to. Also seems like a good fit for a college kid who's willing to get up early...though ideally, we'd love to have someone long term - so that's a bit of a downside. Are we crazy for thinking we can find someone who is willing to do 1 to 1.5 hrs a day 5 days a week? What's an appropriate rate here? $15/hr? $20? More? We were planning to advertise it as a Mother's Helper job on care.com (though it sounds like there may be connotations with that term from another thread that I read here). Would you do it as that or as a (very) part time nanny? |
Anonymous
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I would just call it morning help. That way someone can see the title and know what exactly you will be describing. If I am a person, like you described, that has some block of availability in the morning for some reason "morning help" will jump out at me, while mother's helper and part-time nanny will not. There are a LOT of part-time nanny posts to wade through to stumble upon that 7-8am job I am looking for.
Like you said, if it works out for someone well because they have a 8:30am job in the area and could get up earlier to make an extra couple bucks then I could see $20 being fine. If you are going to wrangle someone else to drive over for a 1 hour job you would need to pay more like $30 an hour. |
Anonymous
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I would only do it if I lived extremely close to you and had a nanny job close by that started at 8AM like you stated.
Good luck in your search! |
Anonymous
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I think this is going to be super hard to find. If you could even offer 2 hours of work a day, you might do better. If there is a chance you'll need driving, a high school kid in the neighborhood won't work, and any commute at all would make it hard to justify a 1-hour gig for less than, say $50. This is why babysitters, handymen, etc. often have a 3-4 hour minimum.
That said, post your notice, and see what happens. If there's a close-by Y with a job board, school, church, or community center, you might also find a close-by neighbor looking to make a little extra. FWIW, once you have help, you are going to think of a MILLION things that person could do to make life easier. I can almost guarantee you that if you hire someone for 2-3 hours a day, you won't regret it (if you can afford it, of course). I would call it a "household assistant" or mother's helper, and emphasize that it's more household work than childcare. |
Anonymous
| I had no problem finding early morning help 5AM-8AM 2 days a week and then 4:30PM-6:30PM the other 3 days. I don't always use the hours, but I guarantee these are the MAXIMUM hours and pay a flat rate. I received a lot of response when I posted my ad. |
Anonymous
| As a full time nanny, I might be interested in something like this if it were a neighbor of my employers. Consider posting in your neighborhood parents group and telling any nannies you meet at the park. |
Anonymous
| PP again- just to add this might be good for someone who has little to no professional experience but has personal experience and is looking to get into nannying full time, not for a long term position though. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for the advice. We got lots of qualified candidates via care.com, and are choosing between two who we feel really good about (for $20/hr)
My only other question would be with regards to pay. While I'm fully on board with the idea of paying a nanny on the books, it seems to me this is more akin to a babysitting type situation, given the low volume of hours. What are opinions with regards to paying someone in the 100-160 range a week? |
Anonymous
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If you're not going to follow what the law says, then do whatever you want. The law is clear on the amount per quarter that triggers the requirement to pay taxes. There's no exception-because-it-seems-silly-to-me-clause.
People pay under the table all the time. I won't do it because I'd rather pay the money than a) open that can of worms such as risking the employee changing her mind about reporting the income or b) any potential legal trouble from an audit, my husband's security clearance review, etc.. If you don't care about any of that, then, whatever. |
Anonymous
OP here. I was hoping to get someone to point me to the law, not be judgmental about the question. I'm not actively trying to skirt any law - I just didn't know where to find it (a sticky in FAQs would be nice). In the interest in being helpful to others instead of blasting them, I've since found IRS Publication 926: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p926/ar02.html The answer is: if you pay over $1900/year to an employee, you must pay 15.3% of cash wages in taxes (7.65% their share, 7.65% your share), and if it's over $1000/quarter, then also 6% unemployment tax. Smarter parent here now. |
Anonymous
| Dear mother, I am a nanny who work and lives at Columbia hights area I star to work at 9 am , if you still looking for help will be more than happy to help you you can contact my at 202 2900412 |