After School Nannies and Employers. Tell me about it.

[Anonymous]

My first is about to start K in Sept and my second will be in preschool. The two schools are 5 miles away (in DC metro area so that's a PIA drive). I foresee picking up #2 from preschool and #1 from after care and doing light housework like minor meal prep and children's laundry.

To get a happy nanny, how many hours/day should I offer? How standard is it to offer/ask for/ put in job description other duties (grocery/target)?

We have a weekly housekeeping service that we are happy with so I don't want a cleaner/nanny type person. Children will be 5 and 2.

How much should I expect to pay? What if said nanny picked up 5 yr old from bus stop then went and got 2 yr old?

What about those days when public school is closed. Put them in the contract? Does that work or do you do after care for that situation and then nanny for after school. I get home at 6pm most days but would offer optional babysitting if we went this route. Right now we have a full-time nanny but she doesn't drive. ANd I love her.

[Anonymous]

I'm a part-time nanny with a day job and I do your exact description and love, love, love it. 2 kids, same general ages as yours, schools are about 30 minutes apart by car.

I do a little over 15 hours a week with them. I really think you should reconsider asking your after school nanny to do the laundry and grocery shopping, for two reasons. 1) your typical after school nanny isn't used to doing those things [college student, teacher, otherwise] and 2) do you really want your kids to go to school until 3, then be in the car for 45 minutes while all get picked up, and then spend an hour in Target getting groceries, and then going home to play by themselves while your nanny does the laundry and makes dinner? Really sounds like a bad plan. You would be better off letting the nanny play with your kids and making them dinner and you can do your own laundry and shopping. Just a thought.

You could pay $15 an hour if you wanted the nanny to play with the kids. If you want the job as you described about I would think you would need to offer $20 an hour to find someone that wants to do all your chores.

And of course you can try to stipulate anything you want, but someone that is working part-time likely can't drop everything in their lives to cover your childcare needs on snow days and teacher workdays. I would suggest you keep this strictly after school, and find other on-call people who can cover your other needs. Of course it never hurts to ask as long as you don't try to pressure your nanny into anything she can't do.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP:

I should have been more clear. If the low-amount of hours was not enough, I was considering offering someone more hours to do those things. Not do them with the kids.

That's hard.

It's good to know you do 15/hr/week. If nanny got #1 from bus and then picked up #2, it would be about that/ week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP:

I should have been more clear. If the low-amount of hours was not enough, I was considering offering someone more hours to do those things. Not do them with the kids.

That's hard.

It's good to know you do 15/hr/week. If nanny got #1 from bus and then picked up #2, it would be about that/ week.

I guess it depends what you can find, it's good that you have the flexibility to consider two different types of jobs. If someone is working another job then they probably want an arrangement like mine where its a lower number of hours. But maybe you can find something like a retired grandma that only want to work part-time all told and maybe she would be happy doing like 25 hours a week adding in some chores before the kids get home.

With your options I bet you will be able to find something without too much trouble.

[Anonymous]

I used to have a nanny who worked from 2-7 on school days. We paid $15 an hour, four kids. I was also there - it was a divide and conquer situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to have a nanny who worked from 2-7 on school days. We paid $15 an hour, four kids. I was also there - it was a divide and conquer situation.

That is really low pay. I make almost double that as an after-school nanny to school age kids. Maybe a high schooler would do $15.

[Anonymous]

I'm an after school nanny for 4 older children, 1 elementary, 3 middle. I make $20/hour for 25 hours a week (5 a day). I start a bit before the kids get off the bus to get started on laundry and tidying up. I probably do more housekeeping than a typical after school nanny as the kids are older. The mom is also home so we split up all the driving to activities and getting kids fed, etc.

For younger kids, they definitely need more attention so I would present the job as the 15 hours or whatever the minimum is you need - then offer to add 1-2 hours per day if the nanny would like extra work and that time would be used for light housekeeping and errands without the children in tow. So much easier.

Don't expect nanny to be available to work full days when school is closed. I hate when families assume I'm available. Discuss it with her upfront and come up with a plan that works for both of you and put it in the contract.

As for the rate I would say no less than $15/hour and you could probably find someone really great for $20/hour who might do more than you ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to have a nanny who worked from 2-7 on school days. We paid $15 an hour, four kids. I was also there - it was a divide and conquer situation.

That is really low pay. I make almost double that as an after-school nanny to school age kids. Maybe a high schooler would do $15.

That's how I advertised the job and the person we chose accepted that rate. I wasn't going to pay more when there was no request to.