Nanny Salary

[Anonymous]

I am expecting twins in March and I have a family friend who has offered to be my nanny. She says she can live in during the weekdays and go home on weekends. Not sure what to offer her in terms of pay. I asked her and she said oh anything. She says she has lots of childcare experience with other family members but was not for pay. What pay rate or salary range should I offer her. She is 26 years old.

[Anonymous]

She said "oh anything" and you want her to be your nanny?
She isn't adult enough to state her desired wages, but is responsible enough to care for twins? Eh.

[Anonymous]

And you are seriously considering hiring her?! Come on, OP, did you even check her references (with all her experience)?

[Anonymous]

Anyone who doesn't care what you pay her will also not care about sticking around or showing up.

[Anonymous]

You will be very, very sorry if you give the job of caring for NEWBORN TWINS to someone with NO experience as a nanny. Helping with your family is nice but it is not a JOB. Does she even have infant CPR training?!

[Anonymous]

I would hire an actual nanny. Babysitting for family from time to time is a lot different that full time care for twins.

Just going on what you describe seems like this could be a ton of trouble and not worth causing trouble with a close family friend.
Tell her thanks, but you prefer she just be the "auntie" and come by to play and spoil the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would hire an actual nanny. Babysitting for family from time to time is a lot different that full time care for twins.

Just going on what you describe seems like this could be a ton of trouble and not worth causing trouble with a close family friend.
Tell her thanks, but you prefer she just be the "auntie" and come by to play and spoil the kids.

+1 Caring for infant twins is not a casual thing! It is very difficult and very demanding. I would never have left my twins for ten minutes with someone with just occasional family experience.

[Anonymous]

Here's how this is going to wind up - she will last exactly 1 week before quitting.

-- MB to twins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would hire an actual nanny. Babysitting for family from time to time is a lot different that full time care for twins.

Just going on what you describe seems like this could be a ton of trouble and not worth causing trouble with a close family friend.
Tell her thanks, but you prefer she just be the "auntie" and come by to play and spoil the kids.

+1 Caring for infant twins is not a casual thing! It is very difficult and very demanding. I would never have left my twins for ten minutes with someone with just occasional family experience.

Yet hospital workers release newborns to parents with no infant experience daily. Somehow they figure it out. Op offer her 15 per hr.

[Anonymous]

Mother of twins here.

I'm with 14:51 (and also the other twin mom). Here would be my concerns:

- hiring a family friend is a recipe for disaster. You want to hire someone you can actually supervise/manage - not someone with whom you have an existing friend relationship, let alone extended family relationships.
- having someone live in all week - do you really want that? How will you define the job? Does she really understand what she's saying? (I'm, obviously, extremely skeptical.)
- caring for babies can be done extremely well by people without a ton of experience, but twins definitely ratchet up the difficulty and stress levels. It is not for the faint of heart and casual experience caring for other people's kids occasionally would not be sufficient for me to feel confident. Caring for twins is serious work. Hard work.
- do you know enough to train and manage someone else in the day to day realities of caring for twin babies? What if you end up having any NICU time, or any medical needs, etc...
- you will need to have back up care options in place - both to cover for your nanny (or whatever childcare solution you go with) and potentially just for some level of backup care for you. This person could be that backup care for you - have her help you in the first weeks, maybe do an overnight or two for you, give you a few hours off on the weekends, and be the person you can call when the nanny needs a day off.

Have you joined your local parents of multiples club yet? Do that and get to know some other mothers of twins and get their advice. Immediately! They will be extremely helpful to you with decisions like this, and also with networks of experienced caregivers they can recommend.

Congrats on the twins!

[Anonymous]

I don't have twins but I can tell you that I had no idea how hard caring for a newborn would be - it is very hard work! I cannot imagine how hard it will be with twins! You really need someone with experience. For twins, you are looking at $18-$25 an hour in this area, depending on experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would hire an actual nanny. Babysitting for family from time to time is a lot different that full time care for twins.

Just going on what you describe seems like this could be a ton of trouble and not worth causing trouble with a close family friend.
Tell her thanks, but you prefer she just be the "auntie" and come by to play and spoil the kids.

+1 Caring for infant twins is not a casual thing! It is very difficult and very demanding. I would never have left my twins for ten minutes with someone with just occasional family experience.

Yet hospital workers release newborns to parents with no infant experience daily. Somehow they figure it out. Op offer her 15 per hr.

LOL Do you really think it is the same thing?! Parents have a biological imperative to care for their own offsprings - the childcare giver does not. And an inexperienced nanny with twin charges is a situation made for disaster and accidents.

Get a qualified nanny, OP. And let her go to her own home at night so that one of you is rested to care for the babies during the day (because that will not be you or your husband). No matter how horrible our night were with our twins, I knew that in the morning a fresh and rested nanny would show up to take care of my girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would hire an actual nanny. Babysitting for family from time to time is a lot different that full time care for twins.

Just going on what you describe seems like this could be a ton of trouble and not worth causing trouble with a close family friend.
Tell her thanks, but you prefer she just be the "auntie" and come by to play and spoil the kids.

+1 Caring for infant twins is not a casual thing! It is very difficult and very demanding. I would never have left my twins for ten minutes with someone with just occasional family experience.

Yet hospital workers release newborns to parents with no infant experience daily. Somehow they figure it out. Op offer her 15 per hr.

And many of those parents hire people with experience to help them once they get home with their babies.

[Anonymous]

My big concern with this is that she seems so casual about it. Like it's no big deal could be fun, and she hasn't truly thought it out.

You know her best, but it almost seems like maybe she's bored with her her life/job and wants to try something new for the moment and oh babies are cute and fun etc.

Her heart might be in the right place, but she might be in over her head.
Caring for twins doesn't need to be the most difficult thing in the world, don't let people freak you out about that, but and this is a big but it is work so you want to hire help that understands this is work and can be reliable.
Family can be great help, my niece is a nanny and had cared for twins, so when mine were born, and she offered to help I didn't think twice about it, I knew she would be an actual help to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She said "oh anything" and you want her to be your nanny?
She isn't adult enough to state her desired wages, but is responsible enough to care for twins? Eh.

I know her very well. She is a close family friend.