s/o does anyone offer maternity leave to nannies?

[Anonymous]

Paid or unpaid and how long? I can imagine if you have a longstanding relationship with a nanny and the ability to arrange short-term care while she is on leave, it would be worthwhile. Would be interested in either MB or nanny experiences.

[Anonymous]

Are you a nanny or parent?

[Anonymous]

Parent. "MB" as the terminology goes. I'm a bit of a lurker because we do not actually have a nanny currently, but plan to make the switch because we now have two in daycare, which makes the economics closer.

[Anonymous]

If you don't have a nanny yet why are you worried about maternity leave ? Higher someone older then 40. Make it a rule that the nanny can not have relationships with men. Yes that is possible, she would be your employee and you control what she does if she wants to be your nanny.( have you thought about a live in nanny? They are much easier to control) By having such rules you will eliminate party girls and you will find yourself a serious nanny who values her job and makes it her # 1 priorty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't have a nanny yet why are you worried about maternity leave ? Higher someone older then 40. Make it a rule that the nanny can not have relationships with men. Yes that is possible, she would be your employee and you control what she does if she wants to be your nanny.( have you thought about a live in nanny? They are much easier to control) By having such rules you will eliminate party girls and you will find yourself a serious nanny who values her job and makes it her # 1 priorty.

That is insane. MB here.

Anyway, the answer is no with the exception that there are always crazy people with special circumstances.

There is never paid leave. Even companies have to have a certain number of employees (can't remember, maybe it is 20) to be obligated to offer UNPAID leave. Even at my company that is often listed in "Best places to work" as well as the Federal Government, you usually get 6 weeks of paid leave only, not 3 month or anything like that. These are for the cushiest jobs. For nannies, the answer is no paid leave.

For unpaid leave, it is a very risky situation for the employer because mothers may decide to not come back to work. It is always a very emotional decision and there is never one universal best answer. People often decide to have their baby first, then decide if they want to continue working or not.

THEN, if a nanny decides to come back to work, what is she going to do with a newborn baby? Bring it back to work? Newborn babies are hard enough as it is to watch when you have no other kids. You can barely take care of yourself. So, how are you supposed to take care of a newborn baby, plus your charges, and do a good job enough to be paid for it?

It really doesn't make any sense.

But I would imagine that there may be some special situations where unpaid leave may be offered. Perhaps mom has a flexible job and wants to play SAH mom for 2-3 months. Maybe there is a family member who can take over but not permanently and they are reasonably sure that the nanny would come back. Or, maybe they think of as "I have to do a nanny search now, or in 3 months. I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the nanny and just put off nanny search for 3 months since I can arrange temporary childcare easily."


Why are you asking if you don't even have a nanny yet?

[Anonymous]

Troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't have a nanny yet why are you worried about maternity leave ? Higher someone older then 40. Make it a rule that the nanny can not have relationships with men. Yes that is possible, she would be your employee and you control what she does if she wants to be your nanny.( have you thought about a live in nanny? They are much easier to control) By having such rules you will eliminate party girls and you will find yourself a serious nanny who values her job and makes it her # 1 priorty.

That is insane. MB here.

Anyway, the answer is no with the exception that there are always crazy people with special circumstances.

There is never paid leave. Even companies have to have a certain number of employees (can't remember, maybe it is 20) to be obligated to offer UNPAID leave. Even at my company that is often listed in "Best places to work" as well as the Federal Government, you usually get 6 weeks of paid leave only, not 3 month or anything like that. These are for the cushiest jobs. For nannies, the answer is no paid leave.

For unpaid leave, it is a very risky situation for the employer because mothers may decide to not come back to work. It is always a very emotional decision and there is never one universal best answer. People often decide to have their baby first, then decide if they want to continue working or not.

THEN, if a nanny decides to come back to work, what is she going to do with a newborn baby? Bring it back to work? Newborn babies are hard enough as it is to watch when you have no other kids. You can barely take care of yourself. So, how are you supposed to take care of a newborn baby, plus your charges, and do a good job enough to be paid for it?

It really doesn't make any sense.

But I would imagine that there may be some special situations where unpaid leave may be offered. Perhaps mom has a flexible job and wants to play SAH mom for 2-3 months. Maybe there is a family member who can take over but not permanently and they are reasonably sure that the nanny would come back. Or, maybe they think of as "I have to do a nanny search now, or in 3 months. I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the nanny and just put off nanny search for 3 months since I can arrange temporary childcare easily."


Why are you asking if you don't even have a nanny yet?

Companies with over 50 employees have to follow FMLA and hold the job for 90 days. None of it has to be paid.

If you work for.a.company of 49 or under you can be fired for jot returning to.work after your sick.leave or PTO has been exhausted.

You can do the.same to a nanny.

[Anonymous]

MB here - I found our first nanny (let's call her Nanny A) as a referral from my own boss. Nanny A was her weekend babysitter for years and was looking for a full time position. My boss's regular nanny, Nanny B, had a baby when my son turned 1. My boss asked me if I would be willing to do a share for a month so that Nanny B could have a month of maternity leave. I said it was fine with me if Nanny A felt up for it. Nanny A agreed and I was paying her her normal salary and my boss was paying her as well though that was between them and I don't know how much.

As a result, my boss was able to give Nanny B a month of paid maternity leave. After that month, Nanny B left her baby with her own mom and went back to work. I know that she also started bringing her baby to work with her on occasion.

As my boss's kids got older (they were 2 and 5 at the time that Nanny B had her baby), Nanny B started to work fewer hours and transitioned into a part time nanny with a schedule that fit with what my boss needed for after school and vacation/sick day care. It seems to be a relationship that has worked well for them since I believe that Nanny B has been with them for almost 10 years now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't have a nanny yet why are you worried about maternity leave ? Higher someone older then 40. Make it a rule that the nanny can not have relationships with men. Yes that is possible, she would be your employee and you control what she does if she wants to be your nanny.( have you thought about a live in nanny? They are much easier to control) By having such rules you will eliminate party girls and you will find yourself a serious nanny who values her job and makes it her # 1 priorty.

Should sue this person for harrsment and discrimination.

[Anonymous]

I have only had one nanny (for the last four years) and she was 55 when I hired her. So no, the issue was not relevant.

For the record, our nanny still has more energy and stamina than any nanny I have ever seen of any age and certainly more than I have (at 34)! She has gone from caring/teaching on new born to two very active little boys now 2 and 4.5. And she never uses her cell when working -- and I mean never unless it is to talk.text to DH or I. I see NO drawbacks whatsoever in employing an older nanny.

[Anonymous]

I don't. I can't afford it.

[Anonymous]

We did. Our nanny announced she was pregnant a few months after starting with us. She was a great nanny and we liked and cared about her and wanted to try and work it out with her. She told us right off the bat that she had made other child care arrangements for her baby so that was never a question. We told her she could take all of her PTO as leave and as much unpaid time off as she wanted, provided she set a start and end date in advance so that we could hire a temporary nanny for that period. We also gave her about an extra week of paid leave as a gift/maternity leave, which was the absolute most we could afford, since we were also paying for a back up nanny.

Honestly, it felt like the right thing to do for our nanny but it was absolutely not at all in our child's best interests for a lot of reasons I won't go into here. As a woman, I always want to feel good about being fair about these things and to treat others the way I'd want to be treated. As a mom, it put me in the very bad situation of discovering I had put someone else's needs above those of my child.

[Anonymous]

I add it to the contract after a year. It is unpaid except for accrued leave, 20 weeks max with no more than 16 weeks post-birth (she can start before the birth), and bringing the baby to work is not an option. We have four kids of various ages, and the car situation alone makes that a non-starter.

I also add language about accommodating prenatal appointments, and what we would do if it turned out she was having a difficult pregnancy.

Like the PP, it seems like the right thing to do even though the terms aren't that generous, but it would be a difficult and expensive accommodation, especially where I live now where there are no agencies and a small nanny pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I add it to the contract after a year. It is unpaid except for accrued leave, 20 weeks max with no more than 16 weeks post-birth (she can start before the birth), and bringing the baby to work is not an option. We have four kids of various ages, and the car situation alone makes that a non-starter.

I also add language about accommodating prenatal appointments, and what we would do if it turned out she was having a difficult pregnancy.

Like the PP, it seems like the right thing to do even though the terms aren't that generous, but it would be a difficult and expensive accommodation, especially where I live now where there are no agencies and a small nanny pool.

Just a question..

What happens if the temporary nanny you find is better than your old nanny? And she is available indefinitely? You will go back to the old nanny who is not as good and now has a baby of her own who she is probably thinking about alot? Just to keep your end of the contract?

[Anonymous]

I would never offer maternity leave to my nanny. If you get pregnant we part ways. I am not subjecting my kids to a revolving load of nannies to cover you for 6 months so you can come back, work another year and then be pregnant again.