How much to pay a nanny who brings her infant?

[Anonymous]

What should I offer to pay a nanny who will be bringing her 6 mo old daughter with her?

She will be picking up our preschooler at noon. We have given her the option of going to her home or coming to ours at that time. She needs to be at home by 3 when our two older kids arrive home and she will stay until 5-6 pm.

We are asking her to do the kids' laundry once a week and make sure the kids are picking up after themselves - preparing snacks, and the occasional helping put dinner in the oven.

[Anonymous]

How much do you want the particular nanny?
Did you ask for her rates?
And three, please do a search here.

[Anonymous]

I would say $12 an hour. It's a bonus
for her to be able to bring her child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say $12 an hour. It's a bonus
for her to be able to bring her child.

When I brought my child to work, my employer said it was a bonus for her child.

[Anonymous]

Hiring a nanny with her own child sometimes makes sense when you have a similar aged child, but I don't see how a baby would do anything but get in the way when it comes to taking care of preschool and elementary school aged children. It's hard enough to manage the after school routine of three children. I actually had a job once where I did exactly that, after school routine for three children aged 6-13, and also took care of their baby sister. That was tough; the older children were understanding, but I couldn't spend much time helping with homework individually, because baby's needs always came first.

Ordinarily, a job like this (3 children after school care) would probably be in the $15-18/hr range for a highly qualified nanny. Considering the HUGE benefit to her and possible conflict of interest for your own children ("sorry, nanny can't help you with that right now, she's feeding/changing baby," "shh please play extra quietly, and no we can't go to the park now, baby is sleeping"), it doesn't make any sense for her to be paid more than 2/3 of what you'd be paying for another nanny who wouldn't complicate things by bringing an infant into the picture. $10-11/hr is plenty fair to start.

If things seem to be going well another 3-6 months into it you could bump her pay up more ($12/hr) if she really happens to be an exceptional fit. But there is no reason to start her off at a high pay rate before you really know how good of a fit this will be. Even if all her references are AMAZING, they were from before she had her own child present. She is a new mom and is still learning how to balance work and motherhood, and I think you just need to see how it goes before offering her a ton of money for what may very well be a subpar experience for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hiring a nanny with her own child sometimes makes sense when you have a similar aged child, but I don't see how a baby would do anything but get in the way when it comes to taking care of preschool and elementary school aged children. It's hard enough to manage the after school routine of three children. I actually had a job once where I did exactly that, after school routine for three children aged 6-13, and also took care of their baby sister. That was tough; the older children were understanding, but I couldn't spend much time helping with homework individually, because baby's needs always came first.

Ordinarily, a job like this (3 children after school care) would probably be in the $15-18/hr range for a highly qualified nanny. Considering the HUGE benefit to her and possible conflict of interest for your own children ("sorry, nanny can't help you with that right now, she's feeding/changing baby," "shh please play extra quietly, and no we can't go to the park now, baby is sleeping"), it doesn't make any sense for her to be paid more than 2/3 of what you'd be paying for another nanny who wouldn't complicate things by bringing an infant into the picture. $10-11/hr is plenty fair to start.

If things seem to be going well another 3-6 months into it you could bump her pay up more ($12/hr) if she really happens to be an exceptional fit. But there is no reason to start her off at a high pay rate before you really know how good of a fit this will be. Even if all her references are AMAZING, they were from before she had her own child present. She is a new mom and is still learning how to balance work and motherhood, and I think you just need to see how it goes before offering her a ton of money for what may very well be a subpar experience for your family.

You're completely nuts if you think a "highly qualified" nanny would charge only $15-18/hr, even for one child, let alone three. Your story is full of tall tales.

[Anonymous]

I would not pay more than $12.

[Anonymous]

I would pay her based on her qualifications. Was she a nanny before her baby how long? If so $15-18. If not then maybe $12-14

[Anonymous]

I was going to say that you should pay a little less since it is a huge perk to be able to bring your child into work every day. Huge savings in childcare costs for her.

However since the job is split into two sessions plus you require laundry and food prep, I say pay her what is typical salary for your kids. It's a lot of labor and responsibility which balances out her right to bring her baby.

[Anonymous]

Do you have any other attractive options, OP? If not, that makes a big difference with how you proceed with this nanny.

[Anonymous]

I would be concerned about infant care/feeding/nap interfering with schedule and care for your preschooler. I would go for this only if the nanny is experienced in similar job for at least 5+ years. IMO is not worth any discount you may or may not get for sub par care for your kids.

[Anonymous]

It all depends on the nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hiring a nanny with her own child sometimes makes sense when you have a similar aged child, but I don't see how a baby would do anything but get in the way when it comes to taking care of preschool and elementary school aged children. It's hard enough to manage the after school routine of three children. I actually had a job once where I did exactly that, after school routine for three children aged 6-13, and also took care of their baby sister. That was tough; the older children were understanding, but I couldn't spend much time helping with homework individually, because baby's needs always came first.

Ordinarily, a job like this (3 children after school care) would probably be in the $15-18/hr range for a highly qualified nanny. Considering the HUGE benefit to her and possible conflict of interest for your own children ("sorry, nanny can't help you with that right now, she's feeding/changing baby," "shh please play extra quietly, and no we can't go to the park now, baby is sleeping"), it doesn't make any sense for her to be paid more than 2/3 of what you'd be paying for another nanny who wouldn't complicate things by bringing an infant into the picture. $10-11/hr is plenty fair to start.

If things seem to be going well another 3-6 months into it you could bump her pay up more ($12/hr) if she really happens to be an exceptional fit. But there is no reason to start her off at a high pay rate before you really know how good of a fit this will be. Even if all her references are AMAZING, they were from before she had her own child present. She is a new mom and is still learning how to balance work and motherhood, and I think you just need to see how it goes before offering her a ton of money for what may very well be a subpar experience for your family.

This post was extremely helpful. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hiring a nanny with her own child sometimes makes sense when you have a similar aged child, but I don't see how a baby would do anything but get in the way when it comes to taking care of preschool and elementary school aged children. It's hard enough to manage the after school routine of three children. I actually had a job once where I did exactly that, after school routine for three children aged 6-13, and also took care of their baby sister. That was tough; the older children were understanding, but I couldn't spend much time helping with homework individually, because baby's needs always came first.

Ordinarily, a job like this (3 children after school care) would probably be in the $15-18/hr range for a highly qualified nanny. Considering the HUGE benefit to her and possible conflict of interest for your own children ("sorry, nanny can't help you with that right now, she's feeding/changing baby," "shh please play extra quietly, and no we can't go to the park now, baby is sleeping"), it doesn't make any sense for her to be paid more than 2/3 of what you'd be paying for another nanny who wouldn't complicate things by bringing an infant into the picture. $10-11/hr is plenty fair to start.

If things seem to be going well another 3-6 months into it you could bump her pay up more ($12/hr) if she really happens to be an exceptional fit. But there is no reason to start her off at a high pay rate before you really know how good of a fit this will be. Even if all her references are AMAZING, they were from before she had her own child present. She is a new mom and is still learning how to balance work and motherhood, and I think you just need to see how it goes before offering her a ton of money for what may very well be a subpar experience for your family.

This post was extremely helpful. Thank you!

FWIW, as a longtime MB, I disagree. Assuming you have faith in (and references for!) her ability to do this well, I think you need to start her higher than $10/hour. It's very hard to find nannies to work part-time. You are only paying her 12-6, right? I think you need to start her at LEAST at $12/hour. If you don't think she can swing the baby plus your three. which is totally reasonable, don't hire her at all.

[nannydebsays]

Anonymous wrote:What should I offer to pay a nanny who will be bringing her 6 mo old daughter with her?

She will be picking up our preschooler at noon. We have given her the option of going to her home or coming to ours at that time. She needs to be at home by 3 when our two older kids arrive home and she will stay until 5-6 pm.

We are asking her to do the kids' laundry once a week and make sure the kids are picking up after themselves - preparing snacks, and the occasional helping put dinner in the oven.

I assume you have already discussed how her baby will be accommodated in your home WRT naps, supply storage, and so forth. Will nanny need a vehicle that can safely seat 4 kids in the rear seating areas? Does she own a minivan/large SUV? Does she baby wear, which would allow her to have 2 hands free at times?

I would also ask her some questions directly related to how she plans to balance your kids needs with the needs of her infant.

---I would like to hear how you would structure your day here, with specifics about how you envision your child's day to day routine.

---How would you handle a situation where all 4 kids need your help? How would you prioritize?

---Here is the weekly schedule for our kids activities. Does this look like a schedule you will be able to balance with your baby and the household needs we are asking you to fulfill?

And so on - give her specific examples and scenarios involving your kids needs.

And I would insist she is at your house from noon - 6. Doing however many loads of laundry a week between 3 and 6 with all 4 kids around seems...impractical. (Saying this as nanny to 2 under 3 who is often challenged to do 4 loads in a 55 hour workweek!)

And since this is a PT job with a fairly heavy workload in terms of the number of kids to manage, I wouldn't discount her pay by more than 25% of what a nanny with her experience/references would make without a baby along. PT jobs usually offer higher hourly rates to make them attractive to nannies who would prefer FT work.