Nanny pay when child goes to PT preschool?

[Anonymous]

Our son is 2.5, and we have had our nanny full-time since he was 5 months. She is wonderful, reliable, and our son loves her dearly. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of children in our immediate neighborhood, so we are planning to put him in a part-time pre school (3 hours/day, 3 days/week) in the fall. We'll still need our nanny to work full-time, because we won't be home to take him to school or drop him off, put him down for a nap, etc. But our nanny will have a significant amount of down time - 9 hours out of a 44-hour work week. Additionally, after school, she will feed him and put him down for a nap - another 2-3 hours of down time. She's not great at cooking or cleaning, so we really can't have her do that while we're gone. Our income isn't huge, so we feel weird to pay that much money for so much down time. Our only other option would be full-time daycare, which is not ideal due to sicknesses, the time spent dropping off and picking up, etc. But we really want him to be around other kids at least a few days a week.

Has anyone else dealt with this situation at 2-3 years old? How did you handle it?

[Anonymous]

Yes, you do need to pay her or find her another PT gig for those hours, but that will surely not be reliable.

Other ideas:
What about having her do errands for you- groceries, dry cleaning, etc.?

[Anonymous]

If she is still responsible for him.she needs to be paid for those hours. If he is sick or school is closed I assume you will expect her to have him, therefore you still pay her.

[Anonymous]

Please consider the lifelong benefits of stable early care such as you seem to have. This is nothing to sneeze at. It's a critical investment in your child's future success and wellbeing.

[Anonymous]

You do need to pay her for those hours.
This is why we will probably just enroll our youngest in full time day care when he is three. I also really can't justify paying someone so much of my after tax money to have so much free time. It will also allow me to cut back at work so I can get him right after nap and the older kids right after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Please consider the lifelong benefits of stable early care such as you seem to have. This is nothing to sneeze at. It's a critical investment in your child's future success and wellbeing.

Please also consider that if you switch from a nanny to full time daycare, you could put the savings ($50-60k) in your child's 529.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely do not pay her less...she will find something else (I would!!)...organizing, dry cleaning, grocery store, etc...you can easily fill those hours!

[Anonymous]

I've never heard of anyone dropping pay. Just don't send your son to preschool if you don't want to double pay. If you need her to drop the kid off at preschool, and pick him up, it will only be about 2 hours a day x 3 days of downtime.

Presumably, you have always paid her for his naps. Don't expect those 2-3 hour naps to last much longer either.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny who has kids in school for 7 of 30 hours a week. I will run errands, organize, do laundry, prep foods, set up after school projects, etc. I am abailable for sick days, no school days, holidays, and summer. My pay is the same.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps you could postpone preschool for another year.
At his age, social interaction is not necessarily needed.

You can ask your nanny to take him to storytime as well as a few toddler classes like music.

I think the individual attention a nanny provides is still needed at his age.

[Anonymous]

I would start at 2 days per week and nanny help with other areas of helping the house run smoothly. Personally, I won't do housekeeper stuff, but am up for most other tasks.

[Anonymous]

I would propose she get paid half her rate but that she doesn't need to be physically present in the house during those hours if she doesn't want to. Nanny can run her personal errands, nap at MB's house, go back to her house, go to her friend's house, whatever.

Or help her find a PT gig.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would propose she get paid half her rate but that she doesn't need to be physically present in the house during those hours if she doesn't want to. Nanny can run her personal errands, nap at MB's house, go back to her house, go to her friend's house, whatever.

Or help her find a PT gig.

As a nanny, that wouldn't work for me. And if she had a part time gig in the middle of your work day, what would you do on sick days, holidays, and summers?

[Anonymous]

Why do people that can't actually afford the luxury of a nanny even have them? If you are worried about money so badly put him in preschool, find someone part time, and then when he gets sick or school is closed for holidays, TWD, conferences etc just take off of work yourself and stay home with your child. And if you don't want to pay her for he time don't dare put her on the list for emergency contacts at the school or expect her to have her phone on in case something happens like he starts running a fever while there. They can just call you at work and you can leave early and take him home to nurse him back to health or lay down at your job.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. Also if you tell your nanny her salary is about to decrease you better believe she is going to find another job to supplement that. So think she can just drop whatever she has going on that day because you wake up one morning and little Johnny has a 102 temp and you really need to go to work.