How much would you charge for this?

[Anonymous]

I have several young children. One of my children has a medical issue that can lead to sudden unexpected ambulance rides and E.R. visits. On average, this happens about once a month, usually in the middle of the night. Because of this, when my DH travels, I need to arrange to have someone else spend the night, so that I can accompany my child to the E.R. if need be.

How much would you expect to pay for each of these situations:

1) Live in nanny, with separate apartment, who is asked to stay home from the end of one work day until the beginning of the next (about 14 hours), and to be available by phone if need be, but wouldn't actually need to do anything other than be able to respond quickly in an emergency (e.g. keep phone on, don't get drunk)

2) High school or college babysitter who does not live in, but would stay in the guest room. Would need to be in the home for 14 hours, and would be invited to join us for dinner and breakfast, but could choose whether to stay and be with the family, or to retreat to a bedroom to study or watch TV if they preferred.

Note: I am not talking about the rate if there is an actual incident. In that case, I would wake the nanny or babysitter and let them know I was leaving. Nanny would need to move to the guest bedroom. From that point, until they were relieved, they'd be paid either their hourly rate or their OT rate as appropriate, including for hours they were asleep.

[Anonymous]

I would think that you would need to pay the college student/babysitter at least $200.

I would think you would need to pay the live in nanny something extra for staying available and in the house but it should cost considerably less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would think that you would need to pay the college student/babysitter at least $200.

I would think you would need to pay the live in nanny something extra for staying available and in the house but it should cost considerably less.

Nope. Nanny must sleep with one eye open and one foot on floor during this time so she does not get proper nights sleep. Pay her $200 extra. The problem OP, is that you have no idea which night this could happen. If your DH is away for three nights then babysitter or nanny has to be available at any time.

I once did something similar for a week and it was absolute hell and I would never do it again for any amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that you would need to pay the college student/babysitter at least $200.

I would think you would need to pay the live in nanny something extra for staying available and in the house but it should cost considerably less.

Nope. Nanny must sleep with one eye open and one foot on floor during this time so she does not get proper nights sleep. Pay her $200 extra. The problem OP, is that you have no idea which night this could happen. If your DH is away for three nights then babysitter or nanny has to be available at any time.

I once did something similar for a week and it was absolute hell and I would never do it again for any amount.

Sleeping in your own apartment, with your phone on is absolute hell?

Guest room is in a location where she would be able to hear regular wakings from the other kids, so sleep might be interrupted. However she's spent the night before for reasons unrelated to work, and swears she slept through. Nanny would only be awoken if we actually called, because her apartment is not in earshot.

[Anonymous]

But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

OP here,

My DH generally travels 2 - 3 nights at a time, and not every week, and never on weekends. My thought is that the nanny would have first right of refusal, so if she's planning on staying home those nights then she gets some extra money for doing nothing. If she isn't interested, then I ask the college student who is our regular babysitter. If neither is available, then I'd ask our back up babysitters.

My mom has usually flown into town when the nanny has taken her vacation time in the past, so if nanny was out of town then grandma would probably be here.

But on nights when she would be staying home anyway, then it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to offer her a little extra money for being on call. I'm just not sure how much money. $200 seems like a lot to me, but then I'm having trouble seeing this as a horrible thing to ask of someone.

[Anonymous]

Sleeping in your home is not my own bed. Plus, if I'm on-call in any way, I'm not really getting a solid night's sleep.

Unless it's your friend or family doing this for you as a favor (even if you pay them a token for their inconvenience), it can be really expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sleeping in your home is not my own bed. Plus, if I'm on-call in any way, I'm not really getting a solid night's sleep.

Unless it's your friend or family doing this for you as a favor (even if you pay them a token for their inconvenience), it can be really expensive.

Nanny would be in her own bed, in her own apartment.

Babysitter wouldn't be in her own bed, and would definitely be more inconvenienced. On the other hand, babysitter generally earns $15 an hour when she's awake and working the whole time. Relative to that, $14.75 an hour (which is what $200 for 14 hours works out to) seems like a lot for sleeping and studying. If that's really the going rate, I might just pay her regular rate (which comes to $210) and actually have her work. For example, I could have her do a movie night with the kids, giving me time to take a nice hot bath and read a book or something.

I think my own perspective may be skewed as a parent, because I've been "on call" every night for the past 19 years.

[Anonymous]

Bare minimum $100. Then a very generous compensation package if called in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

OP here,

My DH generally travels 2 - 3 nights at a time, and not every week, and never on weekends. My thought is that the nanny would have first right of refusal, so if she's planning on staying home those nights then she gets some extra money for doing nothing. If she isn't interested, then I ask the college student who is our regular babysitter. If neither is available, then I'd ask our back up babysitters.

My mom has usually flown into town when the nanny has taken her vacation time in the past, so if nanny was out of town then grandma would probably be here.

But on nights when she would be staying home anyway, then it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to offer her a little extra money for being on call. I'm just not sure how much money. $200 seems like a lot to me, but then I'm having trouble seeing this as a horrible thing to ask of someone.

It's a live-in position, folks. No one is being asked to leave their own bed or family.

If you could truly make it an optional part of the job, I bet most people would be happy to do it most of the time for something minimal, like $50-$75 + hourly if they have to get up. I know au pairs who do this all the time.

I do think you should be very up front about what you think the frequency will be, and also realistic with yourself if it turns out to be a lot more often than you thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that you would need to pay the college student/babysitter at least $200.

I would think you would need to pay the live in nanny something extra for staying available and in the house but it should cost considerably less.

Nope. Nanny must sleep with one eye open and one foot on floor during this time so she does not get proper nights sleep. Pay her $200 extra. The problem OP, is that you have no idea which night this could happen. If your DH is away for three nights then babysitter or nanny has to be available at any time.

I once did something similar for a week and it was absolute hell and I would never do it again for any amount.

Sleeping in your own apartment, with your phone on is absolute hell?

Guest room is in a location where she would be able to hear regular wakings from the other kids, so sleep might be interrupted. However she's spent the night before for reasons unrelated to work, and swears she slept through. Nanny would only be awoken if we actually called, because her apartment is not in earshot.

Yes. Because I know that my sleep can be interrupted at any moment. Technically, this person is on duty 24/7 and you pay for this convenience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

OP here,

My DH generally travels 2 - 3 nights at a time, and not every week, and never on weekends. My thought is that the nanny would have first right of refusal, so if she's planning on staying home those nights then she gets some extra money for doing nothing. If she isn't interested, then I ask the college student who is our regular babysitter. If neither is available, then I'd ask our back up babysitters.

My mom has usually flown into town when the nanny has taken her vacation time in the past, so if nanny was out of town then grandma would probably be here.

But on nights when she would be staying home anyway, then it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to offer her a little extra money for being on call. I'm just not sure how much money. $200 seems like a lot to me, but then I'm having trouble seeing this as a horrible thing to ask of someone.

It's a live-in position, folks. No one is being asked to leave their own bed or family.

If you could truly make it an optional part of the job, I bet most people would be happy to do it most of the time for something minimal, like $50-$75 + hourly if they have to get up. I know au pairs who do this all the time.

I do think you should be very up front about what you think the frequency will be, and also realistic with yourself if it turns out to be a lot more often than you thought.

Wise up. It's a job with zero security. Don't kid yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

OP here,

My DH generally travels 2 - 3 nights at a time, and not every week, and never on weekends. My thought is that the nanny would have first right of refusal, so if she's planning on staying home those nights then she gets some extra money for doing nothing. If she isn't interested, then I ask the college student who is our regular babysitter. If neither is available, then I'd ask our back up babysitters.

My mom has usually flown into town when the nanny has taken her vacation time in the past, so if nanny was out of town then grandma would probably be here.

But on nights when she would be staying home anyway, then it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to offer her a little extra money for being on call. I'm just not sure how much money. $200 seems like a lot to me, but then I'm having trouble seeing this as a horrible thing to ask of someone.

It's a live-in position, folks. No one is being asked to leave their own bed or family.

If you could truly make it an optional part of the job, I bet most people would be happy to do it most of the time for something minimal, like $50-$75 + hourly if they have to get up. I know au pairs who do this all the time.

I do think you should be very up front about what you think the frequency will be, and also realistic with yourself if it turns out to be a lot more often than you thought.

Wise up. It's a job with zero security. Don't kid yourself.

How is that different from any other job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

OP here,

My DH generally travels 2 - 3 nights at a time, and not every week, and never on weekends. My thought is that the nanny would have first right of refusal, so if she's planning on staying home those nights then she gets some extra money for doing nothing. If she isn't interested, then I ask the college student who is our regular babysitter. If neither is available, then I'd ask our back up babysitters.

My mom has usually flown into town when the nanny has taken her vacation time in the past, so if nanny was out of town then grandma would probably be here.

But on nights when she would be staying home anyway, then it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to offer her a little extra money for being on call. I'm just not sure how much money. $200 seems like a lot to me, but then I'm having trouble seeing this as a horrible thing to ask of someone.

It's a live-in position, folks. No one is being asked to leave their own bed or family.

If you could truly make it an optional part of the job, I bet most people would be happy to do it most of the time for something minimal, like $50-$75 + hourly if they have to get up. I know au pairs who do this all the time.

I do think you should be very up front about what you think the frequency will be, and also realistic with yourself if it turns out to be a lot more often than you thought.

Our nanny has worked with us for years, and both my DH's schedule and my daughter's health needs have been consistent during that time. My oldest is leaving for college, previously he's been the one "on call", which is why we're making a change.

In the past year, my husband has traveled 73 nights. We had incidents on 2 of those nights. Both times, my nanny was home and woke up when the ambulance arrived, and came over and offered her help, I accepted her offer and paid her for it at her hourly OT rate. So, she definitely knows what she's getting into, but in the past we haven't paid her to be at home.

I'm pretty sure if I asked her she'd tell me I didn't need to pay her, which is why I asked here. I'm thinking that $100 a night sounds fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But technically the nanny is always on call overnight Right? What happens if she and her girlfriends wanted a weekend away in NYC? What if she wants to take overnight gigs? She can't do that because she's on call.

OP here,

My DH generally travels 2 - 3 nights at a time, and not every week, and never on weekends. My thought is that the nanny would have first right of refusal, so if she's planning on staying home those nights then she gets some extra money for doing nothing. If she isn't interested, then I ask the college student who is our regular babysitter. If neither is available, then I'd ask our back up babysitters.

My mom has usually flown into town when the nanny has taken her vacation time in the past, so if nanny was out of town then grandma would probably be here.

But on nights when she would be staying home anyway, then it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to offer her a little extra money for being on call. I'm just not sure how much money. $200 seems like a lot to me, but then I'm having trouble seeing this as a horrible thing to ask of someone.

It's a live-in position, folks. No one is being asked to leave their own bed or family.

If you could truly make it an optional part of the job, I bet most people would be happy to do it most of the time for something minimal, like $50-$75 + hourly if they have to get up. I know au pairs who do this all the time.

I do think you should be very up front about what you think the frequency will be, and also realistic with yourself if it turns out to be a lot more often than you thought.

Our nanny has worked with us for years, and both my DH's schedule and my daughter's health needs have been consistent during that time. My oldest is leaving for college, previously he's been the one "on call", which is why we're making a change.

In the past year, my husband has traveled 73 nights. We had incidents on 2 of those nights. Both times, my nanny was home and woke up when the ambulance arrived, and came over and offered her help, I accepted her offer and paid her for it at her hourly OT rate. So, she definitely knows what she's getting into, but in the past we haven't paid her to be at home.

I'm pretty sure if I asked her she'd tell me I didn't need to pay her, which is why I asked here. I'm thinking that $100 a night sounds fair.

Wait a minute -- this is a long-time nanny? I think everyone on this board assumed you were either hiring new, or this was someone who you barely know. Why are you asking us? Just talk to her. After all these years, surely she would be straight with you about what she would need to make it work. And if she says, "Oh! I wouldn't charge extra for that," you would of course insist on something. You could also offer a full day off the next day instead of compensation if that would work.