Is it appropriate to hire a Nanny for my infant when we have 3 other children?

[Anonymous]

DH and I work exclusively from home and we want to remove our 1 year old from daycare and hire a Nanny but we have 3 other children. Our youngest two, ages 3 and 5 are in preschool from 8:30am-5:00pm (Idrive them and drop them off daily).

DS is 10 and walks to the school bus in the mornings at 8:00am and gets back home at 4:30pm. He usually just does his homework at the table then plays outside.

It is reasonable to hire a Nanny from 8am-5:30pm to only care for our 1 year old?
Because my DS will be home at 4:30-5:00pm will a Nanny will feel obligated to care for him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I work exclusively from home and we want to remove our 1 year old from daycare and hire a Nanny but we have 3 other children. Our youngest two, ages 3 and 5 are in preschool from 8:30am-5:00pm (Idrive them and drop them off daily).

DS is 10 and walks to the school bus in the mornings at 8:00am and gets back home at 4:30pm. He usually just does his homework at the table then plays outside.

It is reasonable to hire a Nanny from 8am-5:30pm to only care for our 1 year old?
Because my DS will be home at 4:30-5:00pm will a Nanny will feel obligated to care for him?

Yes, she will feel obligated and I guarantee you job creep will set in and you will have expectations (in some way or another) of her to care for the other kids. It may start as just picking up, or a "favor".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I work exclusively from home and we want to remove our 1 year old from daycare and hire a Nanny but we have 3 other children. Our youngest two, ages 3 and 5 are in preschool from 8:30am-5:00pm (Idrive them and drop them off daily).

DS is 10 and walks to the school bus in the mornings at 8:00am and gets back home at 4:30pm. He usually just does his homework at the table then plays outside.

It is reasonable to hire a Nanny from 8am-5:30pm to only care for our 1 year old?
Because my DS will be home at 4:30-5:00pm will a Nanny will feel obligated to care for him?

Yes, she will feel obligated and I guarantee you job creep will set in and you will have expectations (in some way or another) of her to care for the other kids. It may start as just picking up, or a "favor".

Sorry, I didn't answer all the way. Sure, it is appropriate (of course it is!), but you should establish realistic expectations with her and in the times where she may have to care for the other kids (half days, etc.) compensate her for that time.

[Anonymous]

This is such a stupid idea that it is actually funny!

[Anonymous]

I worked something similar - 1yo 9am-3pm, then we would pick up the older two. If you make your nanny aware that there will be an hour a day she is in charge of both children and that you do/do not expect her to care for the older kids when school is off, you'll absolutely find someone willing. What gives you pause?

[Anonymous]

You need to have guidelines in place to deal with what she will/won't do if one of the older kids is home sick or if school/day care is out. No reason it can't work out though.

[Anonymous]

It's fine, but I also wonder why you wouldn't just pay her more and let your preschoolers come home early, and have her on-call for half days, school in-service days, summer, etc.. This is even easier since you're home and presumably the baby could keep napping while she goes to pick up the others.

These days, my nanny has our 2-year-old full time, our 4-year-old most of the time, and our 6 and 7-year-olds some of the time (some days she doesn't see them because they have after-school activities). She fully understands that occasionally she has an easier job, and occasionally it's a harder job. She also likes working with a larger group of kids (she came to us from a daycare).

If you're going to spend what a nanny costs, why not make it a job that will truly make your lives easier and give your kids more time at home? This also makes it possible for you or DH to go school activities for one or another kid, or have a "date" with one or another kid, or go to an appointment for one or another kids, and already have child care in place for the rest of them.

I WAH, and taking drop-off and pick-up off my schedule has been life-changing for me in terms of being able to work more efficiently.

[Anonymous]

OP here, this sounds like something we should do. Our pick up/drop off schedules are a bit hectic. Could you advise on what hourly rate to pay?

Anonymous wrote:It's fine, but I also wonder why you wouldn't just pay her more and let your preschoolers come home early, and have her on-call for half days, school in-service days, summer, etc.. This is even easier since you're home and presumably the baby could keep napping while she goes to pick up the others.

These days, my nanny has our 2-year-old full time, our 4-year-old most of the time, and our 6 and 7-year-olds some of the time (some days she doesn't see them because they have after-school activities). She fully understands that occasionally she has an easier job, and occasionally it's a harder job. She also likes working with a larger group of kids (she came to us from a daycare).

If you're going to spend what a nanny costs, why not make it a job that will truly make your lives easier and give your kids more time at home? This also makes it possible for you or DH to go school activities for one or another kid, or have a "date" with one or another kid, or go to an appointment for one or another kids, and already have child care in place for the rest of them.

I WAH, and taking drop-off and pick-up off my schedule has been life-changing for me in terms of being able to work more efficiently.

[Anonymous]

Hourly rate? Depends on where you live. But if you are in more expensive areas of DC, I would say start at $30 for Mary Poppins, $25 for not perfect, but some experience and strong background in child development, and $20 for a young, fairly new nanny who has energy but will need training.

[Anonymous]

Also, if you go this route, screen for a nanny who actually LIKES big families. There are plenty of them, who prefer to have their days be more like play dates. You will probably hear from at least one nanny on this board who would never take this job in a million years unless it paid $50/hr. That is totally not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, if you go this route, screen for a nanny who actually LIKES big families. There are plenty of them, who prefer to have their days be more like play dates. You will probably hear from at least one nanny on this board who would never take this job in a million years unless it paid $50/hr. That is totally not necessary.

Agreed! I love 4-7 kids, will work with 2-3, and I won’t work with singles. Just be clear with what you want and need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, if you go this route, screen for a nanny who actually LIKES big families. There are plenty of them, who prefer to have their days be more like play dates. You will probably hear from at least one nanny on this board who would never take this job in a million years unless it paid $50/hr. That is totally not necessary.

This is very true! I wouldn't work with a singleton if you paid me $100 an hour (well, I probably would...) but I love 3-4 kids, it's so much more fun and time flies. If you go the route of keeping your older ones home with the nanny, make sure you hire someone who has experience with at least 2 kids. Juggling two is a lot more different than one, but where you have two, it's usually fine with three, and four, and so on.

[Anonymous]

OP here, got it! Great, thanks for the advice!