Nanny employers: Do you ever consider distance from your home in choosing a nanny?

[Anonymous]

I know that many of the nannies live 30-60 minutes from their employers. Seem like a nanny who lives closer to her employer would be likely to have an easier time/be more reliable on questionable weather days like today. If you don't get snow days off from work, how do you handle days like today?

[Anonymous]

Plan ahead if you are in a area where inclement weather is likely. If your job is essential, then you should absolutely hire someone who can get to you in a matter of minutes. But that’s not always the case. Have backup sitters, offer to pay for their commute or pay more for the day; but most of all don’t wait until the last minute to figure out a plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plan ahead if you are in a area where inclement weather is likely. If your job is essential, then you should absolutely hire someone who can get to you in a matter of minutes. But that’s not always the case. Have backup sitters, offer to pay for their commute or pay more for the day; but most of all don’t wait until the last minute to figure out a plan.

All of this.

I am a nanny who lives 45 to an hour away with traffic from my family. We follow OPM for inclement weather and I also use judgement. Today was bad and ppl shouldn’t be on the roads. DC public schools and Dulles are even closed. One of my families “have” to work and the other doesn’t (nannyshare). The family that is going has a long list of back up sitters. It took them maybe 15mins to confirm a backup sitter.

While I would love to live closer, it’s not feasible with the way real estate is in the DMV. I would have to downgrade significantly to basically a 1bd 1ba just so I can go into work on really bad snow days; not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I considered distance from my home when hiring. My nanny lives 30-45 minutes away, which I thought was reasonable. I commute that far to work every day too. And she makes it in on snow days. But I interviewed people (over the phone) who were planning on commuting from 1.5 hours or further away. I didn't think that was sustainable. I was concerned she would quit or she would be late or would call out for snow on days when I needed to be at work.

[Anonymous]

We only considered nannies literally in our town or the next towns over. No 495 mess , not dealing with it, just setting yourself up IMO. Although our nanny still doesn’t come in during inclement weather if roads not cleared.