No longer need full time nanny - transitioning to part time. Your experience?

[Anonymous]

Our nanny is currently full time. We need her full time thru the summer, but would like to transition to part time in the fall. Our kids will both be in elementary school so we don’t need care during the day. We’d need roughly 25 hrs/week - several hours in the AM and several after school. Our jobs are such that we won’t be able to get the kids ready and then to school ourselves.

Would be interested in hearing from you if you’ve made this transition. Did your full time nanny stay on in a part time capacity? If not, how hard was it to find help in the morning and help after school? How long did the search to find someone take, and did you hire one person or one AM person and one PM person? How much notice did you give your full time nanny before you transitioned to part time?

Appreciate any input. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Our nanny switched to working from 8:30 to 4:30 (40 hours) to noon to 6PM plus a date night (35 hours). She took on home management, all grocery shopping and all laundry as well as errands before the kids came home. She was also available for sudden sick-days and the countless school holidays.

We could get the kids to school so I have no clue how or if a split schedule would work. Part-time sitters are notoriously irresponsible and unreliable.

Keeping nanny has been one of the best decisions we ever made. The kids can do afterschool activities and sports that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. She handles everything for us except general cleaning. We’re never running out to get the birthday party gift (she even wraps them!) or school supply. And having a trusted person who loves our kids is invaluable.

[Anonymous]

Finding someone reliable to do split shift is practically impossible, unless you have room for an AP.

If you need help both morning and afternoon, take to your nanny. See how she’d feel about taking on errands, grocery shopping and meal prep. Do NOT ask for household laundry, full cooking or full housekeeping, but she may offer some or all.

However, you need to be prepared for her to tell you that she’s already planning on moving on. Many, many nannies only work full time, and once the youngest child is in school, they start over with a single infant.

[Anonymous]

What will happen when school is closed for random days but you have to work, or one kid is home sick, etc,? We kept paying our nanny full time. Then when the pandemic hit, boom, we already had a full time nanny to help with school on zoom while DH and I worked from home.

[Anonymous]

Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

That’s why you pay for reserving the time in between shifts and/or add a few small things like meal prep, errands and groceries to increase the hours a nanny needs to be able to survive. Nobody should have to forego basics so that you can have a luxury; in home care is a luxury). Focusing only on cost will result in unreliability and sub-par care from a constantly changing set of sitters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

No, going from full time to part time shouldn’t come with a cost savings in a split shift. Plus two part time babysitters will most likely cost you the same as your full time nanny. And what about your kids’ sick days, sudden covid closures and school holidays? A full time nanny would cover those but parttime won’t.

My advice is to give your current nanny more responsibilities if she wants to stay with you. And that’s a big “if”. Lots of nannies only like working with little kids.

My kids are younger but we’ve already spoken to our nanny about staying on when the youngest starts preschool 9 to 2 and beyond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

My bosses kept paying me for full time for 1.5 years when the youngest started kindergarten. Then pandemic happened and here I was, ready for them, since they had guaranteed my time. I was paid to be on call just in case, and they lucked out with that since I’m a former teacher. Their friends who got rid of their nanny and hired cheaper nanny housekeepers really struggled, since most of those nannies didn’t speak English and couldn’t help with distance learning. Before pandemic, my boss could also text me at 6:30am and say hey one kid is sick, can you come in at 8am, and I would be up and at work on time, since I was paid to be on call and always kept my phone on just in case. I also worked all the random days off school and on breaks. Paying me full time meant I was available full time. Otherwise I would have had a morning job and they wouldn’t have had a teacher during the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

You are extremely underestimating how difficult it is to find someone to do this. It is not "difficult to hire for". It's impossible to hire for. No one worth having in your home and children's lives is going to happily work a couple hours, have the day unpaid, and then work again in the late afternoon. It's not going to happen.

So your options are 1. cobble together two part time nannies, 2. keep nanny on full time, and 3. get an au pair.

Can you get your kids to school? If so, it's really not that hard to get to 40 hours for your nanny. Have her do household management and one date night a week. Then she'll be available for sick days, no school days, school breaks, summer, covid shut downs, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

You are extremely underestimating how difficult it is to find someone to do this. It is not "difficult to hire for". It's impossible to hire for. No one worth having in your home and children's lives is going to happily work a couple hours, have the day unpaid, and then work again in the late afternoon. It's not going to happen.

So your options are 1. cobble together two part time nannies, 2. keep nanny on full time, and 3. get an au pair.

Can you get your kids to school? If so, it's really not that hard to get to 40 hours for your nanny. Have her do household management and one date night a week. Then she'll be available for sick days, no school days, school breaks, summer, covid shut downs, etc.

+1. It's going to be very hard to find anyone. Just make sure your nanny is actually willing to take on household management. Our nanny of 4 years is not willing to take on any household tasks beyond what she does now or work evenings or weekends (she currently picks up after the kids and that's it) so for us the answer will be 4. aftercare (we worked out adjusting our hours to manage mornings).

[Anonymous]

You're seeking the unicorn OP.

I agree w/ others suggesting you consider retaining the nanny full-time (if he/she is amenable to taking on any additional tasks) or you look for a part-time solution that is either morning OR afternoon, not both.

Or you get an au pair - this is exactly what an au pair solution can work for brilliantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're seeking the unicorn OP.

I agree w/ others suggesting you consider retaining the nanny full-time (if he/she is amenable to taking on any additional tasks) or you look for a part-time solution that is either morning OR afternoon, not both.

Or you get an au pair - this is exactly what an au pair solution can work for brilliantly.

A live-in nanny could work too.

[Anonymous]

My family paid me FT when mine both started school because they wanted me to be available for days off, snow days, sick days, etc. If they had asked me to work PT I would have said no. My mortgage didn’t suddenly become PT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 25 hrs at her current rate enough for her to live on? Most would quit to find a full time job. Split shift is the hardest to get. Everyone wants it and only wants to pay for hours "used"

So what is fair in this situation? Going from full-time to part time care should come with a cost savings, shouldn’t it? I understand split shift is difficult to hire for and that it will likely come with a higher hourly rate than full time care, but I find it odd to suggest that one should pay for more hours than are worked.

Do you think your nanny's expenses will go down, just because you won't need her full time? That her landlord will decrease the rent amount? That the cost of gas and wear on her car will actually be LESS when she is driving back and forth twice a day, instead of just once? Of course not.

And if you have her working a split shift, it decreases her ability to find another part time job to make up the difference.