Nanny share rate vs. multiple siblings rate?

[Anonymous]

Is there a difference between how much a nanny charges for a 2-family share vs. two kids from the same family? Let's assume the nanny's commute to either house would be the same.

[Anonymous]

As I understand it, it's a smidge higher because you essentially double your number of bosses/people to answer to. But not dramatically. Maybe a buck or two an hour?

We pay $24 ($12 per family) for our share in DC, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

it's anywhere from $2 to 2/3 of the cost, depending on a variety of factors.

[Anonymous]

Shares are more.
Two sets of parents
Switching houses (sometimes)
One family might be out on vacation, but the other needs you - often less time off.
juggling parenting styles, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shares are more.
Two sets of parents
Switching houses (sometimes)
One family might be out on vacation, but the other needs you - often less time off.
juggling parenting styles, etc

Somewhat off topic, but I've seen the "switching houses" comment a few times as relates to nanny shares on this board, and I've always been surprised. We've been in two different nanny shares, and have known several people in shares, and in 100% of cases, one family was the host all the time. For one thing, lots of families don't have the room or setup to host (and thus want/need someone else to host) and for another thing, swapping back and forth sounds sooo hard - diapers, wipes, pack 'n play, sound machine at both houses for both kids? I mean, for instance, between us and the other family (we host) there's three of a lot of things - one at their house, ours at our house, and then a third at our house for their kid during the week (sound machine and high chair both come to mind). If you're swapping do you have FOUR of these things? Or are you constantly carrying them back and forth? What about the double stroller? The only time the other family hosts is when it's JUST their baby (ex: if our baby is sick or we're on vacation). Our baby has never gone to their house.

Just seems to me that both theoretically and in reality, swapping doesn't happen and wouldn't work well. Maybe it's more common out in the 'burbs where people have more room (we're in Columbia Heights)? But I hear it mentioned on this board all the time. Anyone doing that who would speak up to how that works? I'm curious. Or maybe this is just a straw man that never (or super rarely) actually happens (kinda what I think).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shares are more.
Two sets of parents
Switching houses (sometimes)
One family might be out on vacation, but the other needs you - often less time off.
juggling parenting styles, etc

You forgot a very important thing. Also the fact that: most of the times One of the family is nicest than the other; and it's hard to deal with both parents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shares are more.
Two sets of parents
Switching houses (sometimes)
One family might be out on vacation, but the other needs you - often less time off.
juggling parenting styles, etc

Somewhat off topic, but I've seen the "switching houses" comment a few times as relates to nanny shares on this board, and I've always been surprised. We've been in two different nanny shares, and have known several people in shares, and in 100% of cases, one family was the host all the time. For one thing, lots of families don't have the room or setup to host (and thus want/need someone else to host) and for another thing, swapping back and forth sounds sooo hard - diapers, wipes, pack 'n play, sound machine at both houses for both kids? I mean, for instance, between us and the other family (we host) there's three of a lot of things - one at their house, ours at our house, and then a third at our house for their kid during the week (sound machine and high chair both come to mind). If you're swapping do you have FOUR of these things? Or are you constantly carrying them back and forth? What about the double stroller? The only time the other family hosts is when it's JUST their baby (ex: if our baby is sick or we're on vacation). Our baby has never gone to their house.

Just seems to me that both theoretically and in reality, swapping doesn't happen and wouldn't work well. Maybe it's more common out in the 'burbs where people have more room (we're in Columbia Heights)? But I hear it mentioned on this board all the time. Anyone doing that who would speak up to how that works? I'm curious. Or maybe this is just a straw man that never (or super rarely) actually happens (kinda what I think).

It is somewhat rare to switch between houses, but I did it for a while when the two in my share were babies. It was several years ago, but I think Monday through Thursday would be at Family A or Family B's house (switching weekly) but Fridays were always at Family A's house because Family B didn't need a full day on Fridays.

If I'm being honest, I didn't enjoy it. Family B's mom worked from home and the townhouse was small - when we moved full time to Family A's house, things were much easier.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We live in the suburbs, as do the friends we want to share a nanny with. We currently pay our awesome nanny just over $20 an hour for a toddler. We were hoping to pay her $25 an hour in the share, but she wanted $30. We don't think either family would go for a share at $30 per hour total, since one of our key motivations for having a nanny is not having to do much pick-ups and drop-offs.

We are also hoping to have a second child in 2022, and exiting the nanny share arrangement at that time. If we did end up doing a nanny share at $30 per hour total, would our nanny be able to adjust back down to a wage of $25 an hour working just for us?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We live in the suburbs, as do the friends we want to share a nanny with. We currently pay our awesome nanny just over $20 an hour for a toddler. We were hoping to pay her $25 an hour in the share, but she wanted $30. We don't think either family would go for a share at $30 per hour total, since one of our key motivations for having a nanny is not having to do much pick-ups and drop-offs.

We are also hoping to have a second child in 2022, and exiting the nanny share arrangement at that time. If we did end up doing a nanny share at $30 per hour total, would our nanny be able to adjust back down to a wage of $25 an hour working just for us?

If you have a nanny at least 40 hours per week, you're already over-paying.
$25 for a share is generous.
If you bump her up to $30/hour for a share, there's no way she'll be willing to go down to $25 for just your kids.

[Anonymous]

Wow some nannies are making $25-$30 for one child
$28-$30 is a good rate for a share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We live in the suburbs, as do the friends we want to share a nanny with. We currently pay our awesome nanny just over $20 an hour for a toddler. We were hoping to pay her $25 an hour in the share, but she wanted $30. We don't think either family would go for a share at $30 per hour total, since one of our key motivations for having a nanny is not having to do much pick-ups and drop-offs.

We are also hoping to have a second child in 2022, and exiting the nanny share arrangement at that time. If we did end up doing a nanny share at $30 per hour total, would our nanny be able to adjust back down to a wage of $25 an hour working just for us?

A $5 per hour raise for another child is more than fair. High, even. I agree with you that $30 is unreasonable, and you'll definitely be locked in on that when it goes back to just your family since it'll be the same number of kids. I would MAYBE offer $26 if you really like her and want to make it work, and $13 per hour per person still saves you a fair amount over the $20 per hour you're paying now. But I wouldn't go higher than that.

(I'm the first poster above who pays $12 per family per hour in a downtown DC share).

[Anonymous]

Wow, I'm kind of amazed at these prices! I live on Capitol Hill, and for one child, the range is $22-25. The two shares near us each pay $30.

[Anonymous]

The industry standard for a share is that each family pays the nanny 2/3-3/4 of her one family rate. So if OP is paying $20/hour now, each family would pay $13-15 per hour in the share. So the nanny’s start-of-negotiations hourly rate was on target.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The industry standard for a share is that each family pays the nanny 2/3-3/4 of her one family rate. So if OP is paying $20/hour now, each family would pay $13-15 per hour in the share. So the nanny’s start-of-negotiations hourly rate was on target.

Where are you getting this, Nannies Quarterly?

3/4 is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We live in the suburbs, as do the friends we want to share a nanny with. We currently pay our awesome nanny just over $20 an hour for a toddler. We were hoping to pay her $25 an hour in the share, but she wanted $30. We don't think either family would go for a share at $30 per hour total, since one of our key motivations for having a nanny is not having to do much pick-ups and drop-offs.

We are also hoping to have a second child in 2022, and exiting the nanny share arrangement at that time. If we did end up doing a nanny share at $30 per hour total, would our nanny be able to adjust back down to a wage of $25 an hour working just for us?

I think your nanny is telling you she doesn't really want to do the share, without saying that. Like if you make it super worth her while she will do it, but she isn't interested. Just keep your nanny at your current payment level. You will be happier and have more flexibility and then not need to drop the share when baby 2 comes.