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Op, I disagree that you don't "need" any training. If your kids are grown and gone, it's been a while since you cared for an infant/toddler/preschooler, correct?
I believe parents would be more likely to give you a chance if you could tell them about your parenting experience AND show them that you are not only up-to-date on CPR/First Aid but also that you have taken some community college type child development classes focusing on the latest in safety standards, nutrition, and how to effectively engage children in learning through play.
Best wishes!
I believe parents would be more likely to give you a chance if you could tell them about your parenting experience AND show them that you are not only up-to-date on CPR/First Aid but also that you have taken some community college type child development classes focusing on the latest in safety standards, nutrition, and how to effectively engage children in learning through play.
Best wishes!
If there are people who have seen you working with your charges (teachers, coaches, etc.) you could ask them to provide a reference. You'd want to stress the confidentiality aspect of your request though.
OP, you need to do some research on the daycare laws in your state.
Then you need to research what family day cares in your area charge, and what services they offer. You also need to see what sort of financial output they make each week to keep their day cares running, and how they manage their businesses.
Then you need to take a good hard look at your skill set, and your husband's skill set, and determine whether either or both of you are suited to work with each other doing nothing but childcare 10 - 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. How do you feel about living where you work?
And then you have to consider if you have what it takes to get people to pay ridiculously high amounts to attend your day care. How much child care experience do you each have? Do either of you have an ECE degree, preferably a Masters?
Just to give you something to consider, I once thought about opening a exclusive infant care family day care. I had 15+ years of experience, mostly with kids under 3. I live in a major metropolitan area. Franchise day cares in my area charged $250/week for infant care with a 1:4 ratio. I decided that I would charge $400/week if I cared for 2 infants, $300/week if I cared for 3.
Then I started to look into what I would have to do to open my little infant care operation, and realized I would be working 16 hour days and buried in paperwork.
Day care is not the easy way to wealth and luxury.
Then you need to research what family day cares in your area charge, and what services they offer. You also need to see what sort of financial output they make each week to keep their day cares running, and how they manage their businesses.
Then you need to take a good hard look at your skill set, and your husband's skill set, and determine whether either or both of you are suited to work with each other doing nothing but childcare 10 - 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. How do you feel about living where you work?
And then you have to consider if you have what it takes to get people to pay ridiculously high amounts to attend your day care. How much child care experience do you each have? Do either of you have an ECE degree, preferably a Masters?
Just to give you something to consider, I once thought about opening a exclusive infant care family day care. I had 15+ years of experience, mostly with kids under 3. I live in a major metropolitan area. Franchise day cares in my area charged $250/week for infant care with a 1:4 ratio. I decided that I would charge $400/week if I cared for 2 infants, $300/week if I cared for 3.
Then I started to look into what I would have to do to open my little infant care operation, and realized I would be working 16 hour days and buried in paperwork.
Day care is not the easy way to wealth and luxury.
Anonymous wrote:How about if I come to your house and care for 6 neighborhood 3 & 4 year olds? Each of the parents pay me. Am I everyone's nanny?
PP, since I have no child in that mix (and if I did I wouldn't allow a single caregiver to manage that many kids in my home), you would be an uninvited intruder making an effort to take over my home and have it serve as your own family daycare.
A nanny goes to her employer's home to do her job. She may care for a child or children from 1 family, or for children from 2 or 3 families, b ut she does her work in one of the family homes, and is paid by each family. Nanny is an employee.
A family day care provider uses her own home or another suitable location to care for children from 1 or more families. The children may all be related or unrelated. There are rules and regs governing the number of kids permitted, and the care provider may have to take into account that her own kid(s) are in the mix. A family daycare provider is the boss of the daycare, and the parents are her clients. She sets her own rules, manages her own time, and if a parent dislikes how the FDCP provides care, that parent finds someone else to provide care. If the FDCP chooses to "fire" a family, she does so at her will and on her timetable. A FDCP is self-employed.
Anonymous wrote:nannydebsays wrote:Anonymous wrote:No. Just hourly. If nanny sleeps on the floor, that's her choice. No bonus for foolish decisions.
Yep, if the parents make stupid decisions, nanny just has to grit her teeth and suffer. No extra money, no nothing!
Ok Deb, it's not an ideal situation for a sitter - I get that. But I wouldn't call it a stupid decision. It's called co-sleeping and as a nanny you should support a boss's parenting choices instead of putting them down.
Generally co-sleeping is done in a large bed, which allows the parents to sleep as well. Parents choosing to put their kid in a crib and sleep on the floor in his room, apparently without a mattress...not very bright. And I am not THEIR nanny, so I can kind of be as critical as I like.
Work with him on object permanence, and when you can't pick him up, calmly tell him that and why.
Is his sister an infant? If so, has the escalation occurred since she showed up?
Good luck to you - this is a tough tough phase!
Is his sister an infant? If so, has the escalation occurred since she showed up?
Good luck to you - this is a tough tough phase!
You could always offer to do trial days on a weekend.
Anonymous wrote:No. Just hourly. If nanny sleeps on the floor, that's her choice. No bonus for foolish decisions.
Yep, if the parents make stupid decisions, nanny just has to grit her teeth and suffer. No extra money, no nothing!
Huh. PP I was honestly not aware that was an issue at all. Where is it that a person caring for 2 unrelated children in one of the children's homes has to have a home daycare license?
OP, you're overpaying by about $500/week for the care your (not so) fabulous nanny is providing. Let her go for cause, and find someone who is actually WORTH the enormous salary you pay. You can find someone who will do what she is expected to do. I promise.
Of course, if you've left a lot out of your post, like the size of your home that has to be cleaned vs. the time available to clean it, or whatnot, our responses won't be too much help.
Of course, if you've left a lot out of your post, like the size of your home that has to be cleaned vs. the time available to clean it, or whatnot, our responses won't be too much help.
If your nanny was sharing a room with your kids, you may want to be prepared for her to ask to be paid for all sleeping hours, since she wasn't given her own room.
And if she doesn't ask to be paid for sleeping hours even though she shared a room with the kids, offering her some extra for that time will go a LONG way in keeping your relationship positive.
And if she doesn't ask to be paid for sleeping hours even though she shared a room with the kids, offering her some extra for that time will go a LONG way in keeping your relationship positive.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Just a reminder that the sitter coming to your house is an employee and you legally incur other costs above the hourly rate. Using the SAHM in her home the cost is just the hourly rate.
Except if you call her a nanny share. The law is really screwed up about this. I don't really know how nanny shares get away with skirting the law. Normally if a child is being cared for outside of his OWN home, there needs to be a in-home daycare license.
A SAHM providing child care of any type in HER home isn't a nanny. She's a home daycare provider. She therefore needs to pay her taxes as a "self-employed" person, or she will pay her taxes as an LLC or some other business.
A nanny in a share is the employee of both/all share partners. She should be getting a check from each share partner each week, with taxes taken out.
Nannies, nanny employers, nanny share members, and SAHM's who offer child care only get away with "skirting the law" if they deliberately choose to be tax evaders. It's not a big mystery.
Anonymous wrote:Where Are you getting 4 kids from? Op's oldest would be I preschool most of the time since most Montessoris are 9 to 3. Having a kid for a relatively small part of say does not translate to the same work burden of 2 kids full time so why would rate be the same? And presumably other famt would also pay about 8 an hr - maybe 7 - on average so you are still in the 750 range at least per week. This might be a terrible wage in close in spots but it is a decent weekly amount out where I live.
Well, a nanny share would mean either 3 or 4 kids, right? The 2 kids from the poster's family plus a kid or 2 from the other family. And if the poster is paying $8/hour for 2 kids, it's logical the other family would pay $4/hour if they had one kid or $8/hour if they had 2 kids.
And Montessori programs for 2's can be 2.5, 3, or 4 hours or they can be longer which means the kids nap for 2 hours then go home at 3.
All of which still boils down to how is the OP saving money by doing a share and preschool? The math makes no sense based on my guesses, and since OP hasn't answered any questions, I guess we'll never know.
Anonymous wrote:I worked for a family with two children and brought my 1 year old as well. I charged $16/hour. I was the best nanny they ever had. I have tons of experience with kids, a great education and a dedication to children. I never put my kid first. I re-arranged my child's schedule to work with the other kids. They got an energetic, engaging, loving and hard working nanny...I was also a SAHM. Most of my SAHM friends are so wonderful with their kids. They have a knack for spending quality time with children. So, that's why sometimes (not always) a SAHM can provide great childcare. Why would you not pay for that?
So you went to your employers house? Then you didn't do what the OP is finding SAHM's wanting to do. The people the OP is talking about are running pseudo family daycares, but doing it at nanny prices. They expect the people who pay them to bring the kids to the day care, probably provide the food and other needed items, and so forth.
I have no doubt you were a terrific nanny. I do doubt that your employers would have been willing to pay you $16/hour to provide daycare at your own home.
I am also quite aware that some SAHM's are terrific. But SAHM's who decide to do daycare without any knowledge of reality based pricing are are not people I admire or respect.
Anonymous wrote:Pp with the math...I do not have a calculator I hand to double check and agree that if it is for 50 hrs then OP likely cannot get a decent solo nanny at a lower coat than daycare. But she may only need 40 hours or she may live in say LEESBURG. It is hard to say for sure what math works without knowing the hours total and where OP is located.
I think a nanny share plus preschool combo makes the most sense and is what we did. Also disagree that An average hourly rate of 8 for 50 hours is too low for a share. That would be a total of 800 a week for the nanny which is a pretty good amount for most places although perhaps not NWDC.
Yep, location has a lot to do with it, but IMO, unless you are willing to settle for a MUCH less experienced nanny, offering $8 for 50 hours of work (and that would have to include $12 for 10 hours of OT) for 2 kids is crap wages, because in this nanny share, the other family would, logically, expect to pay only $4/hour if they had 1 child, or $8 if they had 2 kids.
So you'd be asking the nanny to care for 3 kids for $12/hour, or 4 kids for $16/hour, 50 hours a week. Nanny would have to be able to transport at least 1 child to and from preschool 3 or so days a week. No nanny with any savvy and experience will take that job, when they could earn more money for fewer kids and not have to deal with 2 sets of parents. Not for $880/week or less.
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