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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.[/quote]

+2 I considered a share once. I have several friends in shares and they said the same thing above. Hosting has some drawbacks in terms of wear and tear on your home, [b]expense of using time controlled heat/A/C, [/b]and needing to keep extra stuff around but the benefit is that the nanny does do house related tasks. I opted for our own nanny. I was upfront in the interview about what child related and non child related household tasks were including. None of the candidates had a problem with this. All the reference checks confirmed that the candidates did a good job on these things in their previous jobs.

There seems to be a small group of crazy nannies on DCUM who believe they should get 3-4 hours downtime in an 8-10 hour day. This just isn't the norm in the actual world. [/quote]

If it makes that big of a difference to run your heat/AC during the day, you need to invest in better windows for your home. 
I have NEVER seen a nanny on here complaining because she doesn't get 3-4 hours of downtime. Never. Not even once. But an hour of downtime? Possibly even two hours if the nanny isn't feeling 100% but still comes to work because that's what the parents want? Yes. It's very nice to have.[/quote]

This. No nanny on here is asking for hours on end to sit and stare at the wall. There are college students who are saying they get paid less than other nannies, so their employers should not expect a whole bunch of extra stuff during nap time. They use that time for homework. That's what you get when you hire a cheaper student. Other nannies are saying that nap times are not set in stone, ESPECIALLY in a share. There are too many variables, and in the end nanny doesn't get much more than an hour maybe 2 on a good day, and loading a bunch of extra tasks that weren't discussed at hiring onto her isn't "getting your money's worth", its nickel and diming your nanny, which I'm sure you'd hate for her to do to you, and it eats into the actual small amout of very much needed downtime she gets.

I posted earlier as a share nanny with charges that take a predictable 2 hour nap daily, and I illustrated how that time gets whittled down to an hour on a day where everything goes perfectly(maybe 3 times a week). If my employers added tasks to my day, I wouldn't get to eat my lunch in peace, and not having time to decompress would greatly decrease how happy I was in my position. When that happens, I leave. If getting everything you can from your nanny is worth that much to you, it better be worth losing her. You should also ask yourself if you're prepared to pay for every single minute you're ever late, or leave before her start time in the morning. I did the math once (my employers frequently leave 5 minutes before my actual start time, and are often 10 minutes late in the evening) and they'd owe me almost a week and a half's pay each year (that week's salary bonus *ahem* that "isn't necessary" *ahem*). Don't nickel and dime your nanny unless you're just as strict with yourself, and if not, be prepared to lose her. [/quote]

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