Anonymous wrote:21:57 - how much do you think someone like that would be paid?

It sounds like a good option, especially since giving them close to full time also gives us backup on school vacations, sick days, etc. Thanks!

This will depend on a lot of factors - do you want someone with a lot of experience, a college degree, teaching/nursing/special needs experience ($$$) or would you be content with a younger nanny with less experience or less of a formal education ($)? Do you want a legal nanny or do you want to pay under the table? Do you want a native English speaker or would you be happy with a foreign-born nanny? How many hours per week do you want to commit to paying her for?

The range of pay for nannies varies dramatically, as evidenced by the many arguments on this board. If you can financially swing it and want someone for 35-40 hours per week, I suspect you could get a great, mid-young (30s), educated, experienced, and American-born household manager/nanny for $20/hr (gross). You're also looking at a package that includes some holidays, some sick days, and some vacation time (potentially a health care stipend as well, which isn't common yet but really sweetens the pot for the best candidates). If you're offering over 40 hours per week, you could drop that down to $18/hr (gross) as OT pay would help make up the difference in the hourly rate. If you go for someone a little older, whose kids are already grown for example, you could probably offer less as well.

Some people will post here and say you could find someone for $15/hr - which may be true. The only way to know for sure is to find some candidates you like and see what they are charging, then you'll know which nanny pool you'll want to hire from and can adjust your offer accordingly!

21:57 - how much do you think someone like that would be paid?

It sounds like a good option, especially since giving them close to full time also gives us backup on school vacations, sick days, etc. Thanks!

I'm the first PP and upon reading your post again I realized I should have added - an au pair might be an excellent fit for your family. Post in the AP forum to get more specific advice there.

Oops, I meant earlier than preschool age. Is your 3 yr old going to be going to school with the same schedule daily? You would need to find someone that does have experience with this age group of course, but honestly a 3 yr old is much more grown up than a 2 yr old is, and you shouldn't have that hard of a time finding someone with previous experience with both ages to take on something like this.

Adding in the housekeeping could either make it easier to find someone or harder, it really just depends on who happens to be looking for a position at the time you are looking to fill it, and if they are right in everything else. I might leave that as a possibility for the right candidate, but not include the household manager/housekeeping part until you found someone you liked with everything else that would also want to do it. You can easily find another housekeeper alone if needed.

I like what PP said, but there is another option. If you don't need the person to do the housekeeping or it won't amount to many hours for that part of the position, you can consider a college student that has nanny/babysitting experience. Maybe someone going to school for ECE credits.

Summers are usually off and they would have more time to work, and then when going to school the rest of the year, the PT hours might work better with their schedule. It all depends on what type of person you want to hire to care for your kids, but most should be able to deal with your children easily enough since they don't seem to be young (preschool age) and a good portion of people that do PT after school care are college students anyways.

If the schedule is pretty regular (like 2-6pm everyday and maybe one day a week 12:30-6 if they have an early dismissal day), then that is something that can be easily worked around with a college schedule. If it would randomly be some days 12:30pm and not always the same day each week, then that is harder to fit with a class schedule and you might need to look for someone that is doing this type of work without classes (maybe has a morning position to bring in extra hours but won't have any conflicting hours with your position).

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what kind of candidate to look for, or even if I should be looking for multiple. 2 kids, ages 3 and 6. Can be live-in or live-out. Totally stumped/overwhlemed.

1. I need someone for full time child care this summer while school is out. It will be just under full time for 6 weeks of camp.
2. I need someone part time during the school year to do school pick ups, extra curricular activities, etc. Day would start at 12:30pm at the earliest.
3. I need help around the house. We need to replace our bi-weekly housecleaner, but are also open to more of this type of time, household manager-ish work if it makes up for the part-time hours in the fall.

Do you think this can be covered well with just one person? Continuity is definitely my preference for the kids sake. I think we'll be able to pay more competitively for a live-in, but are also open to live-out. Also open to au-pairs.

THANK YOU!

You probably want to hire a household manager or housekeeper/nanny combo (depending on what you need done around the house) and just clarify that the summer months will be nannying FT and her other tasks will begin in the fall, giving her plenty of time to get oriented. You'll need to commit to FT or very very close to FT (35+hr/wk) work all year long in order to appeal to an experienced and competent candidate. If you can't guarantee those hours, you're probably looking at hiring a summer-only nanny for the summer months and a different PT candidate beginning in the fall (most nannies who are looking for FT work will be unhappy with PT hours, as she'd need to find another job to fit the open hours in her schedule, which is why I don't recommend dropping your first nanny's hours to PT but rather hiring someone who is looking specifically for the number of hours you can offer.)

I'm not sure what kind of candidate to look for, or even if I should be looking for multiple. 2 kids, ages 3 and 6. Can be live-in or live-out. Totally stumped/overwhlemed.

1. I need someone for full time child care this summer while school is out. It will be just under full time for 6 weeks of camp.
2. I need someone part time during the school year to do school pick ups, extra curricular activities, etc. Day would start at 12:30pm at the earliest.
3. I need help around the house. We need to replace our bi-weekly housecleaner, but are also open to more of this type of time, household manager-ish work if it makes up for the part-time hours in the fall.

Do you think this can be covered well with just one person? Continuity is definitely my preference for the kids sake. I think we'll be able to pay more competitively for a live-in, but are also open to live-out. Also open to au-pairs.

THANK YOU!