Some parents feel it's beneath them to get their hands dirty by doing the work of parenting.

22:11 these are "accessory" children. Window dressing.

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a 24 hour position right now and have been here for almost exactly a year. I worked in a team of nannies, so there are always 2 of us on duty. There are three children, but the oldest has special needs. I work Monday morning through Friday morning, then have three days off.

One of us has to be up at 6 and get the middle one out the door to school. The other one starts at 7:30 and helps get the oldest to school. Then the person that started at 6 takes a break while the older two are at school. Then we both work until the children are in bed, so until at least 8:30, but sometimes as late at 10 or 11. The other nanny that I work with is great, so we switch off and share duties.

It's nice to have the 3 days off a week, but I usually spend Friday catching up on things. They also only bring one set of nannies on vacation weeks. They take at least 4 trips a year, so that is nice as well. As a result we get chunks of time off either before or after vacation.

This is an exhausting job and they have been through a lot of nannies! Although here it's not really the schedule that causes people to leave, but the MB.

Why do people have children if they don't want to raise them? These types of posts make me sad for the kids.

I'm in a 24 hour position right now and have been here for almost exactly a year. I worked in a team of nannies, so there are always 2 of us on duty. There are three children, but the oldest has special needs. I work Monday morning through Friday morning, then have three days off.

One of us has to be up at 6 and get the middle one out the door to school. The other one starts at 7:30 and helps get the oldest to school. Then the person that started at 6 takes a break while the older two are at school. Then we both work until the children are in bed, so until at least 8:30, but sometimes as late at 10 or 11. The other nanny that I work with is great, so we switch off and share duties.

It's nice to have the 3 days off a week, but I usually spend Friday catching up on things. They also only bring one set of nannies on vacation weeks. They take at least 4 trips a year, so that is nice as well. As a result we get chunks of time off either before or after vacation.

This is an exhausting job and they have been through a lot of nannies! Although here it's not really the schedule that causes people to leave, but the MB.

PP here again. I have done work that was work 4 days straight, get 3 off, and other work that was 5-7 days on then same time off, and you get so drained from all that work, that it can take all your days off to full recover. So in the end, you end up feeling like you were working just 5 days and 2 days off, since you lose more of your "relaxing time" just getting energy back and running errands. It's not like you get built-in fun vacations every other week like many would think it to be. I actually passed on doing stuff with friends more often when I worked those types of schedules than when I worked a normal work week.

It all depends on each individual family. I have worked with some where I got some limited amounts of time to relax, and others where it was non-stop work until they went to sleep. If you are working with a family that has school age children, and not as many duties to do while the kids are in school, then you will get more breaks. But you never know what will happen if you are starting off with younger children. The parents could ask for more house manager type duties once the kids get to that age where they are gone for hours each day, or they might just give you a split schedule and not pay you for hours they are in school. Some families are more relaxed than others, some are constantly doing things and expect you to constantly do things with the kids as well.

There is no real answer like you are looking for. Best thing would be to find out what hours they need you to do what (and what duties), and ask specifically about downtime during the interview.

24 hour schedules are really tough though. I know you would love having the extra time off and say you don't do much any day you work anyways, but you generally are "always on" and doing a 14-15 hour day and THEN being "on call"/babysitting at home for the rest of the night wears you out much faster than you might think. It is very stressful and many people get burnt out very quickly. People in positions like this are generally with wealthy families, and sometimes just the family themselves with a normal position can wear someone out quickly.

I have known a few families that had to hire a new personal assistant for the mom every 1-1.5 years, a new nanny every 1-2 years, and a new housekeeper every couple of years just because they were such a high maintenance family that had very high expectations (that all staff met), but it would just start to get to the person after doing it for so long, and they would have to leave for something else.

I posted a couple days ago about a 7 day on, 7 day off, 24 hour per day position that is open in San Fran. I'm looking into other jobs that would have similar schedules as well and hoping to hear from other nannies who work 24 hours per day but then have a few days off. How does it work? Do you get enough down time during the days you are on? Any other info, good or bad, would be great.