Can you have her do some PA stuff during that time? Grocery shopping, running errands, organizing closets, etc?

If you want her available for those hours, you must pay her.
I would just talk it over with her and see what she is willing to agree to. It will either work out for her, or it won't. She might appreciate time in the middle of the day to do her personal shopping, dr. visits, etc. when those places are less busy. But she might not want to end a seven hour day 12 hours after is starts.

Can you afford a nanny?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is an aba therapist most expect another adult in the home. If it is respite, then it is different. You are reserving her time. Yes, you pay her.

This is often the case but sometimes ABA therapists will take a child out for activities in the community, especially with older children.

Yes, but all the ones we talked to and used expected another adult/caretaker there. Part of ABA is parent/adult training to work with the child. When we did ABA, one of us had to be home. Sometimes we participated, sometimes not.

You don't need to pay the nanny for the hours your child is in therapy unless you need her to stay in the house for whatever reason. However, if you don't pay her, you can't expect that she will always be available if the therapist takes a day off or the child is too sick for therapy. You can ask, of course, but it isn't fair to expect that she will always be available.

Keep in mind that if what you are proposing will mean a pay cut, the nanny may not be willing to stay on. It will be hard to find someone willing to work a split shift.

What you could do is offer to pay a significantly reduced rate for the on-call hours in the middle of the day, but allow her to do what she wants with those hours as long as she remains available to work as needed. It would work for some people, not for others. Or you could release her from all obligation to you between 9 and 2 but propose an alternative schedule with more hours on the evening end so she can maintain the same salary. However, you would need to find other backup care for the hours when child is with the therapist. The split shift would turn off some people, but maybe you could reduce her overall hours to compensate for the challenging schedule.

Anonymous wrote:If it is an aba therapist most expect another adult in the home. If it is respite, then it is different. You are reserving her time. Yes, you pay her.

This is often the case but sometimes ABA therapists will take a child out for activities in the community, especially with older children.

^^The nanny should also be observing regularly what the therapist is doing with your child.

I don't really know why any one would agree to that schedule. You are essentially doubling the amount of time she spends commuting (and the associated costs). The time from the beginning to the end of her work day would be 12 hours- that's difficult even with a 4 hour break. It's not as if she could really use those hours to grab a drink with friends, get sleep, etc. It's not really enough time to find an additional job, as by the time she commutes she's probably got less than 3 hours to work. Overall, there is no incentive for the Nanny in this.

As a Nanny, the most I would consider is an unpaid lunch hour, as that's pretty typical in most other fields. If asked me to do your proposed schedule, I would accept, but then immediately start looking for a new position and give notice as soon as I found one.

Special needs "mommy" here. OP, can you switch her hours to 9-7 while your kid has this therapy schedule? Can she do some tasks around the house and run errands while the therapist is there? Do you want to retain this particular nanny or do you think you would be better off with someone else? Therapy and school schedules will change and, as you know, not everyone is good with special needs children. If your nanny is great with your child and very reliable, I would try to maintain her income (total hours and rate) and change the times only as necessary by having her come earlier or later by an hour at the most but not having a split schedule.

If it is an aba therapist most expect another adult in the home. If it is respite, then it is different. You are reserving her time. Yes, you pay her.

She was working from 8 to 6pm but she wasn't doing anything much from 9 to 2 except chit chat on phone and watch tv while the therapist worked on the kiddo.

What time was she working before this?
More than likely your nanny will quit and you'll have to fond someone for 7-9 and someone else for 2-7.
3 caregivers every day....no bueno.

Momies? Good Lord, how old are you? It doesn't matter if you decide to let your nanny leave early, She is there As requested by you, you pay her for this time.

If you don't pay her for the whole day, she'll get a new job. Simple.

Hi Mommies,


I am considering changing my hours for my full-time nanny who is on salary currently to being hourly.
We dont need that many hours because we have special needs kid who started getting a therapist that comes to take care of him for 5 hours each day and which is covered by insurance.
What I am proposing is that she comes in from 7-9 am and then leave and come back from 2-7 pm so the total working hours are 7 hours each day.
Do I need to pay her for the hours(9-1:30) everyday that she will be out of the house just to keep the option open in case the therapist is on vacation or the kiddo is sick?
Or can I just pay her on an as-needed basis when that happens?
I need to think of all this before I write up the contract.

Thanks