Never, never accept reduced wages for agreeing to live-in. The hardships outweigh any monetary savings. Believe me.

I have had apartments nearby provided by families before and that is the best situation of course. I was a true "live-in" once for less than a year and it was not enjoyable. Like the PP said some of the issues were noise, hearing people outside your door was awkward and since you weren't family it seemed like I should keep my door closed so it could truly be my space. My family was two young school age boys and they always wanted to play, you never are truly off unless you are going to be really strict and then you would probably have an even stranger relationship with the family.

Eating, cooking, etc was also strange. If there were dishes in the sink, especially only 2 or 3, it felt really strange and petty to just wash my plate and cup and leave their things there. Especially if I had to lay out a towel to dry my things it was so awkward to think of leaving their dishes in the sink.

Storing food, even if you share nothing, just seemed strange.

I also never invited anyone over except on days I knew the family was going out for a long time. They would tell me their plans and I would plan my life around house availability.

Never again, if they aren't offering an apartment I won't consider live-in.

I was a live-in once and won't ever do it again. The family that I worked for was truly amazing but I just felt like their were more "negatives" then positives. My nanny suite was in their basement which I thought would be great since it was private from the family but the kitchen was above my room and oh my god the amount of noise that I would hear every night, morning and weekends drove me insane. All I wanted to do on a Saturday morning was sleep in a bit and I'd be woken up to stomping above my head at 7am every morning. Another thing was that the todder's playroom was also in the basement and there were MANY weekends where he would come knocking at my door asking me to play with him. My bosses did tell him that he was to not bother me but 2 1/2 year olds tend to not listen very much! Another thing was that I didn't have a walk out so for me to leave, I had to go upstairs to leave and there were times when I would be about to leave and MB would be home by herself and the baby would be crying while she was trying to get the toddler to nap and I would just feel bad leaving and would take the baby for her so she could get the toddler to sleep so I felt like a lot of the times on the weekends, I was "working" for a bit.

As far as visitors, that family actually told me that I was more then welcome to have guests over on my off time but not having a walk out made it just seem really awkward for me. I didn't mind having friends come over but I don't think I ever would have been able to have a guy come over as I would have been parading him through there house to get him into my room!

Looking at a few live in jobs. What can I expect?

-Do most bosses allow visitors if I have my own private quarters/entrance?
-Job creep seems more likely if I live in the house.

Share ideas and thoughts please nannies and MBs!