Anonymous wrote:Hi All, We are trying to hire a nanny for the first time. And we would like to know what the standard payment practice is if we are traveling for a long period of time, say a month?

My NF will often go away for 3-4 weeks straight, they pay me right before they leave for all the weeks they will be gone. I use that free time to take other clients or side jobs (and maybe a short vacation but not for 3 weeks) so I kind of feel bad getting paid for nothing and then get double paid basically for regular work so I often try to make it up to them a bit (I would do some extra hours for free but they don't ever take me up on that), basically by making sure everything is always perfect and making things easier whenever possible (taking a little bit of a managing role and planning things for the kids).

I think this is just the standard thing to do.

Also, if you are away for a month every year, you could see if she will assume other responsibilities - care for pets, housesit or whatever.

Will your Nanny be working full or part-time hours for your family

Wow, these responses are ridiculously rude. OP, you pay even when you are on vacation. You can in your contract specify that some of the nanny's vacation time must be taken during that period (i.e. one of her two weeks).

What hourly rate are you planning to offer, OP? Somehow I doubt you can really afford a nanny.

If you can't afford a nanny, please don't hire one and make her life miserable or give her anxiety worrying and stressing about her pay. When you travel for extended periods of time do you turn off your cable, gas, water etc? Or just tell the companies you didn't need it that month so you should pay something different than normal.

Hmmm a starting point would be calling up all of her creditors, landlord, utility companies etc and asking them to make sure not to charge her for that month, or give her a discount on her bills to offset your vacation pay. That way you just pay whatever you like and everything will be fine in her life.

You pay her if you want to come home to a nanny. Jeez dcumnanny@aol.com never ceases to amaze me . Her bills don't stop because on a whim you go on vacation

Hi All, We are trying to hire a nanny for the first time. And we would like to know what the standard payment practice is if we are traveling for a long period of time, say a month?