As a Nanny, if I arrived early at my employer's house, I would feel awkward and embarrassed. I would much rather use the time sitting at a coffee shop reading a book or something. It is quite rude to hang out at your employer's house so early and impeding on their time. It isn't their fault you don't have a car.

I would tactfully let her know that you would prefer it if she didn't arrive any earlier than say 10 min. prior to her start time. You can say it is quite hectic in the mornings and make up some excuse that it is much easier on the family when there is no company around, etc. Hopefully she will get the hint. I know I would.

What an odd situation.

Given that there is a coffee shop down the street, can you get a gift card for her from the coffee shop, say $10-20? You can explain that you understand that she is having a difficult time with her transportation, so you've gotten her this gift card for the coffee shop so that she can have a bit more time to herself before starting work and your family can of course also stick with their normal morning routine. I know it might sound like a weird thing to do, but it is a more thoughtful approach than just telling her you don't want her there, while at the same time establishing that she does not come to your house so early. Hopefully once the gift card runs out she will continue to go to the coffee shop if she still needs to arrive early. If she turns around and says the gift card has run out and she needs to be there early again for an indefinite period, or she wants another gift card, then you need to just tell her that you're not comfortable with that and can she please find some other way to organize her day so or pay for her own coffee so that she comes to your house at her usual start time.

Having said that, if neither you nor she can afford to buy her a cup of coffee in the morning, then there's something wrong with this picture.

If she is a good nanny and you want to keep her than I think you should be able to work this out.

You people are acting like the average person can just go out and buy a car out of nowhere.

Just ask her to wait at the coffee shop. She is reliable and found an alternative way to get to work on time and your upset? If she doesn't need the car for work purposes than I don't see the problem, other then she's early which can be cleared up by you asking her to go to the coffee shop.

I'm sure that relaying on her bf isn't convenient and is probably annoying her. Who wants to get up extra early to wait at someone else's house until they start work? She probably can't afford a new car right now or has the credit to get a loan. I'm sure she rather have her own car and isn't dragging this out to make your life difficult.

I'm so grateful for my kind normal employers.

Anonymous wrote:When we hired our nanny she had her own car--a decent and reliable vehicle. A few months in, her brakes went out while she was driving and she ended up totaling the car. Long story short, her boyfriend has been driving her to work and picking her up every day for 2 months. On days he has to work she gets dropped off at 6:45 am (her start time with us is 8:30). Our employment agreement stipulates that she has to have reliable transportation not that she has to have her own car. Do we have any grounds to ask her to get a new car or at least show up closer to her start time so she's not hanging around in the early morning while we get ready?

If she was carrying car insurance, then hopefully her totalled vehicle would have resulted in her getting money toward a replacement. Of course, I realize that this is rarely enough to cover the full cost of a replacement car, it should be enough for a down payment. If she has spent this money already (or worse yet was driving around without car insurance) then she needs to take responsibility for that, not the MB.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Can she realistically afford a car on her wages? Unless she's paid better than what you usually see on this forum, I seriously can't imagine how these nannies afford rent or mortgage, much less a car. Something has to give.


I have to agree here. It can be very difficult to make ends meet on a nanny salary, let alone saving thousands of dollars for a vehicle.


No. The nanny is an adult who agreed to a job and a salary. Her budgeting is her problem, not her employer's. if they can't make ends meet on the salary, they need to get out of the nanny business.

Or she can get a better paying nanny job if she's good. Lots of nannies earn good wages with fabulous benefits.

Yes, she absolutely can. She's an adult and fully capable of changing jobs.

Pay her a decent salary.