YES check references diligently, but also be sure to have a probationary period. I'm not a nanny any longer and when I switched careers the nanny that got hired after me seemed great. She came from the same agency and had seemingly great references.

Then a week passed and on Friday afternoon she explained that she had diagnosed the baby with some disorder because he cried all the time and she could never make him stop. To my MB pediatrician, she gave this analysis. Then explained how her PTSD made the crying difficult and sometimes she forgot where she was. DEAR LORD. So anyway, be prepared to make sure things are going well for the first few weeks as well as doing your due diligence during hiring.

PP here. I also wanted to add--check references very carefully and I also recommend Googling the references' names. We have had two cases of nanny applicants who faked their references which was quite unsettling. One we were very close to hiring.

OP, I wouldn't start looking more than 2 months out. We tried in the past starting earlier and all the great candidates got snatched up--they didn't want to wait that long to start working. In my experience most (not all, but most) nannies who are looking for a new job want one ASAP.

I think you are fine to offer one week vacation of her choice as long as you are letting her take off the time when you are on vacation, and paying her for it of course. We do two weeks, week between Christmas and New Year's and a week of her choice, which is pretty standard. But she gets a ton of extra vacation in addition to that. You didn't mention sick days for the nanny but I would also offer 5 or so paid sick days. You don't want her to feel compelled to work when she's sick. We have never had a nanny take advantage of that; the good ones won't and I think paid sick time is very important at any job.

Yes nannies will normally care for sick children but I've often taken that time off when my child is really miserable--they just want a parent which I understand. I would personally not feel comfortable leaving a vomiting child with my nanny, I think that goes above and beyond the call of duty for her.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can feel however you want, but the fact is that guaranteed hours are expected and common. In exchange, the nanny offers stable availability every week, rather than needing to schedule extra jobs to supplement her unexpected and unpredictable change in income.

Surely you can see how much more common it would be for a nanny to lose out on some of her anticipated work time than it is for your place of employment to lose power. How often does that happen anyway? If my experience is anything to go by, most parents would change the schedule WEEKLY if they could. Luckily I'm not an indentured servant so we set it ahead of time.

I've never considered offering guaranteed hours to any of our many nannies over the last 7+ years. I have never had a difficult time finding anyone to take the job.

And this is why your opinion is of little consequence. You may not have trouble finding someone, but you clearly have trouble keeping them. Guaranteed hours are expected. No one wants to deal with you screwing with their schedule every week and a good nanny doesn't need to.

She doesn't need to have a track record of keeping one nanny for seven years for her opinion to be of consequence. Not everyone WANTS the same nanny for seven years. In fact, the engagement that long is closer to the exception rather than the rule.

Anonymous wrote:

nannydebsays wrote:I would start your search 3 months out, because some nannies actually respect the notice clauses in their contracts, and if you find a nanny in March who has to give 6 weeks notice, you'll be cutting things close by the time you've made an offer and signed a contract.

As far as your pay is concerned, 50 hours including OT at $15 - 17/hour is $825 - 935/week gross. Whether that's average, good, or great depends on where you live and what kind of nanny you are looking to hire.

I would offer 15 days PTO though to cover vacation, sick leave, etc. You can require that one of nanny's weeks off matches one of yours.

And guaranteed hours (same pay 52 weeks a year) have become more of an expectation than an extra, IMO.

I disagree. If nanny isn't working why should she be getting paid? All kind of other professional level jobs are the same. I've had employers that had a power outage and sent us home early without pay.

If your employer send you home early without pay then that's your job issues. Why are you crying here go talk to your boss.