Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shares are more.
Two sets of parents
Switching houses (sometimes)
One family might be out on vacation, but the other needs you - often less time off.
juggling parenting styles, etc

Somewhat off topic, but I've seen the "switching houses" comment a few times as relates to nanny shares on this board, and I've always been surprised. We've been in two different nanny shares, and have known several people in shares, and in 100% of cases, one family was the host all the time. For one thing, lots of families don't have the room or setup to host (and thus want/need someone else to host) and for another thing, swapping back and forth sounds sooo hard - diapers, wipes, pack 'n play, sound machine at both houses for both kids? I mean, for instance, between us and the other family (we host) there's three of a lot of things - one at their house, ours at our house, and then a third at our house for their kid during the week (sound machine and high chair both come to mind). If you're swapping do you have FOUR of these things? Or are you constantly carrying them back and forth? What about the double stroller? The only time the other family hosts is when it's JUST their baby (ex: if our baby is sick or we're on vacation). Our baby has never gone to their house.

Just seems to me that both theoretically and in reality, swapping doesn't happen and wouldn't work well. Maybe it's more common out in the 'burbs where people have more room (we're in Columbia Heights)? But I hear it mentioned on this board all the time. Anyone doing that who would speak up to how that works? I'm curious. Or maybe this is just a straw man that never (or super rarely) actually happens (kinda what I think).

It is somewhat rare to switch between houses, but I did it for a while when the two in my share were babies. It was several years ago, but I think Monday through Thursday would be at Family A or Family B's house (switching weekly) but Fridays were always at Family A's house because Family B didn't need a full day on Fridays.

If I'm being honest, I didn't enjoy it. Family B's mom worked from home and the townhouse was small - when we moved full time to Family A's house, things were much easier.