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The primary purpose of a nanny is to provide the best possible care and attention to the children of the family. When a nanny brings her own child to work, it naturally raises doubts as to whether or not the family’s children are receiving the nanny’s undivided attention.
Therefore it is often recommended that families simply not permit this arrangement. This is especially the case with a nanny who is new to the family, or one who has little experience in this line of work. In such cases will likely be preferable to try the nanny out on a trial basis without her child coming to work with her.
Typical concerns about the nanny’s-child-at-work arrangement could include competition among children, favoritism, quarreling between the children, undue neglect of one child for the other, conflicting diets, medical needs…the list goes on. Ultimately, if a family is not comfortable with the idea, they don’t have to allow a nanny to bring her own child to work.
Families who do allow nannies to bring their own children to work should understand that they are offering an important “perk.” But it should also be understood that this “perk” doesn’t have to negatively affect the hiring family. In fact, there are also a number of potential advantages: if the children’s ages and temperaments correspond, the nanny’s child could provide a new playmate and possibly broaden your child’s world and experience.
In addition, the mere fact that a nanny is a mother will likely add some, well, maternal qualifications to her resume. And if her child is nearby, her mind will be at ease, and she will be able to focus better on the task at hand: caring for your children.
Of course, the nanny should be worth it. Ease of mind is only important if it improves the overall quality of childcare, and if the nanny naturally has good attributes that outweigh the potential disadvantages of the nanny’s child-at-work arrangement.
This typically happens after solid, long-standing relationships have been established between nannies and their employers. Trust has been fostered through time, and therefore the nanny can be expected to complete her primary duties to her employer despite the presence of her own child on the job.
Indeed, one might ask, “how ideal can a nanny be anyway?” Nannies typically provide vast amounts of their time and emotional resources in exchange for relatively low pay. If it’s a good fit, the nanny’s child at work might be a worthwhile compromise.
Even when using nanny agencies, parents should be prepared for this question to come up during the interview process. (Note that some nanny agencies and online nanny services may not require this information before adding people to their listings.) Some very high quality nanny agencies don’t accept applications from nannies that insist on bringing their children to work. Decide in advance what your answer will be: “absolutely not” or “conditionally yes.”
If your answer is a conditional “yes”, be sure you can clearly explain to your potential nanny the circumstances under which the child can be brought into your home. These factors may include the age, gender, health and temperament of the nanny’s child.
Ideally, parents should find out the nanny’s child-on-the-job preference early on – this way, you can let the nanny know what your policy is, and avoid wasting time if there is simply no way to work around it.
For highly populated metropolitan areas such as New York and Los Angeles, families will have more nannies to interview, so finding a nanny without her own children she wants to bring to work will be less of an issue. Making up your mind beforehand will make the hiring process go much smoother. Also, the nanny’s salary will be impacted and you will need to have an idea of how much less you will pay her. Unfortunately there are no salary figures that we can provide you. We suggest that it should be on a case-by-case basis.
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