Deciding What Type of Nanny to Hire
Deciding what your needs are first will help you find the right nanny. There are
several different kinds of work arrangements, depending on your needs:
- Live-in nannies
Many families, especially those with larger homes or who have longer and/or sporadic
hours, offer live-in positions. Typically you would offer the nanny a room that
may have a separate entrance or a guest house. Most live-in nannies are younger,
new to an area and/or do not have a family of their own. College students are ideal
candidates if you have children who are in school, as her schedule will likely fit
with yours. Live-in nanny article
Live-in nannies should be offered room and board, and monetary compensation. Since
live-in jobs can vary so much, it's important to define the role up-front, to ensure
that you communicate what the requirements are and what kind of workload you expect.
Many families provide the usage of a car with a live-in job.
- Live-out nannies
Most nanny positions are live-out, which affords more freedom for a nanny who has
her own family or some other outside responsibility. She is employed for a set number
of hours and paid a weekly salary. Live-out nannies are almost always required to
own their own cars except in some urban areas where this isn’t customary (NYC
for example).Choosing a live-in or live-out
nanny article
- Full-time nannies
Although it generally means 40-45 hours per week, "full-time" is not necessarily
9 to 5. Pre-school children or babies will typically require early morning to dinner
hour. But school age kids may require care later in the day, when the nanny picks
them up from school and helps them with homework.
- Part-time nannies
Since most nannies want full-time work, part-time nannies are in very high demand.
If you only need someone part-time, try partnering with another family with the
same needs and working your schedules so that, between the two families, the nanny
works full time. Part-time nanny article
No matter what type of nanny position, they still all share the same general duties:
caring for the children, cleaning up after them and meeting their physical and emotional
needs while the parents are away.