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Parenting
Do you have a nanny who stays at your house?
Can I ask how much you pay an hour for two kids? Do you give her extra if she has to take the kids to certain activities (such as preschool)? Also, if she's there for lunch/dinner, do you expect to feed her as well (I'm assuming yes)? We may have to hire someone soon to watch the boys if my ILs don't work out as they have in the past and I have NO clue what is a good hourly rate. We have never even had a babysitter other than our parents. TIA
Marcey
Kaden William 11/4/06 and Dawson Michael 6/30/10
Dawson's first birthday - at the zoo
Kaden William 11/4/06 and Dawson Michael 6/30/10
Dawson's first birthday - at the zoo
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Do you have a nanny who stays at your house?
Eek, that sucks-good luck. We've never had anyone besides family watch our boys either.
My sis in Chicago had one. ?M-F breakfast to dinnerish, plus random weekends when needed. ?She took the girls to school, did the laundry, grocery shopping, picked the kids up & shuttled them to & from after school activities, helped with homework, sometimes made dinner... They just let her buy her food as needed as part of the grocery budget. ?Also helped pay for her car and bought all necessary carseats. ?
She made well over 50k a year, just not sure how much over. ?If you're in Chicagoland, they're mostly kinda $$. ?And apparently mostly Polish lol
Check into getting an au pair....they are live-in, work about 45 hrs/week for about $200/week. It is an international girl ( I think most are 19-25 yrs old or so), that comes for a year (or maybe 2). Many are fluent in English and can drive. Our agency local to Indy is aupaircare.com....maybe they could link you with an agency local to you. There is a matching fee, and you provide room/board. My cousin has had once since July '09 (3rd match) and I will most likely go this route when I return to work.
I was a nanny through college and made $10 an hour. I was paid whether I was there or not and was given money for any activities I did with the kids. They gave us money for lunch/dinner or I just ate with the kids and they gave me gas money.
Both DH and I work odd shifts, so we'd only need someone 1-2 days a week and sometimes not even for an entire day.
My mom knows someone in our area who is a teacher, who can't find a job. My mom seems to think she'd do it for $10 or less an hour, but I'm not even sure that's a fair wage.
Kaden William 11/4/06 and Dawson Michael 6/30/10
Dawson's first birthday - at the zoo
DS - December 2006
DD - December 2008
When I worked out of a home office, we had a nanny M-Th, 9am-4pm. We paid milage for any driving she did and any activities. She brought her own lunch with her but if she took DD out, we paid for it. We piad $10 hour, which was sort of low for our area but we did have a gaurantee in place--we gauranteed her 30 hours a week (or $300). As you can see from her set hours, she was really only scheduled for 28 hours a week but we always paid her for 30. On the rare occasion she worked more than 30 hours, we paid her $10 for every hour she worked.
We did it this way because most of the nannies in our area were making $12-$15 per hour and worked 40-50 hours a week so they were earning a lot more in a week than we were willing to pay. Since I almost always sent our nanny home early, she really only worked about $24 hours a week but was paid for 30 so she was happy with the deal and we both felt it was a win-win.
In your case, maybe set a gaurantee of 8 hours a week at $10-$12. It sounds like you won't need her 8 hours so most weeks she will come out ahead. But you will have her reserved for a full 8 hours in case you ever want to stop and do errands, etc.
the success all depends in the matching process. You have to know what things are non-negotiable and which are negotiable. My cousin's first au pair was from Brazil, and while she claimed to know some English, she knew nothing. My cousin had to type out instructions daily, then use an online translator to print them in Portuguese. She also claimed to know how to drive, when, in fact, she didn't know basic road signs. That match didn't last....but my cousin quickly found out how those were two non-negotiables as her husband was hauling the kids 40 minutes to take the au pair to class, hanging out 2 hours, then back home and the kids got to bed at 10 p.m.
The girl they have now, is from Germany, is fluent, and had already studied for her IN driving license before she got here. She took the test the 2nd day here and passed easily.
Marce - I know you may not 'need' her for 45 hours of child care....but it may be cheaper than a PT nanny. You can use her for household chores as well...laundry/vacuuming/cooking/etc. and you could regularly schedule her for a Friday/Saturday date night or GNO (and she probably would be comfortable watching your friends' kids for a GNO as well).
Only you know what is best - I'm just throwing an idea out there.
Au Pairs aren't as cheap as you make it out to be. In every family I know with an Au Pair, the family was required by the agency to provide a car for the Au Pair's use. If you happen to have a spare car, that's great. But if you have to lease one just for the Au Pair, you have to figure that into the cost. Also, you have someone in your house 24/7, so there is the additional utilities, groceries that she would use. Agencies are also very specific about the accommodations--au pairs need rooms of a minimum size and reasonably private bathrooms. They usually don't require their own, but it usually has to be a bathrrom shared only by the kids the au pair is responsible for and the au pair--not a bathroom the whole family uses. They make a small weekly wage but they are not intended to be cheap foreign labor. They have to get something else out of the deal (lifestyle) or you would be breaking minimum wage laws.
As an aside, I know of three families who had HORRIBLE experiences with au pairs. In one case, the family suspected abuse and it all came to a head when they found their 8 month old crying in her crib unconsolably. The parents took her to the ER where they discovered she had a broken hip (she rolled off the kitchen table and the au pair didn't know what to do or how to get help so she put the baby in her crib for the rest of the day.) The baby was in a body cast for 4 months. The Au Pair was removed from the home by the director of the agency in the presence of a police officer before my friend even got home from the ER. My friend was horrified to discover that instead of returning that girl to her home country, she was placed with another family with young children within the week.
In another case, it was just a matter of mismatched expectations. The au pair was pissed because she thought she was coming to America to be placed with a rich american family and live the high life. it was a bunch of little things, like the au pair let the family know how dissatisfied whe was with the Saturn they gave her to drive--all the other au pairs in the area drove BMW's. It was all minor stuff but the au pair was unhappy and she made everyone else in the house miserable.
Finally, I know a divorced mom who wanted a male au pair for her sons. He arrived from Poland on Thanksgiving morning. The next day, my friend had to bail him out of jail after he totalled her car on 8 Mile Road (yes, THAT 8 Mile) with a prostitute in the car. He was under the impression that anything goes in America as long as you pay for it. Although I have to give him props for knowing about 8 Mile and locating it so quickly. The legal expenses and damages to her car cost a couple thousand bucks.
So inviting a young person from abroad into your home to care for your kids can sometimes cost a lot more than the $200/week wage.
I never claimed it to be "cheap foreign labor". I was throwing out the option. I also don't claim to be an expert on the subject, nor am I ignorant, either. We also know 3 families currently with au pairs....one of two doctors that have 2 au pairs for their 2 kids, and another of a divorced mom with 2 school age children. I talk about my cousin's situation because that's the one we know best...but the other families have used the same service for much longer than my cousin - so they are obviously very happy. Unfortunately your friends have had bad experiences, and that sucks. But having an au pair is an excellent option for some families.
We had two nannies on alternate days. At first, we only had them when one of us worked at home, but that became difficult to schedule, and also, the kids became very comfortable with them, and we trusted them wholly. As far as the kids' stimulation and safety, I would say I trusted them more than my own mother and MIL. Mainly because moms really think they know best and won't always listen t you, but nannies will follow your instructions. But, it took us a long time to get there with them, only because I am a paranoid freak when it comes to my kids.
We paid $10-$12 per hour for one child and $15 per hour for two. They fed them (although, when we worked from home, we all ate lunch together), took them to school/activities, and sometimes, if we got home late, they bathed them as well. One nanny was really great about cleaning up after them, and just cleaning in general when they were napping because she's a neat freak and my house really bugged her. The other nanny wasn't so great about cleaning up but she was also the more fun nanny. We did not pay extra to have them take the kids anywhere, unless they took their own car, in which case, we paid the state's regulated per mile stipend for gas/wear and tear.
ETA: They each received 2 weeks paid vacation per year, and 40 sick hours, where they were paid regardless. Also, if they had days off because of our schedule or because the kids were sick, they were paid anyway.
I'm sorry my my comments seem to have offended you. They weren't aimed at you in particular, it was just general discussion about whether au pairs are actually a cheap option for Marce. And I never said I thought you were ignorant. Just trying to add to the discussion around here. Sorry you took it so personally,
You're fine. I just felt like your impression was that I've read some blurb of an article about it and became an advocate of something. If I didn't think it was a legitimate idea/option and have a good understanding of the system, I wouldn't have suggested it.
No big deal....we're just discussing something she isn't interested in her post....lol. Probably a waste of all our typing.