Nanny share possible with twins?
Hello! We are first time parents expecting twins. I am doing some research on childcare for when I return to work. Is it possible to nanny share our twins + 1 or 2 from another family? Will nannies look after 3 children? Thanks for the insights!
Dec 31, 2019
Parent Replies
We did a nanny-share with our first, but then had twins and didn't share... mostly because we were a little too overwhelmed ourselves to find/work it out with another family. I think an experienced caregiver could probably handle twins + another kid, but it might be hard, particularly for the first few months. Of course, it also depends strongly on the individual kids - our twins are monozygotic, and I think fraternal twins may be more challenging, on average, since they are less likely to be in sync as far as eating/sleeping habits.
My wife and I are also interested in this. I assume a nanny + plus two sets of twins would be a bit much, but we are looking probably at the end of september.
Hi, if the purpose of sharing is to save money, that's not really going to work as nannies charge per child. With twins you are already your own share. And with very young infants/toddlers two is plenty for one nanny to handle. I spend every Friday at the parks and libraries with our twins, and it's rare to see a nanny with more than 2, unless they're older kids. I would be wary of nannies offering to take care of 3 or more babies. Also the cost of a nanny for twins is comparable to daycare, if you could find two spots. Getting a nanny for your twins is pretty much the only way to go.
It depends on the ages involved,but I doubt it. Twins as babies are hard, really hard, and unless the other child is older I doubt a nanny can handle two young babies and a toddler and I would imagine many parents would hesitate to partner with you for a nanny share with a concern that your twin babies will take the bulk of the nanny's time and will leave little time to their older child. You could consider nanny sharing your twins with another set of twins or other two kids and getting two nannies, as 2 nannies for 4 kids is better than 1 nanny for 2 kids even though the average is the same, but one nanny for 3 kids likely won't result in quality care for your baby twins.