Nannies during Covid

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Parent Q&A

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COVID precautions, nannies, and nanny shares
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Jan 9, 2022

Hi - There are some older threads on this from 2020, but I'm interested to know how people are working with nannies now in terms of COVID precautions, especially new nanny contracts. My baby is 4 months old, so I'm especially interested in people with children <1 year old.

Are you asking the nannies to wear masks? What other restrictions are you expecting in their own time, and how do you communicate about it? How do you approach the risks that other members of their own household take? What interview questions did you find most helpful in getting a good understanding of a nannies' thinking and behavior around COVID?

For nanny share families, how well aligned are you, and how do you navigate this? How did you go about finding a family that was well aligned with you in your thinking? How do you stay in touch about it?

Thanks for any insights or experience on any of these topics!

Jan 9, 2022

Hi there - I am just starting out in a nanny share with another family. I have a 9 month old boy, and the other child is also a 9 month old boy.

We've been advised by our pediatrician to ask our nanny to mask until the current surge is over. We're also asking her to test 1x/wk before the start of each work week. We're providing tests for her.

Our nanny has 4 school-age children which puts her at a pretty high level of exposure. She and her entire household are fully vaccinated. We didn't ask her to comply with any social restrictions beyond what any reasonably COVID-cautious person is doing right now. In talking to her we got the sense that she would be very protective of the babies wrt exposure.

Hope this helps.

Jan 12, 2022

We recently contracted Covid and it’s fairly certain it’s from our nanny’s school age kids as her whole family is ill. N95s work well if the person is willing to do that. Our neighbor’s nanny caught Covid from her son but luckily it was over winter break so they had not seen her. It all depends on your risk tolerance at this point. Nanny’s are not generally well paid and even if they don’t have kids will live in shared housing increasing risk. That said, we are glad our boy sees has seen nanny’s loving face for the last 18 months even though we did get COVID. Now that kids are back in school and seeing friends etc. there are many more risks.

Jan 12, 2022

Our nanny has guaranteed wages. So if we go on holidays and I do not need her, she is paid Regardless. At The beginning of Covid we had just hired our nanny and she had only been working two weeks before me completely shut down.
We paid her for the time she was off until we felt it was OK to bring her back into the household. So basically we paid her for four months even though she wasn’t working for us.
When searching for a nanny we made sure that we had somebody on the same page as us. She, like us are fully vaccinated and limit our potential exposure.
The family & Nanny also test once a week at our house. I supply the test for her.
She does not wear a mask and I don’t require her to but I’ve heard other people make their nannies do so.
I am not a share and specifically pay our Nanny to be exclusive to us only. We pay her $40 an hour plus benefits.
I would assume when doing a share that you would have to get a family with the same values as yours.

Jan 12, 2022

For our 6-month old, we just made sure that our nanny was boosted and that we got the sense she takes COVID seriously by avoiding large gatherings and things like that. At least while this surge is ongoing. We didn't place any "restrictions" on her beyond that - I felt that once trust was established, we had to just roll with that.

We preferred a nanny that did not wear a mask when watching our daughter, as we believe it would negatively impact the attachment and development and relationship. I understand this may be different for different families, and its all about your comfort level. We have taken COVID very seriously from the start, and are still pretty much hunkered down. We also didn't think it would be fair for us not to be masking inside if the nanny was.

These concerns are why we avoided a nanny share for now, although I acknowledge that is a privileged place to be.

Jan 12, 2022

Our nanny and children wears masks outside in public places but not inside our home or the other home of the family that we share the nanny with. Our nanny has children of her own who are vaccinated so we just ask that they are careful but one of them has a full time job in a retail setting so there is only so much that we can do. Biggest recommendation I would have is just to constantly check in with the other family and your nanny about what their respective comfort levels are. Things are changing on almost a daily basis so what might be okay one day could be different the next.

Jan 12, 2022

We decided it was unreasonable to set guidelines for someone's personal life or try to manage them across families, so we chose a daycare center that we felt had good protocols in place. It has been going really well, and is one less thing for the parents to have to "manage" day to day. Now we send our kid and we don't personally worry about how the teachers spend their personal time, because we know the center is doing what it can and has processes in place for every little thing. I can say it's been extremely helpful.

Jan 12, 2022

We just started with a single nanny for our 4.5-month-old, after trying to make a nannyshare work. The share didn't work out because the other family had strict budget requirements and ended up going with a daycare. Their general COVID precautions were similar to ours, though. (Aside from, ya know, going to a daycare. It was a small one though, only 4 infants.) I think it's a lot easier in the Bay Area to have these conversations than in other places where they may not be as COVID conscious!

The nanny we found already takes many precautions, such as wearing a mask all the time and avoiding gatherings. Her children are grown and do not live with her (ie go to school and be a potential vector.) You can ask them what they did the past weekend, since that gives you a good general idea of what level of precautions they're already taking. As a formality, I wrote up an addendum to our contract that specified the COVID precautions we expected (I'm in SF so some of it's specific to SF): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vham_V-7pSiv2ZhgfuC87IblvGMFKbsRTTD…;

In general, I chose to control our environment more than strictly controlling behavior while not at work. Every morning before the nanny arrives, I open the windows in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. And then I set the air purifier in the living room to run for 8 hours. My husband and I work from home and still mask up upstairs around the nanny, although we take masks off downstairs in our workspace (nanny is never there), and close the door after turning on the air purifier there.

I joke that perhaps I am the most qualified person to write something like that, because I spent all of 2020 in charge of website content strategy for San Francisco's COVID response!

Jan 12, 2022
Covid testing protocols for Nanny
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Dec 24, 2021

Hi all,

Looking for suggestions for setting up Covid testing protocols for our new nanny in a new nannyshare arrangement. We would like to be as reasonable/unburdensome to her as possible, but we want to be effective enough to protect the babies.

We are starting a nanny share next month with another family. Both baby boys in the share will be 9 months old, and consequently are unvaccinated. Both sets of parents are triple vaxxed and very Covid-cautious. Our nanny has four school-aged kids so her exposure level is somewhat high.

Looking for any suggestions or plans you've implemented, pros/cons, etc.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Caitlin

Dec 24, 2021

Our nanny (who is also triple vaxxed and very covid cautious) takes a rapid test immediately before coming on Mondays and Wednesdays (we provide her with the rapid tests in advance). I’m not sure this is a perfect solution but think it’s our best bet considering the circumstances. Our daughter is also six months old.

Dec 29, 2021

I would recommend adopting some of the protocols teachers in grade schools use. They are around children all day who are too young to be vaccinated. My sister is a first grade teacher in the Bay Area. They are tested once a week or twice a week I believe. You can get rapid result test kits from CVS. 2 tests per kit. They provide results in 30 minutes. It's easiest to order these online. Shipping only takes a few days. They are about $25 per kit. My wife and I run a maid service called Spring Into Clean and our employees use these as well. We also ask them to complete daily health checks such as taking their temperature and checking for symptoms that the cdc has said could be indicators of Covid. Hope that helps!

Dec 29, 2021

I assume that you have confirmed both the nanny and everyone in her household is fully vaccinated and boosted as age-appropriate? If you haven't, that's step one. Next, my child's private school is doing weekly testing and that seems reasonable here too. I'd have her do the home tests once a week at the nanny share location, and one of the parents sticks around and verifies the results. (and it's paid time for her) Having her go to an offsite testing facility seems burdensome and expensive. FYI, at my government workplace with a vaccine "mandate", the unvaccinated employees have to go get tested once a week offsite and provide the employer the results via secure portal, but it is paid time including their travel to/from the testing site. I really doubt you'd want to do that in your situation.

Dec 29, 2021

Hi Caitlin, I think it’s great you want to make this as worry free for your new nanny. I would start out by recognizing that though you view her as having a somewhat higher exposure level at home, please realize she is accepting that huge risk by entering your home, your families, and caring for your unvaccinated children. Yes she has children in school, but lately I’m feeling like some of us hide behind our “covid consciousness” when in fact we are just as exposed as someone else might be. (Enter in all the many people who come in contact with contactless pick ups etc), sorry to vent. I’m an essential worker much like your nanny who has been out in this for the entirety.

It seems reasonable to me that you would provide her, and your entire families, with weekly rapid tests that can be done from home, good quality masks, etc. Sending home 5-10 rapid tests for her to have on hand at home would be helpful to in event one of her kids or she has a symptom. It would be good practice for you to do the same. Much like a school, it should be agreed upon that neither baby will participate in the share if symptoms are present (how many symptoms could be decided upon by your nanny and both families).

Perhaps most important, working to have a blame free, non judgemental and open dialogue when situations do come up (birthday parties, is she comfortable going to library/music lessons/socializing with other babies etc).

You are fortunate to have found a nanny amidst all of this and it seems essential to protect and support your caregiver as best you can.

Jan 3, 2022
Weekly COVID Testing for our Nanny
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Sep 15, 2021

Hi! I'm looking for advice on weekly COVID testing options for my Nanny in either Hayward or Oakland. I'm trying to make it as convenient as possible, but we would like to have it done weekly, and I know there are free places to get it done, does anyone have any recommendations?

Sep 15, 2021

Consider buying at-home COVID antigen tests (Amazon, CVS, etc sell them). They average about $20 each but are quick and easy to do from home. Otherwise Test the People might meet your needs.

Sep 22, 2021

Try Test the People in North Oakland - free and accessible, I'm not sure if appointments are required, I've always made an appointment though.

Sep 22, 2021

Test The People in Oakland is free, efficient (drive through or walk up), and has results within 12-24 hours. If you have insurance they bill them, but if you don't it's free.

Sep 22, 2021

I buy the BinaxNOW antigen tests online from Walmart for our nanny. Pack of 2 tests is $14.00. While not as accurate as a PCR test, they are very convenient and you see results in 15 minutes.

Sep 22, 2021

I think if you are requiring a weekly test then you should make it as convenient as possible for the nanny. Purchase at-home tests that she can do at your house every week.

Sep 22, 2021

Not free, but have you considered over the counter antigen tests from the drug store? Can't get more convenient than that. You could at least have a few on hand in case you want results right away or your nanny can't get an appointment.

A friend has used Test the People in north Oakland: https://www.testthepeople.org/. You can do a walk-in or make an appointment. City of Berkeley also does free walk-up testing, but that may be too far for you.

Sep 22, 2021

I would recommend the rapid home tests.

Sep 22, 2021

You can pick up the Abbott BinaxNOW home covid test kits from Walgreens or CVS. Results in 15 minutes. My sister's work gives all the employees a whole stack of them and everyone homes test every 2-3 days.

Sep 22, 2021
Nanny and Family Agreements During COVID-19
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Jun 29, 2020

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere.

Since our day care closed permanently (due to COVID-19), our family has transitioned to a nanny to provide care for our kids on a part-time basis. What expectations, specifically around wearing a mask, have other families asked of themselves and of their nanny's to keep everyone as safe as possible?

Jun 29, 2020
Hi! We have a nanny for our now 19-month-old daughter. And as you probably know, keeping toddlers indoors for long periods of time in a small apartment can drive everyone crazy, especially when she's used to being outdoors. Our Nanny has stayed working with us since the start of SIP, and she has strolled around the neighborhood with our daughter. When she goes out she wears a mask. Inside the house, she doesn't need to. We are a shoes-off household, and maintaining good hygiene and wearing mask outdoors for adults has been the main rule. She has not been in contact with too many neighborhood kids, and other nannies until recently. The rule is for adults to maintain social distance with masks. With the children is to maintain good hygiene (washing their hands frequently and wiping down toys). It's all-new territory for us, but I understand how precious and important it is for children to have social interactions for their development. I hope this helps!

Jul 1, 2020

We haven't asked our nanny to do any of that as we have accepted the risk of getting Covid by sending our older child to preschool and having a nanny in our home. I'd prefer if our nanny didn't wear a mask so our child saw the facial expressions of the nanny at this age in life (he's only 5 months). However, if our nanny asked to wear a mask, we'd respect her wishes. In addition, our nanny sees her family (which we would never ask her not to do) but she has let us know outside of her immediate family, she takes precautions.

Jul 1, 2020

We needed help but wanted to make the situation as safe as possible for our caregiver. So, we asked her to wear a mask at all times, we have spray bottles of sanitizer around the house for her to use and ask that she use it on herself and our daughter when she comes in. We also leave all the windows open and make sure the house is cleaned before she gets there and we wear masks at all times when in the house with her. We also limited her to only four hours at a time, and asked her to spend as much time as possible outside with our daughter. She has been fantastic about all of that and it makes me feel better as her employer knowing that I am trying to limit her possible exposure as much as possible while she is providing me with an enormously beneficial service. Just be upfront about it and make sure they know you are taking their health and safety very seriously.

Jul 1, 2020

We are starting with our nanny soon and I wrote the following into our contract. We will not be requiring the wearing of masks, assuming we all follow the below guidelines. Our daughter is going to be 7 months old and I think she's definitely more comfortable seeings faces and feeds off of the visual cues we give through smiling, for example.

Expectations for Nanny:

●      Practice strict precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19. Practice social distancing with those outside of your household, wear a mask out in public and keep one on hand for any outings with the child, wash hands often, for a minimum of 20 seconds with soap and water. Take your temperature before commuting each workday to check for a fever (100 degrees or higher). Communicate with parents if you, a member of your family, or someone you have been in close contact with in the last 14 days, is experiencing any of the following symptoms. It is important not to report to work without discussing this prior with parents.

Fever (100 degrees or higher), Chills, Shivering/shakes

Cough

Sore throat

Runny or congested nose

Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

Unexplained muscle aches

Feeling unusually weak or fatigued

Loss of sense of smell or taste

Diarrhea

Eye redness with or without discharge

Expectations for Parents:

● Practice strict precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19. Practice social distancing with those outside of your household, wear a mask out in public and keep one on hand for any outings with the child, wash hands often, for a minimum of 20 seconds with soap and water. Take each family member’s temperature each morning to check for a fever (100 degrees or higher). Communicate with nanny if any member of the family, or someone they have been in close contact with in the last 14 days, is experiencing any of the following symptoms.

Fever (100 degrees or higher), Chills, Shivering/shakes

Cough

Sore throat

Runny or congested nose

Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

Unexplained muscle aches

Feeling unusually weak or fatigued

Loss of sense of smell or taste

Diarrhea

Eye redness with or without discharge

Jul 1, 2020

Your nanny is part of your family's bubble and I have not heard of anyone requiring their nanny to wear a mask in their home. Consider this: at some points during her very long day with you, she will need to take off the mask to drink and eat right? So that alone makes the point of wearing it the rest of the time pretty moot. If it's off anytime in the home, you are exposed.

You are unlikely to find a nanny who's willing to wear a mask at your home, And you're better off focusing questions on what the nanny is doing to distance and what her lifestyle is like outside working for you. If she's someone who's already getting together with a big group of friends or resuming a lot of normal activities, That's far more risky in my opinion, even if that person were masked, than somebody who's actually still distancing who doesn't wear a mask. We just continued to communicate with our nanny every week about what we're doing, and what feels comfortable to both of us.

Jul 1, 2020

Our nanny wore a mask, and my husband and I wore masks if we were in the house at the same time as her, which we tried to avoid for her sake. Every morning before she arrived, we opened all the windows, wiped down high touch surfaces, and set out clean hand towels and dish towels. (Our daughter recently started daycare, hence the past tense.)

Jul 1, 2020

We consider our two nanny families and nanny a part of the same "bubble" and therefore don't wear masks around one another.

Jul 1, 2020

Our nanny always wears a mask when she takes our daughter outside the home, and carries sanitizing wipes, travel soap & a spray bottle full of water with her as well so that both she and my daughter can wash hands frequently. Inside our home, there is no mask wearing as we consider our nanny an extension of our family/part of our bubble -- we don't 'social distance' from her. Childcare is such hands-on work, to me this seemed like the only reasonable way to approach it. When we hired our nanny, we had to accept the inherent risk that presents to us (we didn't really have a choice...) and did our best to hire someone who was incredibly hygienic and taking things seriously -- someone we would feel comfortable having in our bubble.

Jul 1, 2020

We are contracting with a nanny as we will be returning to work from family leave (just had our second child). We have put in her contract to adhere strictly to the County's health officer's orders, but I'm not sure exactly how to manage and administer that without creating a large burden. We obviously plan to have a detailed conversation about her family's approach to preventing the spread of the disease. I want to do everything I can to protect my family, and to protect the nanny too.

Here are some thoughts to our approach: no masks required in the house (to benefit the growth of the children); correct mask-wearing required in public (parents, nanny, toddler as much as possible); daily temperature checks of us and nanny; "excellent hygiene" including proper hand-washing upon arrival, before and after eating (herself and children), after restroom use (obviously), etc. Also considering keeping a list of those included in her social bubble and a list of new contacts and dates.

I am looking for thoughts and feedback from other parents too.

Jul 4, 2020
Au Pair "Training" During Quarantine
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Apr 4, 2020

Hi All,

Would love your advice on the following matter. We have an AP who has been with us for 2 months (this is our 5th AP). I had concerns early on but was willing to give it the 60 days to get to know each other, etc. Long story short, we had a plan to rematch (unbeknownst to her) and that fell through due to Shelter in Place. While I am SO grateful to have childcare, wondering thoughts on either a) best approach to bringing up our concerns and training her to our level of expectations OR b) if we should just let it go since this is literally during a global catastrophe and she is able to more or less care for our children while we work.

Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks so much!

Apr 4, 2020

Hi! This is such a tough question. We are on our third au pair and have also not been totally satisfied with all her choices. But I think for everyone involved this may not be the time to rock the boat. She is probably feeling a lot of disappointment about her experience abroad not being what she expected. And your kids are probably feeling some sense of the world not being normal, no matter how old they are. If she is giving you what you need to be able to work, I would try to make the best of it and keep the relationship as positive as possible. Maybe choose one or two areas to provide guidance as gently and positively as you can?

Apr 8, 2020

Let it go and be thankful that you are so privileged!

Apr 8, 2020

Oh, my. Unless she’s literally setting the house on fire, I’d sit tight, be cool, and thank my lucky stars for the extra support. It’s hard to overstate the difficulty of WFH full time without the benefit of an extra pair of hands.

Apr 8, 2020

I have never been in your shoes to be able to afford an AP. However, it seems if you've been through "5" already you may want to rethink what your expectations are. In these times, compassion and kindness go a long way. To let someone go right now without giving them the opportunity to "improve" is unjust. What about writing things down? Giving gentle reminders about how you want things done? Employing management strategies that any company would expect of a good manager. Let go of controlling EVERY aspect of your child care. Unless you are willing to be a stay-at-home parent you might want to consider being a bit more flexible.

Apr 8, 2020

Sorry things are not going as smoothly as you would like with this AP. Having an upfront conversation about whether she is motivated and wanting to make this arrangement work is an important first step. If she is open to improving her approach to childcare, it’s important that you give her resources and feedback to enable her to perform to your expectations. For us, this meant having a weekly meeting where my partner and I provided feedback about what she was doing to our liking and where we wanted to see improvement. I emailed her articles and video on a weekly basis to draw a clear picture of what we were wanting. I’m not sure if your approach lines up with Janet Lansbury, but she has a very reasonable philosophy towards interaction and connection with children. Sending our AP articles from her blog, podcasts, and video helped a lot. Within a couple of months of providing resources for her development and lots of feedback, her skill greatly improved and we were able to ease away from our weekly meetings. We spent the time and energy supporting this growth because our AP said she was open to it and wanted to make the arrangement work. This is a particularly hard time to be an AP. Social outlets are likely non existent, she may be worried about family far away, and feeling pretty isolated. All of these factors combined can be very stressful. If you haven’t already done so, a check-in around her desires and level of motivation would be an important next step.

Apr 8, 2020

Let it go. Your kids are being cared for. You have more than most.

Apr 8, 2020

If you have the bandwidth, definitely offer training. You're doing her a favor, as she doesn't have to guess how you'd like things done, and you're helping every future employer. I still remember my first employer decades ago, teaching me how to photocopy properly - I'm still not detail oriented, but much better as a result.

Apr 10, 2020

Hi there -- I have hosted 7 APs, so I feel for you. I think you should try to do both (give feedback and set clear expectations), and then decide if the trade offs are worth what the AP can do. If she can more or less care for your kids without driving you absolutely batty during the process, might be worth it. We have no AP now (had planned to bring one on for the summer but couldn't once SIP was established) and I while I wish I had the help to homeschool my K student while I work an essential health care job, I also cannot fathom some of the emotional support needs some of our not so great APs have had...

Apr 11, 2020

Try to let go most issues. This is not a good time for an au pair to begin her experience in another country and with a new family. We had our 6th au pair arrive just as SiP began and she flew home within a week because she did not want to be away from her family during this and I understand that many au pairs have done the same. Count yourself as lucky that you have childcare when so many do not and be empathetic about the experience she’s having.

Apr 18, 2020
Nannies allowed under new SIL restrictions?
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Apr 2, 2020

Hi parents,

Are nannies and babysitters allowed under the new shelter in place restrictions (which took effect at the end of March) for non-essential workers? I can’t seem to find clear language about this, especially for Alameda county.

Apr 2, 2020
My understanding is that nannies are not allowed for non-essential workers unless the nanny is a live-in and quarantines with you. Though take a look at list of essential workers carefully as you might be surprised to find that many people who are able to work from home nevertheless can be classified as essential workers and so there is an interpretation that would allow them to have a nanny to be able to get their essential work done even though they are working from home.

Apr 4, 2020

Yes. Home-based care for children is allowed in Alameda County. It is not within the city of Berkeley (they have their own health dept) which has restricted care to that for essential workers only.

Apr 8, 2020

It's quite clear, they're only allowed for essential workers. To the previous poster: trying to interpret the definition of "essential worker" to include non-essential jobs undermines the spirit of the law and increases both your COVID footprint as well as the risk for your family and your nanny.

Apr 8, 2020

According to the statewide shelter in place order, only essential workers are permitted to use daycares or to have nannies during this time. https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/. An exception would be a live-in nanny who was already a part of your household when the SIP order began.

Some people have been confused since a couple of county orders say that nannies are allowed, but the Governor’s mandate is a statewide order which supersedes any less-restrictive county orders. Those residing in one of those counties can find language to this effect in the text of their county order. Another point of confusion is the listing of “In-home care for seniors, adults, and children” as essential. However, this refers to medically-necessary care only (following the WHO definition of in-home care).

If you need to take time off work to care for your children, you do have options!

The CA EDD has announced that those who need to take time off work due to school/childcare closures may be eligible for unemployment benefits (even if they still have a job to go back to when schools reopen). You can apply here: https://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/Filing_a_Claim.htm.

If you work for a company with less than 500 employees, a newly-enacted federal law, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act ("FFCRA"), will generally allow for up to twelve weeks of paid leave (some of it at only partial pay) for those unable to work due to childcare needs during the health crisis.

If your employer has 25 or more employees, you can take up to 40 hours of leave under California Labor Code section 230.8 for childcare/school closures or other care-related emergencies. A leave under Section 230.8 is generally unpaid unless you have accrued vacation/PTO you can use.

Thank you for helping protect our community! Be well and stay safe.

Apr 12, 2020

I was very confused by this too, but I just checked the statewide order at https://www.covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/ and this is the exact language. Ugh.

Are daycares still open? Can my babysitter still come to the house?
Yes. Daycares are still open, but only for children of parents working in essential sectors. Daycare centers that remain open should employ heightened cleaning and distancing requirements. Babysitters may also come to the house to care for minors of parents working in essential sectors.

Apr 12, 2020

It turns out that Berkeley's extended shelter-in-place orders allow for babysitters and nannies to take care of children in the child's home. Here's a response I received from the City of Berkeley on this:

"The Shelter in Place order allows for home-based care for children. We encourage that nannies provide only provide care for a single household."

May 2, 2020
COVID-19 and nanny
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Mar 29, 2020

Hello families-

I'm interested in knowing what families are doing with their nannies during this period of time. I am an "essential worker" and need to go into my office periodically, but I am mostly working from home. I had my nanny with us the first week of the shelter in place and then gave her two weeks off with full pay. This is an unprecedented crisis- how are families handling paying their nannies if they are not working during shelter in place? Should we pay them indefinitely if this continues beyond April 7? I'm interested to hear how others are handling this situation.

Mar 29, 2020

We sent our nanny home a couple weeks ago. We gifted/granted her some pay when we told her we would discontinue having her for awhile, and then helped her apply for unemployment (we pay her via payroll, so she's eligible). She is receiving some unemployment, not close to what we were paying her, so we'll have to evaluate as this goes on, if that's enough for our nanny. We want to support her if we can, and she's also helping run errands for us in between too.

Apr 1, 2020

Hey Oakland Fam- If you plan on retaining your Nanny maybe speak to her about a reduction in pay for now and/or set up Zoom sessions and keep her engaged as well.

Apr 1, 2020

If you have been paying your nanny “on the books” (ie paying taxes) then she should be eligible for unemployment insurance. If you have been paying under the table then I think you have a moral obligation to continue paying until the crisis is over, at least as long as you still have income since she will have no income protection otherwise.

Apr 1, 2020

We are paying our nanny her regular paychecks but asked her to stay home. She offered to come help with the kids sometimes or take them for a walk, but our personal choice is to fully self quarantine. For what it's worth, my husband and I are not considered essential workers, and both of us are still getting paid because we can work remotely. (FYI That is not going well with a 3 year old and 10 month old at home, but we are splitting days and doing our best!). We paid her through the end of April, and then we'll evaluate what's happening. It may be that we ask her to seek other work, but until she finds it, we will pay her.

Apr 1, 2020

If you are essential worker my read of the shelter in place rule is that you are allowed to continue using childcare (small daycare or nanny), though it depends on your local order. My husband and I are also essential workers within the rule but are able to mostly work from home though definitely have to go into the office at times since not everything can be done from home. Since my child is in daycare we chose to keep him home and alternate days in office when needed since by being at work we are at higher risk of catching it and our daycare provider is elderly and I did not want to risk my kid bringing it to her or infecting other kids there who can bring it home to their families. So even though daycare is open for essential workers and we qualify to keep attending we chose to keep our kid home but are still paying her. If I had a nanny and being an essential worker I would continue using her so I can do my work productively without being up all night making up the hours. So if you are essential worker and need to continue working and your local rules are same as my (i.e. essential workers can use childcare), you could continue using nanny's services and continue employing her.

Apr 1, 2020

I am paying my nanny as long as I'm getting paid. It's the right thing to do.

Apr 1, 2020

We are continuing to pay our nanny, though she is not working during the SIP, so long as our income remains the same.

Apr 1, 2020

I had our babysitter (four days a week, 7 hours) stop coming because I just couldn't take the risk, but we are continuing to pay her. Our babysitter's husband was laid off and so they would be in big trouble, financially, without her income. Since my husband and I can both work from home and at least for now our income remains the same, this is our commitment to caring for others in a time of crisis. I have also pre-paid my hairdresser for a cut and color, to be received at a future time. :-)

Apr 1, 2020

If your nanny is a W-2 employee, they can file for unemployment by the state. Depending on what you pay your nanny, with the extra $600/week right now, they might actually make more money than what you them ironically. However; they need to be willing and able to work once the time comes.

Apr 1, 2020

We don’t need a nanny but continue to pay the housecleaners. We can afford it and they need the income.

Apr 1, 2020

My husband and I are both working from home. We are giving our nanny this time off with full pay. She will still have to pay her bills (even the rent protections right now require tenants to pay back rent after we get through the crisis) and since we are still getting paid, we can afford to pay her and will continue to do so.

Even though you say you're still working, you ask about if you're not working, how do you pay your nanny. If you can't afford to pay your nanny, I'd have a frank conversation with him or her about it. The nanny should qualify for unemployment, I understand, because they've loosened unemployment requirements. It probably won't 100% replace his or her paycheck, though. But be up front. I'm guessing you will want your nanny to come back once we get through this crisis, so treat him or her as you would want to be treated... Frankly, if you treat him or her poorly, I wouldn't be surprised if he or she started looking for a new family once work resumes!

Apr 1, 2020

I’m also an essential worker, though able to work from home exclusively. We have continued to use our nanny as she is also in a small household that is able to shelter in place. While I know this does extend our physical household, I couldn’t do my job without this childcare. Everyone is self monitoring for any symptoms and would pause if anyone developed concerning symptoms.

Apr 1, 2020

As an essential worker, I wish you and yours good health.

As we are all aware many are suffering great financial uncertainty and hardship at this time. I believe if you are getting paid and it was in your budget you should continue to pay your nanny.

Apr 1, 2020

Hi there! We are struggling with the same issue. If we didn't feel so connected to our nanny, we'd probably end the engagement all together given we cannot have the her come to our home or watch our son right now. But this becomes very difficult because we sincerely care for her and our little boy loves her so much. Still, if we stay under a shelter in place order for 2 months or more (which is highly likely; probably going through the summer), it isn't realistic for us to continue paying full time wages. We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. We want to ensure our nanny is taken care of, and we don't want to release her and possibly lose her to another family! Something I've been thinking about is calculating what her unemployment wages would equal and offering her that for the next 3 months. Then reassessing in early July. But honestly, I'd love to hear any other feedback or ideas.

Apr 1, 2020

We paid our nanny ~3 weeks pay + PTO accrued from when the shelter in place order went into effect. We had her on the books so we formally terminated her contract and she was able to file for unemployment. We fully intend to start up with her again when shelter in place ends. We considered just continuing to pay her, but since we will take a hit financially from the COVID fall out and because we knew she could file for unemployment we decided that paying her a few additional weeks was the best compromise.

Apr 1, 2020

I firmly believe that as long as you are getting paid your full salary, your nanny should be getting paid her full salary—whether or not she is continuing to care for your child. Then the question becomes whether you have the nanny care for your child or not, and I think this is quite a personal decision. We also kept our nanny share going the first week after shelter in place, but called it off the following week because I started to show flu like symptoms. We will not resume until everyone is completely in the clear—and honestly if by that point we have gotten more used to balancing childcare and work, we may just hold off until this is all over. We don’t want our nanny to feel pressure to work during this time, and it’s just not worth the risk. However, if you’re an essential worker and can’t get around it, I think that’s understandable.

Apr 1, 2020

Ours is only part time, but yes, we are continuing to pay and she hasn't come at all since the order went into effect. She has worked for us for years and as long as our income does not change, we will continue to pay. I believe that generally in the Bay Area, nannies are treated very well and the expectation is that we continue to pay if it's a situation where they are not choosing not to work - it's just been thrust upon them. If you lose your job or have to take a pay cut, then I think you would give notice and pay them out for a couple weeks and then stop. But otherwise, pay if you can. This is hard for everyone.

Apr 1, 2020

As long as your job remains paying/unaffected, I would suggest you continue to pay your nanny. Our family is still employed, both working from home, and we have our nanny come to care for our toddler -- we're stuffed like sardines in one room and she has the rest of our small house but it's what we have to deal with at this time. Instead of the usual 9-10 hrs a day we used to have our nanny, we keep a maximum of 8 hrs a day and will continue to pay her and have her with our toddler as long as we can. I think it's both important for our toddler but also ensuring she can care for herself in this time.

Apr 2, 2020

Hi, I was wondering the same thing. We have a great gal who has been with us for a number of months now just once per week for childcare and light housekeeping. She came over once during the first week of shelter in place but the second week we decided to have her not come, for the sake of social distancing but also because I was fearful that my company might do layoffs. We gave her one week's pay and said we'd be in touch after this is all over, if we still have a need. I was just wondering how other families are handling this because if we do still have a need, I don't want to lose her.

Apr 6, 2020

I am working from home, but my husband was laid off. We are hopeful he will get his job back, but are not sure; he filed for unemployment. Since we are not getting our full salaries any longer, but we love our nanny and want her to be OK during this time (she's not eligible for unemployment since we pay her under the table by her choice; I know one of her families paid her for 2 weeks, but will not be paying her after that), we negotiated to pay her for our normal number of hours, but at our nanny share rate for all of them. We usually only have the share rate at half the number of hours and pay a higher rate for the other half when it's just her and our baby. She understood and was OK with this. Since we and our baby love her so much, we also wanted to make sure she would stay available for when we can have her come again. We are planning to keep paying her through the duration of this, within reason, but we are planning money-wise that the shelter-in-place will last until ~June.

Apr 8, 2020

I'd seriously consider having your nanny work, and trying to help her understand the protocol around distancing so your family's exposure is still small. This will continue until there is a vaccine, which is Nov/Dec minimum given the required 6 mo clinicial trial - most of which haven't even started yet. When it was 3 weeks, us all juggling made sense. 6 months is not possible - someone in the family will end up quitting to provide childcare, and that's a lot of destroyed careers, primarily for the moms/women. We actually just *hired* a nanny because our preschool closed and 4 weeks without help was as long as we could go without significantly hurting our teams/coworkers by only working part-time. We are making a smart long-term decision for the well-being of our family - including our son who we don't want watching us take conference calls half of every day when we both need to work with senior leaders at the same time!

Apr 8, 2020