To parents/nannies that have been in a full time nanny share situation (40 hours/week or more)-
1- Does the nanny prepare the food for both the kids? How does sharing of groceries/meals take place between the families?
2- Does nanny usually give them a bath, and how does that go?
3- For the hours that the nanny is looking after only 1 child, is the hourly rate going to be the higher rate (same as when both kids are present), or is it reduced?
Thanks,
-Anin.
1. when we interviewed nannies some said they would and some said they won't. It would be really hard to prep food while engaging with two littles. In our share we pack lunches - the nanny will heat up food, cut up fruit, and occationally steam some veggies if I leave them out. You just need to make sure they still get a break during naptime and aren't cooking / cleaning the whole break.
2. never asked her to do that. guess it would depend on how late at night you go.
3. we pay 14 per hour per family with two kids. 19/hour when its just one kid. If one kid is out because of vacation or illness that family is still paying the nanny so the other family will still pay the shared rate.
For our nanny share the set up is:
1. Both families provide food for their child. The kids sometimes share.
2. No
3. We have the same hours so this isn't an issue for us. Technically if we were to set up some 1 child hours it would be very slightly less than the 2 child rate.
1- Does the nanny prepare the food for both the kids? How does sharing of groceries/meals take place between the families?
Our nanny did although I've spoken to a LOT of parents who's nanny did NOT make meals. I think it's worth having that conversation during interviews. We switched homes each week so when the kids were in our home, we paid for groceries and vice versa.
2- Does nanny usually give them a bath, and how does that go?
Our first nanny did. Our current one (with our 2nd child) doesn't. However, we've never asked her to and we like the routine of bath before bed.
3- For the hours that the nanny is looking after only 1 child, is the hourly rate going to be the higher rate (same as when both kids are present), or is it reduced?
We negotiated a lower rate with 1 child (about $4-$5 less than 2 child rate) but we guaranteed hours so this was only after the guaranteed hours. e.g. if we guaranteed the nanny 8 hours a day at full rate, the 1 child rate would only apply after those hours.
Overall, all this depends on the nanny and what you discuss during the interview/hiring process.
1. I have had nannies that have prepared food but often there wouldn't be time and they would use food we have. Absolutely something you can agree upon in the beginning.
2. My nanny never consistently gave my baby a bath or dinner.
3. For hours one family has the nanny, we had a separate single care rate. This wouldn't be if a family was away/sick, just on "extra hours" i.e. one day we had our nanny start at 7 am instead of 8 am and paid a single care rate for that hour.
My 1 year old is in a nanny share with another family, who also have a 1 year old. We alternate weekly which family hosts. For your first question: the host family provides lunches and snacks for both kids. This way they get the same meal (no jealousy), and each family has one week off from meal planning. Both families are aligned on nutrition. The nanny just heats up the lunches and does not cook. We give the nanny a list of appropriate snack foods and she decides each snack what they eat. The host family might prepare snacks ahead of time like veggie muffins. For your second question: each family mostly does bath at night, but occasionally the kids are extra messy/poopy and need a bath during the day. The nanny is skilled in managing both babies safely (she shared her process with us). Our nanny hasn't had to do this for many months, however. For your third question: we pay the nanny the same regardless of how many children she is watching. If you were sending your child to daycare, you would have to pay the normal rate even if your kid wasn't there.
I’m sure all of these points are flexible but in our experience:
1- nanny did not prepare food. Parents prepared and kept in fridge (parents who were not hosting brought food each day or week). We did not intentionally split groceries but the assumption is that there’s a little sharing between the kids. Rely on the nanny to communicate to you if it gets imbalanced—eg when our nanny noticed that our daughter kept asking for her nanny share mate’s zucchini fritters and grapes, she told us. Those were things I had no idea she had started to like, but once I did I could start sending them to share for her. Would be awesome to have a nanny who cooks for the kids or a family willing to share groceries/food prep but I have found that my daughters tastes and diet have changed frequently over the past 2 years...seems like it could be hard to manage that for two kids esp if they’re not the exact same age.
2-we have always done bath as part of bedtime routine, outside the hours our nannies have worked
3-we have our own nanny now and are exploring potentially opening up for a part time share. The agreement is that for the hours that she is only looking after our daughter, the rate would be what it is currently. She is only paid the higher rate when there are two kids to look after and two families splitting the cost.
We have been doing a nanny share for 9 months with two ~17 month old babies 40 hours/week. .
1- Does the nanny prepare the food for both the kids? How does sharing of groceries/meals take place between the families?
We host full-time and after trying a few different permutations, it just felt easiest for us/the host family to handle all the groceries. I did an attempt at average cost based on review of a few weeks of grocery receipts, and the other family pays me monthly. A lot of food the nanny serves the babies are leftovers from the night before, and i sometimes prepare simple things like fruit with yogurt or a frittata and I also have several things for our nanny to choose from and prepare (e.g. frozen fish sticks, hot dogs, pasta, frozen waffles, eggs, oatmeal, toast, a selection of fresh fruit, snacks etc). What i love about our situation is i dont tell her "today they should have X for lunch and Y for snack" she just knows what the options are and decides, although I point out if there's something new in the fridge that the babies might like.
2- Does nanny usually give them a bath, and how does that go?
We handle baths outside nanny share hours.
3- For the hours that the nanny is looking after only 1 child, is the hourly rate going to be the higher rate (same as when both kids are present), or is it reduced?
Our regular schedule is for both kids during the exact same hours, but if one of the families needs extra hours, we pay our half of the rate X 1.5 since its overtime hours.
1. As others have said, agree upfront. In our share, she often prepares simple breakfasts (scrambles eggs, makes oatmeal) or parts of lunches (cooks pasta) but the families provide food separately. We now host at our house full time, so we take a bit more advantage of this, but when we were going to another house we rarely sent food that needed preparation beyond being warmed for practical purposes.
2. Again, depends on your timing, and should be discussed upfront. Ours doesn't regularly, but if the kiddos get particularly messy/big blowouts she sometimes gives them baths and they love it.
3. We have a set rate based on the number of children in the share; the rate for 1 child is lower than the combined rate for 2 (or 3) children (e.g. $20/hr for 1 child, but $25 total for 2). Anecdotally this seems most common. However, we also agreed to a set schedule with guaranteed hours, so if one child was away one day the nanny was still paid at the 2-child rate for those hours. But, for example, one family needed an additional 30 minutes of care in the morning, and they paid for that time at the 1-child rate.
Thank you all for the responses 🙏🏽 very helpful