Nanny travel expenses

[intheshedyes]

Hello all,

We hired a new part time nanny and as two of my children need a train to get to school. I pay my nanny travel costs from going to take them to school in the morning and then when she is bringing them back home.

In the mornings, my nanny rides her bike and parks her bike near our closest station. She asked me that once she drops the children to school, can she use the top up travel card, to come back to the staton and pick up her bike to drive home.

AIBU to say no. I don't want to pay too much travel as it is!

South...

It's a drop off mornings..after school role.

Well, if it is as @DicklessWonder has managed to simply explain it then there's a tiny bit of credit due to you for asking, and I'll be gentle seeing as this isn't your AIBU post, but did you seriously think it would be acceptable to effectively abandon her at the school end and have to make her own way back? That's a bit daft!

It’s not an after school job if she does mornings too is it? That’s wraparound. For which the hourly rate tends to be higher. How does it only work out ten hours a week? Only 2 hours a day?

So what did you expect her to do?

Wait outside the school unpaid until it is time to make the return journey with the children?

In any case, surely 2 return journeys is within the daily cap / travel card cost and doesn’t add that much?

You actually expected her to pay her own way back after dropping them off? If you were doing it yourself you’d have to pay to get back.

Oh gosh. Troll hunters. Never posting on here again. This is my first time using a nanny... wanted to know about travel costs. Some of the people I've spoken do not pay for their nanny's travel fares.. was a bit confused on how the whole thing would work out.

Aren't oyster cards capped at a max day rate anyway? Or you can get a weekly ticket which would probably work out cheaper.

Or you can get a weekly ticket which would probably work out cheaper

I'm thinking this would be the best option. Thank you.

I don’t expect my boss to pay for my fare from my house in Ealing to her’s in Notting Hill Gate and vice versa. I DO expect her to pay for the bus back from taking the kids to a club, if I have to get a taxi back from dropping them somewhere etc etc. Because the cost has been incurred as a result of taking the kids where they need to go. That’s really standard and Ive never heard of any employer not doing this.

I'm just struggling to understand your logic here @intheshedyes - can you elaborate?

Nobody is troll hunting.

people don’t pay a nanny’s travel costs to and from work, but this is not what is happening here. It may also be that a nanny who travels to and from work on the tube / train already has a travel card, and the employer benefits from that. But I don’t think you can expect that.

Two threads about it as well- did you not like the responses?

Oops, sorry, I missed the one troll hunting post.

OP look at the price caps for oyster PAYG, you may find her travel is capped per day.

I made two posts because the 'Chat' sections gets overpopulated with threads that I was worried that may thread may not get seen- as to why I posted on AIBU.

Thank you. I will pay the nanny. First time using a nanny so very clueless at the moment,

Clueless my ass. Do you expect your nanny to wait around at school all day waiting to bring your children home?

I hope to God she finds finds a better employer.

You need to pay for the travel. Both ways and pay the nanny for her time whilst travelling, as it's part of her role.

Lottiethelemming

Your post is uncalled for. Are you bully in real life? Your post suggests you are.

Completely clueless about the whole set up. People who I have spoken to, who have the same arrangements as me, do not pay for their nanny's travel fares.

pay the nanny for her time whilst travelling*.

Thank you. I already do that. I was unsure about the whole travel thing. But know what to do now.

"@intheshedyes

Put simply you are responsible for paying ANY expenses your nanny incurs as a result of looking after your children.

She would not need to do a return journey to pick up her bike if she had not taken them to school in the first instance - same in reverse for collection.

I think your conflating this with the cost of getting to work. The thing is your house is her workplace, not the station. Taking your children to school/picking them up is not like getting to your place of work - it's akin to travelling to a customer site/different office further from home i.e. something anyone in an office job would be paid back as expenses.

Another example might be if you asked her after school to take them to a play centre/cinema etc, you would be responsible for reimbursement of not just your children's entry fee but also hers.

If you want a slightly grey area (though it's still not that hard to fathom) let's say you asked the Nanny to take your children to the local cafe for a hot chocolate and piece of cake after school.

In this case it's reasonable for her to expect you to pay for cake/chocolate for the children and for example a coffee and cake for her - she's there at your behest and she's ordering "in line" with your request for the children.

If however she ordered an expensive lobster salad whilst the kids were having their cake/hot chocolate then that's not appropriate.

So in brief your thinking should be "would she reasonably have spent x money if not looking after my children?". If the answer is no then you need to pay it back in the form of expenses or provide the money upfront.

Thank you DeRigueurMortis

@intheshedyes

Lottiethelemming

Your post is uncalled for. Are you bully in real life? Your post suggests you are.

Completely clueless about the whole set up. People who I have spoken to, who have the same arrangements as me, do not pay for their nanny's travel fares.

I very much doubt that OP.

As per my post above I think you are conflating the normal expectation of financing your own travel to your workplace (I.e. your home) with expenses incurred at your behest for travel outside the workplace.

There's no Nanny on this planet who would expect to pay themselves for travel outside the workplace at their employers instruction.

I very much doubt that OP

I disagree. People were shocked that I was paying the nanny's travel fares... even the nanny herself wasn't expecting that as her other employers do not do this.

@intheshedyes If even this basic concept of paying travel costs appropriately for your new nanny is beyond you, you may need to reevaluate and pre-empt other challenges in this arrangement eg what will happen if/when your nanny needs to work overtime etc.

I strongly suspect you have not made a good first impression. No common sense or pragmatism at all.

I strongly suspect you have not made a good first impression. No common sense or pragmatism at all

Not really . She asked me by text. I haven't replied yet. No impression to give.

No one that I know of pays their nanny travel fares,

Will definitely pay her over time and generously

You are not paying her travel expenses. That would be from her home to your home (or station etc). And back again.

You are paying for her to take your DC to school, return and then the return journeys. It is not complicated, or trolling , or bullying to point this out.