Nanny shares - please, a quick question those in the know

[HarrietTheSpy]

Hi, as part of my continued obsessing about childcare issues post maternity leave, I have a quick one:

In a nanny share, if you have two children and the other family one, would you pay two thirds of the nanny's wage while the other family pays a third?

TIA

i would. unless your two are at school/ nursery half days and the other family has a newborn....

I would split it 50-50 or maybe 60-40 but I don't think as much as 2/3. Are you joining a nannyshare, looking for a new nanny share or wanting to share your nanny?

Depends on the age of the children ie. school age or not (but even then remember that you may need cover for school age child if they are under the weather, or during school hols)
If you do decide to pay more than 50% make sure that you take the tax/ni into account ie. split gross salary rather than net pounds per hour.

DD would be in preschool until 3 pm, so the share would be one to one (i.e. two infants)until that time. The nanny would not be dropping off at school in the morning. Maybe we could make a small adjustment for this time, but not a full two thirds...

DD would be in preschool until 3 pm, so the share would be one to one (i.e. two infants)until that time. The nanny would not be dropping off at school in the morning. Maybe we could make a small adjustment for this time, but not a full two thirds...

Def not 2/3. I'd even more inclined to say 50/50 given that your dd is at school until 3.

Millarkie
Wanting to share our nanny, who is coming back to work for us when I go back to work. The idea, though, is that we would be willing to share the location of the care as well, so some days at the other people's house. More inconvenient than now, but cost is a big factor for us.

If all other things were equal, then yes that could work. But, would everything else be equal - would all the children for example spend the same amount of time, at each house?
Are all the children being cared for by the nanny, at the same time all of the time the nanny is working? If that is the case now, it may not be in future.

Harriet, are you saying you have a pre-school aged child, plus a baby - and the other family have just a baby?
If you are the family with 2 children, and the other family only have one, why go for such a high split percentage... why not go for 50/50 and see if the other family agrees - especially as your pre-school aged DD will be at pre-school much of the day (during term-time).

Yes Nick we have the preschooler and the baby. The other family have a baby. I'm thinking that we could do 50/50-ish, perhaps with a small adjustment for the extra demands we make on her time with the second child. Depends on how much we want to motivate them to do it, to some extent. The two babies would be looked after together every day.

This isn't the only option we're thinking of as for various reasons, while DN is really keen to come back this might not work out in practice, for full time. Part of my reckoning is figuring out which option ticks the right boxes in terms of economics relative to hassel for us...not sure how nanny share ranks on that front but an attractive potential option emerged unexpectedly so giving it thought.

We had a nanny share for two babies the same age. I worked 5 days and the other mum worked 3. This made 8 and so I piad 5/8 and she paid 3/8.

Fridayschild
Would it be poss for you to share with me the good, the bad, and the ugly of nanny shares, based on your experience?!

TIA

I has a nanny share when my dd1 was a baby and to be honest it didn't work very well for me although I think that was due to a number of specific issues that might not apply to you.

I worked 5 days and the other mother worked 3 so we did the 5/8: 3/8 split like Friday. The other child was 2 1/2 and the nanny was already looking after her so we were joining an established nanny relationship.

the problems arose from the fact that the nanny preferred looking after the toddler so my baby was ignored a bit - and suffered the usual younger sibling car journeys for the older child's benefit - which is fine if they're both yours but irritating when you're actually paying the majority of her salary.

In addition the other mother would often ask for additional babysitting on "my" 2 days so even on those days I didn't get priority and my dd didn't get to go to babygroups etc. These arrangements were made directly between the nanny and other mother and I wasn't even told sometimes.

Looking back a lot of the issues were due to my failure as an employer to put my foot down enough.

And, you are more likely to be in the position of the other mother given it's your existing nanny.

I know it works well for some people though so hope you can make it work if you want it to.

Thanks for your message. Were you already friends with the people involved?

Thanks for your message. Were you already friends with the people involved?

no - we didn't know them before the share. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference though - I think what would have helped would have been thinking it all through more clearly and in more detail - but we were first time nanny employers as well as it being a first time share so it was difficult for us to know what would be considered normal.