Considering hiring a live in nanny? Or perhaps you are a nanny who is thinking of offering live in childcare?
One of the most common questions we receive from parents about live in nanny care is:
“If I have a live in nanny, that means I can pay them a lower hourly rate, right?”
What do you think? Is this true or false?
Below, we break down the pros and cons of live in nanny care – from both the parent’s and the nanny’s perspective – so you can decide whether a live in position is right for you before you commit.
Pro Tip: In our experience, the most important issue to keep in mind when considering live in nanny care is everyone’s privacy.
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One of the most common questions we get about live in nanny care is from parents wondering if live in nanny care means that they can pay their nanny a lower hourly rate.
The short answer is no!
Why, you might ask?
The answer is simple: having a live in nanny is more of a convenience and benefit for a family than it is for the nanny.
Let’s break this down. First, here are the pros of a live in nanny for the family:
Convenience
Having a live in nanny ensures that your nanny is on site on time when the workday begins.
The nanny is probably not going to arrive to your home stressed out because of a tough commute or inclement weather.
Different laws apply to overtime pay meaning you will pay less to your nanny for overtime hours worked.
The nanny typically becomes an extended member of the family.
Now here are some of the cons of having a live in nanny if you’re the family.
Privacy
Think about shared spaces, private conversations, that sort of thing.
It’s possible that your nanny might overhear things that are private and personal to your family, and you will be sharing spaces that traditionally you’re not used to sharing.
If your nanny dines with your family, that means dinner time is no longer family time.
Security with Visitors
Your nanny may have visitors over to your home who you don’t know anything about.
The nanny most likely has good judgment, but still think about people coming to and from your home and what that could look like.
And with food arrangements or cooking, there are going to be some extra logistics about who eats what snacks and what snacks or meals are off limits. And also, does your nanny know how to cook?
Now here are some pros and cons of working as a live-in nanny:
Pros
You have no commute to and from work other than a simple walk up the stairs or to the next room, and you have no inclement weather, no snowy, or icy roads, no heavy rainstorms, that sort of thing to deal with.
You also don’t have to pay for rent, similarly, you don’t have to pay for utilities either.
Another benefit is that food expenses are covered and one thing to think about too is that the nanny family typically absorbs any cost of inflation, which we all know really went up this year. Such as increased costs for food, rent, utilities, etc.
Here are some of the cons of being a live-in nanny:
Your housing security is tied to your job, so when your job ends you need to look for new housing.
Privacy! You share a home with your boss, they are probably going to know who is coming and going from your home, when those people are coming and going, they may overhear personal conversations, that sort of thing.
Shared Spaces
You’ll likely be sharing dining facilities, a refrigerator, laundry facilities, maybe even a bathroom.
It can be difficult to have guests over easily, especially depending on what the family is or is not comfortable with.
And if you have a separate entrance or a shared entrance to your living quarters, it can be difficult to set up boundaries for time off, and you are actually always at work even though you are not always on the clock.
Overtime pay laws are different when you’re a live-in nanny, which means you might not be making as much working overtime hours as you would be if you were a live out nanny.
And finally, some families will try to negotiate a lower wage for the nanny as a trade-off for them covering housing and utilities due to a lack of understanding about nanny industry standards.
This list of pros and cons of having and being a live-in nanny is not exhaustive.
If you do a quick tally you’ll see the pros and cons for families is fairly balanced, while the pros and cons for nannies is not. There are more cons than there are pros to working as a live-in nanny.
For so many people though it can be a fantastic arrangement, so long as there is good communication, great planning, and even more good communication.
Whether you’re a family or a nanny, taking the time to weigh these pros and cons up front is the best way to set a live in arrangement up for success.