I frequently get emails from new parents who want to have a nanny care for their child, but they don’t know what the norms are for working with a nanny or where to start. Nannies often reach out to me as well, with questions about their working relationships with their families or compensation for the work they do. To offer a different perspective, I invited Amy Martino – a seasoned, professional Seattle nanny to offer some insights about these things from a nanny’s point of view. Thanks for this great post Amy!
The Nanny World
Seattle is booming! New families are moving to the area at astounding numbers – and with them comes their need for child care. Parents face long wait lists at daycares and in turn start exploring the idea of hiring a nanny.
Nannies are moving here too, lured by the prospect of good pay, and are often weighing multiple offers.
Over the last several months, we have asked our members to complete pay surveys to provide the parents and care providers of our region a snapshot of the average pay for different child care scenarios (i.e. one child, two children, nanny shares, etc).
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we decided to give SurveyMonkey a try with our June 2018 Two Children Nanny Pay Rate Survey (not a nanny share).
The results are in! Thanks to all of you who spent the one minute and three seconds (the average time) to complete the survey!
As you can tell, there is a lot more information below versus our previous surveys. I very much want to hear what you think about these new surveys. Are there other questions you would like asked? Would you mind if the survey was a bit longer? Comment below!
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If you are someone who is around small children often, you know all too well that accidents happen. None of us are immune.
Employing a nanny carries with it some risk of accidents happening – both for the nanny AND for the family. When an accident occurs while on the job, the family is usually liable.
Examples of risks to the nanny involve driving the children around in the car, accidents during outings (like being bitten by a dog while visiting the park), etc. Some scenarios of risks to the family may include any liability involving the nanny getting into a car accident while on the job or having another child injured in their home (as with a nanny share situation).
Most families attempt to reduce the risk of these types of events occurring by thoroughly checking the care provider’s references, background, driving history, etc. Another way to lower this risk is by ensuring that adequate insurance coverage is in place.
Over the last several months, we have asked our members to complete pay surveys to provide the parents and care providers of our region a snapshot of the average pay for different child care scenarios (i.e. one child, two children, nanny shares, etc).
Several members have taken issue with these pay surveys as they feel they could be more accurate if variables such as location, duties, experience level, etc. were taken into account. While we agree, our intent with these previous pay surveys was to provide a rough idea of the average pay across our region for different types of child care, which we believe was accomplished.
But we have been listening…
As we begin refreshing the results of the initial round of pay surveys, we are going to try something a bit different. The embedded Facebook polls we have been using were very limiting – we could only ask members to respond to one question at a time. Moving forward, we are going to give SurveyMonkey a try and see if we can generate more refined results for those parents and care providers that are interested.
So, without further ado, we present our May 2018 Caring for Two Children Nanny Pay Rate Survey (wow, that’s a mouthful). The survey is very short and you should be able to complete it in about two minutes:
Care Providers – have you provided child care for two children from the same family in the past year?Parents – in the past year, have you employed a nanny to care for two of your children? If so, please complete the survey below:
Ah, spring time in Seattle – the time of year where you can see the cherry blossoms in their full glory at the University of Washington, baby ducklings at Green Lake, convertible owners with the tops down on a sunny 60 degree day, socks with sandals (because it’s not really warm enough to just wear sandals) and a year’s worth of seasons in a single day.
We have had some amazingly warm, sunny days recently. I love it that the kids can get outside so much! In many ways I am extremely ready for the nice weather, but at the same time it can catch me off guard. If you’re anything like me, your recent activities may have included furiously scrubbing the water table or kiddie pool out, digging through a box of clothes to find sun hats, and crossing my fingers that last year’s shorts still fit!
The recent sunny weather also left me scrambling to find some sunscreen leftover from last year.
Beginning in October 2017, we started polling our Facebook community of over 18,000 members to get a better sense of nanny pay rates for the greater Seattle area. Over the past two weeks, we resurveyed the members to gather current data on pay rates to care for one child and to compare them to the results from October 2017. The results are in!
The first graphic below shows the results from our most recent poll followed by the graphic detailing the results from our October 2017 survey. As you can tell, the average pay is virtually unchanged.
As the graphics below state, please DO NOT use this as a definitive guide to nanny pay rates in our area. We did not ask respondents to include variables such as benefits, # of hours worked, job duties, the specific location in our area where the care occurred, etc. Use this as a rough snapshot of current trends in the Puget Sound region.
As you can tell, there is a vast difference in nanny pay rates across our region. Parents – what do you pay for a provider to care for your little one? Nannies – what are you paid to care for one child? Comment below!
I remember the thought that popped into my mind when my firstborn was placed upon my chest immediately after he was born…
“Things” just got real
I thought I was prepared and really grasped what it meant to have a newborn. That moment I held my baby for the first time made me realize that nothing could have truly prepared me for that moment. I was fortunate that my mother-in-law was a retired NICU nurse – she showed me everything I needed to know about caring for a baby.
I have heard many parents express worry about caring for their newborns. How will they know what to do? The good news is, a lot of it is pretty intuitive. Also, babies are fairly resilient! They are experts at knowing what they want and fussing until we correctly address their need.
I hear tales of magical unicorn babies who are great sleepers. I always wonder if it’s just the nature of the child, or something the parent does? That said, none of my four babies have been great sleepers. The first few months were especially tough with the twins!
As a former nanny, I find myself constantly brainstorming new tools for the care providers in our community to use to help offer their services.
Recently, I decided to ask the nannies and babysitters in our Facebook community what feature they would like to see us build next. There were some great ideas floated – community calendar, nanny database, and a Nanny Parent Connection Buy Nothing group among others.
Overwhelmingly though, the care providers up-voted a very novel idea…an instant message/text message system for when parents need last minute child care.
I am so excited to announce that yesterday, we launched our Last Minute Care Text Message Service!
Thank you to all of the nannies and babysitters that signed up to help us test the system. We couldn’t have done it without you 🙂
Here is a sample of what the text message system sends out to subscribed care providers
Yes, you read that right! Free Seattle Storm Tickets!
The Seattle Storm is teaming up with Nanny Parent Connection to offer members FREE TICKETS to the Tuesday – May 8th, 2018 game against the Phoenix Mercury at 12:00pm.
This is the “Storm into STEM” game, and there will be robotics exhibitions and other STEM related presentations on the main concourse prior to the game, with doors opening at 11:00am and the game starting at 12:00pm.
This is an excellent opportunity for nannies and families to partake in an educational opportunity and have fun at the same time – not to mention to do something a little different!
