Rest breaks are one of the most overlooked parts of a nanny’s day. Because nannying doesn’t come with the built-in pauses most jobs have, it’s easy for families to forget that their nanny needs real time to sit down, eat, and recharge. In this article, we walk through why rest breaks matter, what they can look like, and how to set clear expectations so your nanny feels supported.
We encourage parents to keep clear communication with their nanny about their daily workload so that there’s time built in for breaks and meals. Having a specific conversation about rest breaks helps create an atmosphere where your nanny feels comfortable and welcome to take a breather and rest for a bit.
For a closer look at the legal side of rest breaks, you can also read the post by Nanny Cara, linked here.
If you aren’t currently a member of our community, we’d love to have you join. Nannies can join our community totally FREE and our Family/Parent memberships start at only $8.99/month!
Here is a closer look at the topic of rest and meal breaks for nannies.
Nannies should get rest breaks, but keep in mind that nannying is a unique job and that you can’t typically have scheduled rest or meal breaks. Even if the child or children are resting and taking a nap, the nanny still isn’t relieved of their duties. They still need to be on call, they still need to make sure everybody’s safe, they need to make sure no emergent situations happening, or if the child wakes up early from the nap, they need to be ready to go.
This is different than most jobs where you do have scheduled meal and rest breaks.
Many times when speaking with families, they have this list of duties that they would like their nanny to accomplish throughout the day. Often that includes things like picking up toys/activities, tidying up the kitchen or the high chair after meals. That includes putting away and cleaning up dishes that were used for lunch prep, for example.
Many parents ask whether those are things the nanny can do while the children are sleeping.
Yes, they absolutely can use some of that time to tidy up, but keep in mind nannying is a different type of profession where you don’t have time for scheduled rest and meal breaks. The nanny is going to likely need to use some of that time to rest and recuperate, handle some personal business, eat, and then of course they can jump into some of those duties.
Many parents forget to include meal and rest breaks in their thinking about the nanny’s day. It isn’t from any ill intentions. It’s just something new to working with a nanny, and it simply might not cross their mind.
We encourage families to communicate and have a conversation with their nanny about meals and rest breaks.
Consider approaching your nanny to establish the expectation around breaks. Maybe something like this, “Hey, it’s important to me that you are prepared to do your job well and that we help set you up for success, so we want to make sure you’re taking at least a 30-minute rest break while the children are napping or resting or having quiet time so that you can feel recharged and ready to tackle the afternoon. I know how exhausting it is to be home with kids all day long.”
Make sure they know that they can and should take that time to take a breather or take a load off, maybe just mentally unwind for a few minutes. They will appreciate it, and it will go a long way toward making sure you have that great, smooth nanny-family relationship that lends itself to great long-term sustainability.
What might a rest or meal period look like for your nanny?
That is a great question. We would advise making sure that it’s at least 30 minutes. It could look like 30 to 60 minutes depending on how great of a “napper” your child might be. The nanny gets to conduct personal business, make some phone calls and maybe do some reading to unwind and anything like that, or just take a load off and unplug for a moment so that they can be free to do whatever they want to do and they don’t feel like they have to constantly be doing things around the home.
Of course, there’s a balance between your nanny taking breaks and catching up with the daily tidying activities that need to happen, but make sure that your nanny feels welcome and comfortable to take a break. Make sure they get that 30-minute chunk at least (if possible) so that they can feel recuperated and energized to tackle some of the tidying chores that need to happen later that day.
This break time for your nanny should be paid because the nanny is not completely relieved of duties. Now it’s worth mentioning that a lot of parents are working from home currently. Consider having a conversation with your nanny, “Hey, you know while I’m on my own rest break, I’m happy to come and completely relieve you of duties if you would like to have that opportunity so that you can go take a walk, you can do whatever you need to do uninterrupted or without the potential of being interrupted in case you would like that.” If your nanny can be completely relieved of duties, then that time could be an unpaid break. If your nanny cannot be completely relieved of duties, then you should be paying them for breaks.
For example, even if the children are napping, they still have to be prepared to jump in, in case something happens. That should be a paid meal break.
Some cities like Seattle recognize that domestic workers like nannies need certain protections, and so the City of Seattle has passed the Domestic Workers Ordinance.
This is interesting because in Seattle you can’t waive the rest breaks, but you can waive the meal breaks. But if for some reason your nanny is not able to be completely relieved of their duties during rest breaks, then you’re supposed to add 20 minutes worth of paid time per day each time that that happens.
That obviously can be a lot to navigate, and you may be wondering how certain nannies or certain families handle that.
Nanny Cara (a member of our community) wrote a fantastic guest post about what the implications of such a law are and how nannies and families might navigate that in a way that makes sense and serves and speaks to fulfilling the requirements of the law as well as the needs of the family and the nanny. To check out that blog post, click here.
We hope this helps you navigate the topic of, “Should Your Nanny Get Rest Breaks?” As you’ve read here, your nanny should get rest breaks.