Nanny Share: How to Ensure it Works for Parents and Nannies

Embracing a Modern Childcare Approach: The Perks and Pitfalls of a Nanny Share System and How to Make it Work for Everyone.

The fast-paced, modern world presents an evolving landscape of childcare needs, especially as children enter the structured environment of school life. Super Nanny Certified has put together some tips to ensure consistency in nanny share childcare and the well-being of the nanny and children.

Nanny Sharing

Enter the innovative nanny share system! This model allows two or more families to share the services and costs of a nanny, providing an affordable solution that retains the personal care of a nanny during school terms and the holidays. As a cost-effective and flexible approach, the nanny share system offers a win-win situation for today’s parents and nannies alike.

While nanny share might seem overwhelming initially, especially for the nannies looking at more work, varying parenting styles, and managing multiple schedules, with the right strategies, this model can indeed be beneficial for all involved.

Pros and Cons of Nanny Share for Parents:

Pros:

• Cost-Effective: Nanny share allows for the cost of childcare to be split among families, making quality childcare more accessible.
• Social Interaction: This setup encourages interaction with peers, fostering your child’s social skills from an early age.
• Flexibility: It offers more schedule flexibility compared to traditional childcare centers, ideal for parents with varying work hours.

Cons:

• Coordination Issues: Coordinating schedules with another family requires good communication and compromise.
• Inconsistent Care: If a family leaves the arrangement, it could disrupt the consistency of your child’s care.
• Health Risks: With more children involved, there’s an increased risk of illness spreading.

Pros and Cons of Nanny Share for Nannies:

Pros:

• Higher Income: As families share the costs, nannies often earn more in a nanny share setup.
• Companionship for Children: With more children involved, nannies can plan engaging group activities, making their roles more enjoyable.
• Backup Support: Multiple families mean there’s better backup support when issues arise.

Cons:

• Balancing Needs: Managing different children from different families can be challenging. Parents from different families are often not 100% aligned on their preferred parenting techniques, which can become challenging in childcare scenarios.
• Increased Responsibility: A nanny share setup entails higher responsibility due to handling more children and coordinating with multiple parents.
• Complex Payment: Payment arrangements can be complicated, especially when families have different payment schedules or methods.

A nanny share system, while trendy, is a practical answer to modern childcare needs. With open communication, clear expectations, and mutual respect, a successful nanny share experience can be created.

Optimize a Nanny Share Experience: Steps for Parents

This guide will provide key insights into creating a harmonious and beneficial nanny share experience for both families and nannies.

• Financial Planning: Analyze your budget and understand that nanny share is a cost-effective approach that allows for high-quality, personalized childcare.
  • A nanny’s emotional, mental, and physical labor output is significantly stretched with multiple children. Make sure their compensation reflects this labor to ensure a harmonious and continued working relationship. 
• Foster Social Interaction: Embrace the opportunity for your child to engage with peers, encouraging early social skills development.
  • Make sure your children actually enjoy interacting with the other children in the group before you create their playday community to maintain their good spirits. Additionally, a nanny may terminate the agreement if their day is filled with fights and behavioral issues and your child may loathe the work week if they are placed with combative peers. 
• Flexibility Exploration: Utilize the flexible scheduling that nanny sharing offers to accommodate varying work hours and personal commitments.
  • This responsibility should be primarily navigated by the parents as they are in command of their own time. The nanny’s attention should be on the kids and a set schedule, not on the power dynamics at play when acting as a go-between across multiple parents and their adult needs.
• Open Communication: Establish strong channels of communication with the other family or families involved to facilitate smooth scheduling and coordination.
  • Create a time every week, between all the parents and the nanny, to discuss the upcoming week’s needs and to set a schedule. This will allow the nanny to plan and organize for upcoming events and keep their daily attention on the kids. 
• Prepare for Change: Have contingency plans in place to ensure consistent care for your child, should one family decide to leave the arrangement.
  • This could include a statement in the nanny’s contract that each family is responsible for giving a month’s notice before they pull out of the commitment, to give other families and nannies the time to discover alternatives without disrupting lives and care. 
• Health Precautions: Implement health and safety measures to reduce the risk of illness spread among the children.
  • This includes open communication with all parents and the nanny. The individual parent should take the responsibility to ensure their child does not infect others, for if the nanny’s health is compromised, multiple families will be affected by their absence. 

Steps for Nannies to Ensure a Successful Nanny Share:

• Negotiate Compensation: Understand that nanny sharing often allows for higher income, and negotiate your pay accordingly.
  • This could look like charging per child, per hour to ensure that their emotional, mental, and physical labor distribution is properly compensated. I highly recommend that you keep separate tabs per family and do not accept a salaried position.
    • If one family’s needs outweigh others nannies could risk not being compensated due to overcomplications. 
    • Snuggling multiple families puts the nanny at risk of juggling a constantly changing schedule and a salary option could put the nanny in danger of not being properly compensated for their time and labor. 
• Plan Group Activities: Use the opportunity to create a more dynamic and social environment for the children, making your role more engaging.
  • Having more children is certainly a struggle, but when nannies enforce engaging in group activities, the children have a means for social interaction. The nannies have fewer issues with multitasking and being spread too thin.
• Leverage Support: Know that the involvement of multiple families often means more support in case of emergencies or issues.
  • Sit down with the parents and assign roles for support. This can include which parent to call in case of health emergencies, which parent to contact in case of behavioral issues, etc. This way, instead of getting the busy signal from multiple parents, and being distracted from the actual issue, the nannies have a clear line of action to ensure the safety and well-being of the children. 
• Master the Art of Balance: Learn to cater to the varying needs of children from different families and create an environment of harmony and respect. Set firm boundaries that all children, no matter the age, need to follow, and enforce them.
  • Create an agreement amongst all parents on how to handle situations and agree on steps of action and consequences for all. If one child from one family never has consequences, the rest of the children may rebel and foster situations based on inequality. 
• Understand Responsibilities: Recognize that handling multiple children from different families will require a higher level of responsibility.
  • Sit down with the parents and openly discuss which children they feel may need more attention. Create a plan of action. This way nannies can avoid parental dissatisfaction on behalf of their kid that is caused by another. 

A nanny share system is not only a trend but a practical solution for modern childcare needs. It’s a model that fosters community, connection, and cost-effectiveness, making it an attractive option for both families and nannies. Open communication, clear expectations, and mutual respect form the cornerstone of a successful nanny share experience.

Remember to share this blog post if you found it helpful, and let us know your thoughts on nanny share in the comments!

*Image by Tri Le from Pixabay