I used to be a nanny as well but the money is nothing compared to what I'm making now as a home DC provider.

Yes Nanny's are paid more hourly than you would get from caring for one child in your own home however I care for more kids now in my home than I would otherwise being a nanny. I suppose that you have to see how much you would make being a nanny compared to what you are making now.

In my area nanny's start at $10 per hour and that's for someone with no experience. For someone like me with experience, training and education in child development the rate is $15-$20 an hour and that's just for one child. It is extremely difficult to find a good nanny job that wants FT. I found that for me I was ususally working 2-3 nanny jobs at a time. Usually I worked mornings and a few days a week with one family and afternoons a few days a week with another family. When I did work a full 50 hours a week with one family I was making $750 a week as a live-out nanny which was good money for a 20 year old. If you could find a job like that would be amazing. Most of the time however I worked split families and I was working not quite 30 hours a week and bringing in $420 per week.

Other things to consider is that in my experience not too many familes were ok with nanny's bringing their own children along. In many cases at least one of the reasons that I was hired was because I had no children. I think some families feel that no children means less time taken off for sickness due to our kids. From my experience there aren't too many families that would be open to allowing the nanny's kids to be present while on duty unless for instance it was one child that was the same age as the child you were caring for and could act as a playmate. Even in these circumstances the general rule (in my area at least) is that if you do bring along a child of your own the hourly rate would be lowered (less one on one focus with the families child = less money) and of course you'd have to pack your childs own meals etc. Not saying it isn't doable, just that it's generally more difficult to find a client that is open to an idea like this.

You also lose the ability for more freedom. The majority of clients with nanny's would rather not have you travel with their children unless it's educational and for something that they themselves have deemed appropriate. So in essence ... they make up the rules but you can always negotiate all of this during the interview. Generally nanny's also take over light house duties such as preparing meals, laundry, dusting, vacuuming and keeping up with the toys and kids room. The less responsibilities you have the less you get hourly. It really can be a great situation though just be sure that you have a contract, have a pay date, get paid a flat weekly rate with a guaranteed schedule in stead of getting paid only for hours that you work (so that they can't cancel or send you home early to save themselves money) and you should be ok.

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