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How to Hire a Live-In Nanny

Nanny Lane is a nanny website that can help you find a live-in nanny in your area. Our nanny services include background checks, a hiring agent, and nanny payroll.

Common Responsibilities of Live-In Nannies in the United States

To understand if a live-in nanny is right for you, it’s best to start by assessing your family’s needs. Live-in nannies are best suited for families’ that need flexible, full-time, in-home child care as live-in nannies reside with the family that they care for. A live-in nanny offers support with housekeeping, errands and other household responsibilities, similar to mother’s helpers, au-pairs, and full-time nannies. However, the perk that live-in nannies offer that sets them apart from other types of nannies, is round-the-clock and emergency coverage. These instances, as well as your location and the nanny’s experience are some of the many factors to consider when deciding how much you should pay a live-in nanny.

Interviews for Live-In Nannies

When hiring potential live-in nannies, you should conduct interviews. Interviews are a great opportunity to get to know your live-in nanny candidates better. Here are some questions to consider asking:

• What nanny and live-in nanny experience do you have?
• What household responsibilities are you open to?
• What are your expectations for your housing situation?
• What is a weekly schedule for you? What time do you usually wake-up and go to bed? What do you usually do on weekends?
• Do you have any references questions?
• What salary are you seeking? Are you open to being paid through direct-deposit, pay stubs?
• What are your expectations around over-time pay and vacation time?

Contracts for Live-In Nannies

When finalizing the details of your live-in nanny position, it’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page. The easiest way to do this is to create a job offer for your live-in nanny position.

In your job offer, you should communicate the responsibilities and compensation for your live-in nanny position. In writing out the responsibilities of your live-in nanny, you might also choose to add some responsibilities that are specific to your families’ needs like if you expect your live-in nanny to travel with you and the details around travelling with your live-in nanny.

When considering what it means for your live-in nanny when you take vacation, you should also consider how you want to handle their vacation time, and other aspects of their compensation. This includes a live-in nanny salary, over-time, benefits, and any expenses like food and gas. And don’t forget to be clear about how and when you plan on paying your live-in nanny with a nanny payroll service or by yourself.

After presenting your job offer, you can create a contract for your live-in nanny to create the foundation for a good relationship with your nanny. And of course, as you learn how to hire a nanny, Nanny Lane's nanny services are here to help you along the way.