Nanny shares

A nanny share is where two families employ one nanny to look after their children, and spread the cost between them. It can work very well as long as both families agree on the basic ground rules and are in agreement about key aspects of childcare.

A nanny share offers a good compromise solution, where the children have company but with a lower adult to child ratio than you’d have at a daycare center.

The most successful nanny shares are generally those where the parents have similar outlooks on life and childcare and work similar hours. Talk through with your prospective share partners how you’d like the arrangements to work, and decide together on the kind of nanny you’d like to find (assuming you or your share partners don’t already have one) and what you want her to do. You may find it helpful to draw up a list of interview questions together and compare notes afterwards.

Once you’ve found your preferred nanny, discuss the contract terms in detail with your partners. Once your nanny has started, maintaining good communication with your share partners and with your nanny is vital to make it work, and a degree of compromise and accommodation will always be necessary. If you have very fixed ideas about how you want your child to be cared for, it may not be the ideal solution.

What are the advantages?

- You can split the cost of childcare between both families.

- Your children will have regular company.

- Being with another child or children will help to develop their social skills and encourage them to share and take turns.

What are the disadvantages?

- You may not share the same views on childcare as your nanny share partners.

- It may be logistically difficult to rotate the childcare between two homes – if your home or your share partners’ becomes the main base of operations you may have to come to a compromise over helping out with utility consts such as electricity.

- Involves being able to agree on a lot of things, such as contracts, house rules, food, discipline etc.

- If your share partners have to drop out of the arrangement for any reason you’ll have to pay your nanny’s salary yourself.

- Coordinating holidays may be a problem

Can't decide whether to go for a nanny share or not? Why not post a question on our answers area to see what other moms think of them?

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.

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Last Modified: 15/06/2007

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