What are the downsides of having a nanny for my children?
I love my children so much. I have been home with them for their entire lives at this point and it has been so much fun watching them become the wonderful kids that they are. But I do miss working and bringing money into the household. I loved my job but my partner and I decided that we didn’t want to pay someone else to watch them while they were so young. Now that they are older, I’ve been thinking about getting back into the workforce. This means we would need to hire a nanny. They’ve never been in daycare and we feel that it would be too big of a change so we want someone to watch them in our home. We’ve heard a lot of stories about nannies, both good and bad, so we really don’t know what to think right now. What are some of the bad things about having a nanny?
2 answers
Firstly, nanny care is largely unsupervised even with the installation of nanny cams which might be an hassle when you're checking it every time. Another downside is the research and screening along with background checks that goes into finding someone who possesses fully verified training in child development and safety that you can trust is fully up to you. Hiring a nanny tends to be very expensive up to averagely $700 a week for a full time nanny. It is also like having an employee, requiring managing a salary, work hours, vacation time and taxes. There might be a difference in parenting style and continuity of parenting style of you and your nanny is important for your child's emotional regulation. Any crucial differences in parenting styles could cause an array of disagreement with the nanny. Therefore be open about how you parent when you're screening for a nanny and encourage your prospective nanny to do the same. If your nanny gets sick impromptu, this might disturb everyone schedule and you might have to stay at home or start searching urgently for back up care.
A huge downsize is how much it costs to have a nanny. You have to pay the nanny a couple of hundred dollars each week, the exact amount depending on if they are a live-in nanny or not. But a huge downside to having a nanny that not a lot of people talk about is how dependent the kids can become to the nanny. Instead of being dependent on you or your partner, they can become dependent on the nanny, basically thinking of them as a parent. This is especially true if the nanny has been with the family since the kids were very young or if it is a live-in nanny situation. Kids can be really hurt mentally and emotionally if the nanny has to leave for whatever reason in the future.
