How to find a part-time nanny
and why it’s harder than you think
Working with a part-time nanny can be the perfect solution for families who don’t need a full-time caregiver. Maybe you work part-time and don’t require complete coverage, or maybe your kids have graduated into full days at school, but still very much need that after-school coverage with an engaging and consistent nanny.
Whatever the reason, you’ve found yourself in the tricky maze of finding a part-time nanny for your family. Here are some useful tips on how to find the right solution for your family—and how to hold on to that person for the long term.
What’s the difference: part-time nanny vs. babysitter?
While a babysitter can show up fairly often to help your family, the role is significantly different from a part-time nanny. Since a babysitter works as needed, they can easily turn down work with you in favor of other activities or commitments. A part-time nanny, on the other hand, commits to the hours you agree on at the onset of your working relationship and only cancels in rare instances or under the conditions you’ve outlined beforehand. A part-time nanny works on a regular schedule with you, showing up consistently when you need them.
A part-time nanny will also generally be more involved in your children’s upbringing and have a more long-term view of their work with your kids. It’s easy for you and them to make plans for the future—trips, long-term activities, and your child’s development—because you are all working under the assumption that you’ll be together for that time.
Why are part-time nannies harder to find than full-time nannies?
Part-time nannies usually have other commitments besides their work with you. They may be grad students, parents themselves, or pursuing creative careers like acting, which means relying on part-time nannying to finance their other endeavors. This is great for you, because it means they are not looking for a full-time salary, and because they bring all that energy and their skills from other pursuits into their work with your children.
However, some families struggle to find a part-time nanny, because there are fewer people looking for a part-time income who also are able to commit to a regular, steady schedule. While working as a full-time nanny is often associated with a long-term commitment and a career mindset, part-time nannying can be seen as ad hoc babysitting and risk leaving families in the lurch at the last minute.
How can working with a nanny agency help?
Because of the difficulty finding part-time nanny help on a long-term basis, many nanny agencies have long since abandoned families looking for a part-time nanny. But an agency who does take on the challenge can be a huge help in your search.
Here at Smart Sitting, our nanny agency team has over a decade’s worth of experience in helping families find reliable, long-term, part-time nannies. We know how the trends in the industry have changed over the years, and know the fluctuations that occur even over the span of each individual year.
With our tight-knit childcare community of sitters and nannies, we are able to listen in on what matters to part-time nannies and know how to help families both book and keep the candidates they really want for their kids.
We also get to know our sitters and nannies, so we understand their situation, their aspirations, and how a part-time nanny job is part of their bigger picture. This helps us match families’ and nannies’ expectations and make more happy matches than an ad in the local paper (that’s “online job listing site,” in 2022 terms).
The trick to keeping your part-time nanny
With our many years of experience working with part-time nannies, we’ve discovered a few tricks that help part-time nannies want to stay for the long haul. Most revolve around the same basic principle: treat their job like, well, a job.
By treating your part-time nanny with the same professionalism you’d expect from any other long-term job, the position becomes one your nanny can rely on and build their days, life, and plans around. Draw up a proper job contract and respect it, in terms of scheduling and notice of any upcoming changes to the job.
Consider including these benefits in your nanny contract:
Paid time off
Metro card stipend
Contribution toward health care
Holiday or year-end bonus
Are you struggling to find a part-time nanny for your family? Or do you want to share your great success story with other parents? Tell us all about it on our Instagram or Facebook.