Summer nanny

[waverly]

With everything going on, I think we are going to have to hire a nanny for the summer. I don’t know if / when camps will open. This is assuming pandemic numbers are down and shelter in place is lifted and my work reopens.

For full time (40-45) hours a week, what are you paying your nannies? We pay our babysitter $15 an hour which would be $650 a week. Budget wise that’s a big high since camps are $450 a week for 2 kids. So I was just wondering what you all are paying or would be paying.

Also we might be looking into more working from home, staggered shifts, part time work going back to prevent the spread of the virus, so my schedule is a bit more up in the air and flexible maybe.

[librarychica]

We paid $15-18 an hour. A summer nanny or nanny of any kind if just more expensive than camp. No avoiding it.

I actually found that once I was looking for someone part time I was needing to pay more for less-qualified candidates so we decided to stop going that route and return to camps. That said, the labor market is no longer as tight as it was when I was last hiring 9 months ago.

[sdlaura]

I’m pretty sure that DS2’s in home daycare provider is going to re-open this summer, even if camps don’t run. I’m due June 9th so I’ll be on maternity leave, but really want some kind of childcare so I can spend one on one time with the baby like I did with my other three kids. So if there are no camps, I’ll be looking to hire someone at least part time for my older kids.

We paid our 20-something regular babysitter $20 an hour, but we aren’t having her come now because she’s still also nannying for another family. We pay DS2’s closed daycare provider, who is currently helping us 2-3 mornings a week, $25 an hour. But my kids are younger and more numerous than yours

[waverly]

I think we could swing it if I were only gone 40 hours a week or maybe WFH one day and week and then have the nanny for 4 days a week (36 hours). Who knows when we will open, and when we do open we are talking alternating staff that are there like half the staff there Monday the other half Tuesday etc.

[covergirl82]

Our summer nanny comes 3 days a week, and we pay her $100/day and give her some cash for gas (varies by the week, depending on where they go; usually we gave her $10 a week). Usually she was there for between 9-10 hours, so the hourly rate wasn't great, but my kids are super easy and she was able to have another part time job Thu-Sun.

ETA:  Summer nanny was 18 last summer and had just graduated high school.  Same girl will nanny this year. 

[mellym]

Where do you find your nannies? I'm starting to think about exploring that route with summer camps up in the air too.

[sdlaura]

mellym, I'll probably start with word of mouth through the YMCA, where we normally do camps. I'm sure if there are no camps, there will be a lot of staff members looking for work. I also got the phone numbers for all the aftercare staff at our elementary school when they closed. Next I would probably ask on next-door to see if there are any college kids home for the summer who were interested. Followed by care.com/sittercity.

[mae0111]

mellym, we've had really good luck with sittercity and care.com. Also the local moms boards on Facebook and Nextdoor. Often moms are posting for their high school or college-age kids that are looking for summer gigs.

[waverly]

It's hard because I don't know what my schedule will be. Maybe we will open to curbside only. Maybe we will stagger staff so that there is less of a risk of exposure. So maybe I work from home 3 days a week and go in 2 days a week. I have no idea. I don't need childcare if I work from home because they are old enough, and if exposure is still an issue it's not like I can have a nanny take them to the pool and the zoo etc. It's so up in the air. Maybe I just hire someone for 2-3 days??? And if things open up do camp after?? There is an option for M, W, F camp, so I could hire someone Tue/ Thurs and plan for those to be my days in the office and then when camps open up and my schedule opens up do the camp? Uncertainty is hard when you are a working parent.

[phdmomma]

I am starting to think about this as well. I can't keep up the pace I am at work while being in charge of the kids all day (DH is essential, and working 50 hours or more a week for the time being). Anyone else thinking about it?

[sdlaura]

I definitely will if there are no camps. Hopefully there would then be lots of unemployed camp counselors available!

[twinmomma]

I'm kind of starting to consider asking my SIL if she wants to be our summer nanny, at least part time. I know she and my brother have been super isolated and she's laid off and will be for the foreseeable future. She works at a school picture place, so no way for her to do her job until things are back to normal. So if I can give her some money a couple days a week to distract my kids a bit while I work, it could be a win/win.

[mustardseed2007]

I need more of our camps to cancel and give me a refund before I can hire anyone.

[186momx]

I'm leaning towards rotating through a few of the girls from the gym once school is over. So not a nanny but a handful of babysitters at least once a week. More for the sake of saving DD and my relationship and sanity.

[twinmomma]

SIL is on board with my plan as long as her job doesn't reopen! She doesn't think it will anytime soon, but doesn't know yet.

I have about $2500 saved up to cover my portion of summer camp. I would basically just give her that for the 2-3 days a week I need her for about 8 weeks. If exH wants to pay her his half of summer camp costs, he can have coverage on his days too but I'm not paying for it.

I also think I'm going to calculate out my PTO to do a 4 day work week whenever possible this summer to ease the strain too. I imagine I can get my CEO on board since it's my vacation time and he knows I'm balancing work and kids on my own half the time.

[sandandsea]

I posted this elsewhere but if summer camps are cancelled I think we will be flying my mom here to help us for the summer. It’s a risk but both of us working more than full time with both young boys at home isn’t working.

[cosmowife]

If it is bad enough that summer camps are canceled, I’d assume that DH would not be permitted to open either (hair salon) so he would stay home with the kids.

[sdlaura]

cosmowife for some reason (just intuition based on stuff I read), I do think it’s likely that hair salons will be permitted to open with social distancing measures before camps open. People have seemed to place anything involving kids in a different category in terms of when they’ll be able to open. I think it’s necessary to have childcare options if businesses reopen, but unfortunately policymakers don’t seem to be on the same page.

[sdlaura]

The New York Times has an article on summer camps today:

www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/style/is-summer-camp-going-to-happen-coronavirus.amp.html

It makes me hopeful that the YMCA national director is still hopeful.

[mustardseed2007]

I don't think the YMCA director is being realistic and it makes me kind of worried b/c we are signed up for a YMCA camp. I'm sure he's worried about the kids and of course kids want to go to camp and I know I want to send mine to camp, not to mention he's worried about money too and the ability of the camp to survive to next year, so I feel for him.

BUT how do you keep kids safe at a sleep away camp when they are sleeping in one room with several bunk beds and showering in a common shower and eating together. It doesn't make any sense. It's the worst case scenario for social distancing. I keep hoping our YMCA sleep away camp will cancel so we can just move on and it sounds like they won't. I think its really foolhardy.

[mommyatty]

mustardseed2007- I’m on the board of an organization that runs a sleep away camp. They are worried about money. But they also worry they aren’t fulfilling their mission. I mean, we have a whole staff that does nothing but plan for and care for and run the camp facilities all year long. It’s literally their reason for existing. But yeah, I think it’s utterly ridiculous to think it’s happening this year. It’s not. There’s just no way.

We have a grief camp we run every year, and we just had the fundraiser for it. I couldn’t even bring myself to publicize the fundraiser because it just seems so disingenuous. I mean, in the longrun we will run the camp again and need the money to pay all the therapists and equine therapists and camp fees for kids, but... not this year.

[mae0111]

So I read this article over the weekend.

www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/25/844088634/when-is-it-safe-to-ease-social-distancing-heres-what-one-model-says-for-each-sta

The article says that my state is scheduled for mid- to end of June. But the came that DD1 attends is in a state that should open in early May. So I wonder if the camp will open... but they have attendees from all over the world... can’t imagine how this could work.

[waverly]

1. Special needs bike camp cancelled altogether. Rescheduled for June 2021. That was early June in IL.

2. Sleep away camp says that they have rolling cancellations 5 weeks out. We are scheduled for the week after July 4th. Even if by a miracle it does open, I'm not sure we will send the kids. Childcare is not an issue this week since we are off work this week. This is in an adjacent state but the dates are only 1 day off.

3. Regular day camp is still hopeful, but is planning to delay camp if possible. I could see it potentially opening mid June (stay at home orders are until May 30th here) or after the 4th of July. We've been going here forever and the camp director is very experienced.

4. I might cancel Girl Scout camp, I am not sure they are equipped for this. It isn't the regular camp sites, it is just a local volunteer type thing.

ETA. #3 depends on if Park Districts end up opening pools for the summer.  Maybe they open them but limit the number of people? 

[twinmomma]

mae0111, That kind of modeling stresses me out for my state. I practically live in your state. The state line is in my town. I would say at least half of the cars I see in my town have your state's license plate and are shopping in our grocery stores. Normally I'm very much "Who cares?!" about the whole state line thing. But my state is supposed to relax distancing a full month before you? Doesn't make sense to me. We're just going to get nailed by people crossing the state lines even more than we already have. It's scary, because our numbers don't look bad in most of the northern, rural parts of the state. But where I am, our numbers keep rising because of all the commuters going back and forth.

[mae0111]

twinmomma that would stress me out too. North of the city is being hit really hard. Just do your best with your masks and stuff. You can only do so much.

My town is a hot spot, so I do almost nothing here. I drive to another town to grocery shop and get gas. I only go to the pharmacy here once a month for DD1’s meds (mail order is not an option). Occasional takeout, but I even prefer doing that in another town. Most of the cases are due to our large number of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, I think, but no one is publishing the stats on that.

[vasc]

My child is also signed up for a week of YMCA sleep away camp at the end of June/beginning of July. The camp is actively putting out social media building hype about camp and also doing Zoom sessions inviting campers to socialize electronically. They’re also still deducting our payments. 🤔

[k3am]

Well that link says we can open up as early as May 18 and I see 0% chance of that happening. Our governor is enjoying what this is doing for his ratings.

[sdlaura]

mustardseed2007 I agree that I think it’s unlikely that YMCA sleep away camps will happen. I’m just hoping for YMCA day camps here. I think the only sleep away camps that might happen might be the super high end ones where they get COVID tests for everyone, like the one guy they interviewed in the article talked about.

mommyatty the mission issue is why I’m hoping some YMCA day camps will happen. There are so many families that get scholarships and rely on them for childcare.

[mustardseed2007]

Apr 27, 2020 10:00:07 GMT -5 vasc said:

My child is also signed up for a week of YMCA sleep away camp at the end of June/beginning of July. The camp is actively putting out social media building hype about camp and also doing Zoom sessions inviting campers to socialize electronically. They’re also still deducting our payments. 🤔

We did not sign up for payments, but ours (In Texas) put out an email saying they were stopping deducting payments. They also offered refunds but asked people to wait to ask for them if they at all possibly could until closer to camp when they would announce what their plan would be to have camp safely. 

That's really crummy that yours is continuing to deduct payments. 

[mustardseed2007]

Apr 27, 2020 10:42:29 GMT -5 k3am said:

Well that link says we can open up as early as May 18 and I see 0% chance of that happening. Our governor is enjoying what this is doing for his ratings.

That link says we can open up at the beginning of June and I feel confident, although disappointed, that we will open earlier.

The governor is slow walking so far, but things are escalating in my city. There are lots of l little independent towns even inside my big city and the businesses inside those towns are ignoring the county orders and ignoring the fact that the governor is going slowly. Instead the businesses are pushing their own timeline with impunity, and I think that is going to push us faster than we normally would have done. I would expect dine in for restaurants to start very soon as a result of that, which will have a wave impact for other businesses in our state. 

As a result the day camps will probably meet and we'll have to decide what we're going to do. 

The overnight camps might be held and if that happens...well I can't imagine we'll go.