Traveling With Your Nanny

Traveling With Your Nanny


This summer, lots of parents will hit the beach with their kids. Let’s face it, the luxury of having an extra set of hands to help with an airplane ride, feeding the kids in restaurants or a trusted sitter for parent dinner out is self-explanatory. But how do you begin to navigate inviting your nanny along on your vacation?

Separate Agreement

The most important first step is to openly communicate with your nanny well in advance of the trip. What is a vacation for you should not be viewed as a “favor” to your caregiver. The nanny will spend her time there working, not relaxing, and a separate understanding and vacation work agreement is in order. Hours, expectations, duties and compensation should be clearly detailed.

Itinerary & Scheduling

Prior to finalizing plans, do some real thinking about when your nanny would be best utilized. Do you want a break from getting up early with the children? Do you want to head to the spa or for a tee time in the afternoons during naptime? Do you want the nanny to eat every meal with the family? Develop a schedule so that everyone can be well versed in it in advance.
It’s important to also remember to build time off into the day as well, especially if your nanny is sharing a room or has an adjoining room with young children. Traveling with children is difficult, and your nanny will need some downtime as well.

Compensation

The arrangement differs greatly from family to family, but generally speaking, it is customary to supply the nanny with all travel expenses, a separate hotel room or bedroom, meals and for all excursions/activities. Some parents find that it’s easiest to give the nanny a daily per-diem in addition to their typical hourly wage. Essentially, if your nanny is “on the clock”, then she should be paid accordingly, including overtime, if applicable. Be sure to factor in things like travel time as overtime if that is outside her normal working hours as well as an overnight care payment if she is expected to be responsible for the children. Lastly, your nanny most likely has guaranteed work hours that she is expecting to be paid for in order to pay her bills that month. Make sure that vacation doesn’t detract from that in any way.