As the school year is well under way, your childcare needs may have lessened—especially when it comes to your full time nanny has always helped rear the little ones. 
If you still need some help (but can’t justify a $3,000 monthly fee now that the kids are in school several hours a day), consider sharing your longtime nanny with another family.
Shares take many forms. With some, one nanny will split her time between two families evenly; in others, one family’s needs may be much greater than the other, so the sitter will spend most of her time with one set of children vs. the other.
A good arrangement can help you manage your expenses while keeping an important person in your child’s life. Here are a few tips on making a nanny share work—so you don’t need a “nannyvention” later. (Choosing a nanny for the first time? Check out more tips here!)
1) Make sure your sitter is willing to divide her time between two families. If she’s iffy on the offer, you may need to bump up her pay an extra 15% or so to compensate for the unorthodox situation. Point out that not only does she get to stay with a family she trusts and children she loves, but she’ll have a diversified income: two sources v. just one.
2) If you are interested in sharing your nanny with another family, iron out that family’s needs before you approach the sitter so you’ll be ensured that the share will work for you.
3) Establish with your partner family your own hours and determine that any hours over and above that will be considered overtime. Say your nanny wants a 40-hour week–you need her for 30, and the partner family takes her for 10. Any hours over the 30 for which you use her, you pay overtime. Any hours over 10, they pay. The 40 hours aren’t fungible or divided up between the two families. (Also establish whether one family may borrow time from another family.)
4) When it comes to vacation time, establish with each other—and your sitter—whether both families will take the same week off, giving her five consecutive days of leave or whether each family’s vacation will be different.
5) Establish what will happen when one family ultimately leaves the share so as to not leave the other family or the sitter in a bind.
6) Agree to revisit the share arrangements on a yearly or semi-yearly basis, since family needs shift over time.
7) Shares work best when the nanny earns the same from both families. It could make for a sticky situation if one family pays taxes and benefits and the other doesn’t—or it could afford her a better situation because she is accruing benefits while also getting cash under the table.
8) Especially in the beginning, periodically touch base with the other family (and the nanny) to make sure the share is working for everyone.
Though I’ve not used it, Share Our Nanny is a source for local nanny shares.
While swaps work best when families know each other, that’s not mandatory. If you don’t know the other family well, you may consider documenting the fine points such as payment, vacation days, and sick day policies. If you are friendly with the other family, a verbal agreement may suffice.
