Whether you call the person who helps
you watch your kids a nanny, a babysitter, or an au pair, the same
basic questions run through everyone's head when it comes to
traveling with them. This post is written with the hopes to clear up
how you may want to address travel with your nanny.
For the purpose of this post, a sitter
is defined here as a person caring for our children. This person
does not live with us full time, nor is caring for our children her
full-time job; additionally, she does not care for them on a daily
basis. On the flip side, she is one of the only people, outside of
family, who cares for our children when we are not available.
When our children were younger, we
almost always traveled with our sitter. Now that our kids are older,
we often find a resort with a kid-zone or child care. Having our
sitter with us was piece of mind. And let's all be honest, traveling
with our sitter made the trips more enjoyable.
Here are some tips:
- Your sitter may not be familiar with travel – When you begin discussing traveling with her, don't assuming she knows the area you are going, that she has a passport, or that she'll know your expectations. Therefore, it's important that you...
- ...Set the ground rules – It is important that everyone has the same expectations of the trip. You don't want anyone to come home disappointed. What will you be paying for on the trip? What will the sitter be responsible for? Will there be compensation in addition to the trip? How will meals be handled? What will the sleeping arrangements be? When will the sitter be expected to watch the kids?
- Make sure your sitter has a passport – Our sitter didn't have a passport, so we covered the expense for her to get one. Passports can't be gotten at the last minute, so there needs to be some planning.
- Work out a schedule for your sitter to have downtime – Your sitter may not have the opportunity to visit your destination outside of the trip. She will want to have time to explore the area. Plan to allow her to do this during your family time, so it doesn't take away from your vacation. Plus, you'll want to include your sitter in some of your fun as well.
- Remember your sitter is sacrificing something – While your sitter loves being with your kids, she is sacrificing something of her own personal life to travel with you. Make sure she knows she is appreciated and that she is comfortable with the terms you have agreed on from the points mentioned above.
Another thing we always did that you
may want to consider is we allowed our sitter to bring a friend. The
friend had to pay her own way, but she was welcome to share the room
we got for our sitter. This always ended up being a positive for our
family. We had another set of eyes watching our children. Plus,
when our sitter had her downtime, she had a friend with her. In our
experience, this worked out to be a win-win for everyone.
While I have listed the five tips
above, you may still want to have a suggestion specifically on how to
pay your sitter. Certainly, what we did may not be right for you and
your sitter. This is something you need to establish while working
through #2 above. I can only share what worked for our family and
our sitter with compensation.
The sitters we took happened to always
be college girls. They never had to take time off from a full-time
job or miss a class to travel with us. We would arrange our travel
time to coordinate with one of their semester or summer breaks. We
did not pay them hourly. They were invited to go on a trip with us
as well as bring a friend along. We always covered all of our
sitter's travel expenses such as getting a passport, airfare, her own
hotel room, and food. Additionally, we would give our sitter a
pre-agreed amount of money for each day. The amount of money was
based on where we were going. Whether she spent the money while
traveling with us or saved it, that was up to her. All of the terms
were given to the sitter ahead of time, so she could be in agreement
prior to committing to the job. (Believe me when I tell you we had a
number of sitters hoping they would be invited on one of our trips.
Therefore, if the first one asked didn't like the terms offered, we
had other sitters who would have jumped on it. However, we
compensated fairly, and the first sitter we asked always was thrilled
to accept the job.) It has always worked out beautifully for us and
our sitters. They got to go to the Bahamas, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and
various beaches in Florida with us.
Taking your sitter on vacation with you
may seem like a huge luxury. However, if the terms are worked out
ahead of time and you've budgeted appropriately, you may find that it
isn't as big of a financial burden as you may have assumed it was
going to be.
If you want to follow our blog on social media, go and LIKE our Facebook page by clicking {HERE}.
