jamiebreslow

We are looking for any information that someone may have on hiring a nanny (in London) to join us on a ten-night trip through London, Paris, and Rome for our 4 and 5 year old sons. Since we can't afford to bring one with us from the states any references would be much appreciated.

stevewith

Unless you can find a tri-lingual nanny in London, you might prefer to hire French speaking baby sitters in Paris and Italian speakers in Rome. If you plan to leave the children in the care of the nanny while you go elsewhere, you might want someone who can communicate fluently in the local language in case of an emergency.

http://rome.angloinfo.com/af/557/rom...-services.html

adrienne

You could try the famous nanny school in London.

http://www.norland.co.uk/

gruezi

Um, I'll go!

MissPrism

If you can't afford the air fare for your own carer, you certainly wouldn't be able to afford a Norland nanny.
As the children aren't infants, you could probably get away with an au pair. See www.bapaa.org.uk/
A reputable agency will make sure that she has had a full criminal check and that she has a certificate in paediatric first aid

nytraveler

Do you really need a full-time nanny? (If so, why bring the kids?)

If all you want is a reliable babysitter so you can go out for dinner the hotel can probably help you find one.

Agree that a full time nanny - or even au pair - will be very expensive when you include the cost of hotel room, meals and transit.

Ackislander

Bring the person who cares for your children at home. If they are in daycare, do you have a niece or abut whom they love who you could bring along?

I can't imagine many things more disorienting to a four or five year old than being left alone in a strange hotel in a strange city with a strange person.

If it is too much to put off your touring until they are two years older, perhaps the can stay home with a grandparent while you go to Europe.

Gretchen

Bring your own or leave them at home. It just completely complicates the trip. I would question that you "can't afford it"--won't you pay her salary while you are away anyway, and the air fare is $500 or so? Don't understand the math.

WWK

What if you or your kids don't get along well with the person you hire? Then you're stuck for the whole ten day trip. I think going with a vetted babysitter from the hotels in each city makes much more sense, and is probably a lot more economical.

Micheline

"$500. or so". Where do I find that fare? I can't find anything under $1250. for my trip to London in September.

Momddtravel2

Jamie - what you pay a nanny in London with the conversion rate is likely to cost you about the same as airfare plus salary.

I would be more apt to try NY suggestion - use the babysitting at the local hotels - and not have a nanny 24/7. (might be me, but would be a bit odd having a stranger on my trip and caring for my children).

Gretchen

No, not now (the fare), and maybe even 180 days out. BUT the premise is still the same--the math doesn't add up even for $1000. She's still being paid at home, and it will be as much to hire overseas (sight unseen--who knows if it will be Mary Poppins or Sweeney Todd!!).

vjpblovesitaly

Take care of your kids yourselves

johnnyomalley

The OP says nothing about having a nanny at home. Only that they can not afford to bring one from home.

justineparis

I think that since you brought up money being an issue that you forget about it being cheaper to hire a nanny in UK .First off you still will be paying all her travel expenses.. and a wage and that wage will be in GBPs !! That's never good in conversion!

Also, as noted.. why bring kids if you need a full time nanny, perhaps just use hotel babysitters for occasional night out.

And finally, bringing a niece or even a neighborhood girl you have used regularily for babysitting may work out same price as nanny hire.. how.. well if girl is 18 you offer her a "free trip" in exchange for limited hours of working at being nanny.. in other words you give her some time off here and there. Then you can cover her with a smaller wage, ( still pay her something, she needs spending money too!) then a professional nanny. Advantage is that is someone the kids know and you know, way comfier for everyone .

A paid professional nanny sleeping in same room as kids,, er, I don't know, it would be weird for me, she is STILL a stranger ( not one that would hurt them I mean, but just someone that you can't just walk in room as she may be in her pjs and not appreciate lack of privacy) at least with a relative it would be less awkard.

And yes, there is the sending boys to stay with grandma .. obviously if you want a nanny to travel with you its not like you are planning on having kids with you all the time..

socaltraveler

It would have been helpful if the OP had been more specific about her nanny needs; hiring a stranger for young children, for a 10 day trip in 3 countries, sounds both expensive and stressful to many of us. Do agencies even provide short term travelers like that? I find it hard to believe it would be more expensive to bring someone who knows the children, which would largely be the airfare, than to pay agency fees for a nanny professional, who would, as said above, be a strange person, in a succession of strange places, for the children. Again, not a lot of info here.

jamiebreslow

Thanks all for your replies. We aren't looking for a full-time nanny in the sense that we plan on spending the great majority of the trip in the company of our kids. What we are looking for is just someone who, when the kids get bored or tired mid-day or whenever, can take them back to the hotel, or a park where they can rest while the wifey and me keep exploring.

jamiebreslow

Money is not as big an issue as I may have made it seem. And yes, we are frequent users of hotel suggested baby-sitters for date nights and whatnot. And So-Cal is right...I've never heard of someone doing this, that's why I brought the question up. We'll likely end up asking our hotels if they can recommend a service for both day and nighttime needs, as some of you suggested. And thanks for that. This trip is a celebration of my wife's and my own 40th birthday. We know it'll be a little tough on the kids, but our sons are already pretty well travelled (well, not much experience with a 10-hour flights) so we know they'll be mostly happy..mostly. Again, thanks to all who replied.

Heimdall

As stated above, a nanny is professionally qualified and comes very expensive — far more than the air fare you say you can't afford. Anything less than a nanny and you will still have to pay a salary and travel expenses for someone without full qualifications. Au pairs, for example, are usually young foreign girls who stay with a family to look after their children while learning the language. If you are not careful you could end up with one more child (the au pair) to look after, and you don't want to discover she is unreliable in the middle of your holiday.

It seems to me you must have a babysitter, daughter of a friend, or maybe a relative who would jump at the chance of a free holiday in return for some light childminding duties. Her parents may even be willing to pay part of her travel expenses.

Momddtravel2

I would just bring someone with you - seems like it would be a great trade off if you can swing the extra room and airfare - say you have them babysit X amount of hours a day or whatever you arrange in advance but they get some time to explore on their own - you may not have to "pay" for the actual baby sitting if that makes sense?

We had a live in Nanny for a while when our 4 children were small - we brought her on ski vacations a few times - we paid her normal salary for that time and obviously for her food, room etc. and she had time off - she did not ski so that was not an issue but it worked out great for us to be able to ski with our two older boys and have our two younger daughters with someone they knew.