A nanny is not a babysitter who turns up more often. That is the assumption most families start with, and it is the one that makes the first fortnight feel odd. A babysitter holds the fort while you are out. A nanny runs a piece of your week, every week, and the difference shows up in places you were not watching.
So what does a nanny do all day? The honest answer is that most of it never makes it onto a duties list, because a duties list describes tasks and a day is mostly transitions. Here is what the hours actually look like in the homes we work in across the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Northern NSW.
What does a nanny do all day? The short version
A nanny works to your routine rather than inventing one. Before the first shift we build a family profile that covers the children’s ages, personalities, allergies, sleep patterns, the words you use for things, and the small rules that matter to you. The nanny reads that, then follows it.
Across a typical week, the work usually includes:
- Play, conversation and activities pitched at each child’s age and mood
- Preparing simple, nutritious meals and snacks for the children
- Bottle feeding, nappy changes and basic infant care where there is a baby in the house
- Bath time, toileting and the whole bedtime sequence
- Homework supervision and quiet learning time for school aged children
- Getting children ready for school, daycare or an outing
- School, daycare and activity drop offs and pick ups where that has been arranged
- Craft, reading, games and outdoor play that has been thought about in advance
- Outings you have approved: the park, the library, swimming, a playgroup
- Keeping the children’s spaces tidy so the house does not slide backwards
That list is real, but it is also the easy part. The reason families keep a nanny for years is sitting underneath it.
The parts of the day that never make the list
The first twenty minutes
A good nanny arrives early enough to read the room. Has the four year old been crying? Did anyone sleep? Is there a permission slip on the bench that nobody has signed? The first twenty minutes are spent absorbing the state of the house so the next four hours do not have to be spent recovering from it.
The transitions
Children rarely fall apart during an activity. They fall apart between activities: park to car, screen to dinner, bath to bed. A nanny who has been with your family for a while knows which of your children needs a five minute warning, which one needs to carry something to the car so their hands are busy, and which one simply needs to be left alone for ninety seconds. None of that is teachable from a manual. It is learned, in your house, over weeks.
The invisible admin
The washing that got hung out. The library books that made it back into the bag. The note from school that was put where you would actually see it. The lunchbox that was emptied rather than discovered on Sunday. Families almost never ask for these things and almost always notice when they stop happening.
The handover
Every shift ends with a report: what was eaten, what was slept, what was funny, what was hard. It takes a few minutes and it is the part that lets you walk back in already knowing where the day landed, rather than interrogating a seven year old who has moved on.
How a nanny differs from a babysitter
Both are qualified, screened carers. The difference is continuity. A babysitter is booked for a night out, a wedding, a flight, a deadline. A nanny occupies a standing slot in your week, which means they can build things that take more than one session: a reading habit, a bedtime that actually works, a relationship with a child who takes six weeks to warm to anyone.
It also means they get to know the household. After a month, a nanny knows that the middle child eats better standing up, that Wednesday is the hard afternoon, and that the front door lock sticks. We wrote about the distinction in more depth in nanny or babysitter: which one does your family actually need.
What a nanny does not do
This is worth being clear about, because unclear expectations are the single most common reason a nanny arrangement goes sour.
A nanny is not a housekeeper. They will keep the children’s spaces in order, wash up after the meals they make, and manage the children’s laundry, because that work belongs to the children. They are not there to clean your bathrooms or mop the floors. If that is what you need, it is a separate service with its own rate, and our household services team does it properly.
A nanny is also not a substitute for the decisions that are yours. Discipline style, screen limits, food rules and bedtimes are set by you. The nanny holds the line you have drawn, which is a far more useful thing than inventing their own.
The three shapes a nanny week usually takes
Almost every family we place falls into one of three patterns.
- School hours. Roughly nine until three, often for a parent working from home or a family with a baby and older children at school. The day is feeding, naps, tidying and errands, with the school run bookending it.
- The afternoon shift. Two thirty until seven, and by a wide margin the most requested. Pick up, afternoon tea, homework, an activity, dinner, bath, bed. It is the busiest four and a half hours in any family’s day, and the one where help changes the most.
- Full days, some days. Two or three long days a week rather than short ones every day. It suits shift workers, fly in fly out parents and anyone whose week is uneven.
Our ongoing nannying service covers anything between 10 and 37 hours a week, so all three shapes fit inside it.
Who is actually in your house
Everyone we send has already been through the whole process before you meet them. Only about the top 20 per cent of applicants make it through. Every carer holds current First Aid and CPR, a valid Working with Children Check, and references we have taken up and read ourselves. They are employed by The Care Collective and insured as our staff rather than engaged as contractors, which is a bigger difference than it sounds and one we explain in why our carers are employees.
None of that sits with you. You can read a nanny’s profile, watch their introduction video and meet them, and every check behind that profile is finished before it reaches you. The full process is on our screening page.
What a nanny costs
Ongoing nannying is billed at the same hourly rates as our casual babysitting, all GST inclusive: $56 per hour for one or two children Monday to Saturday, $60 for three, and $70 per hour on a Sunday for one or two children. There is a $500 non refundable recruitment fee at the start, which covers the advertising, shortlisting, interviewing and matching we do to find the right person rather than the available one.
As an example, a standard afternoon shift of four hours with two children on a Tuesday is $224.00. Every rate sits on our pricing page, and we broke the numbers down further in how much does a nanny cost.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours a week does a nanny need to work?
Our ongoing nannying service runs between 10 and 37 hours a week. Below that, casual babysitting is usually the better fit, because you are paying for flexibility rather than consistency. Above that, a permanent placement makes more sense.
Will my children get the same nanny every time?
Yes, that is the entire point of the arrangement. You are matched to one nanny who holds your standing slot. If they are unwell, we will do our best to cover the shift with another carer who has already been briefed on your family profile.
Can a nanny drive my children to activities?
Yes, where you have arranged it in advance. Every carer we employ has a car. When a personal vehicle is used to transport children there is a fuel allowance of $1.10 per kilometre on top of the hourly rate.
What happens if the match is not right?
Tell us early. Fit is not a judgement on anybody and the whole process is built to be adjusted. We would rather rematch you in week two than have you quietly endure a year of near enough.
Ready to see what it would look like in your week?
The best way to work out whether a nanny suits your family is to describe your week to somebody who has placed a few hundred of them. We will tell you honestly if casual babysitting would serve you better.
You can start a booking whenever you are ready, or get in touch and talk it through with us first. We are on 0451 394 018 and at hello@thecarecollectivegroup.com.au, and we would genuinely rather have the conversation than have you guess.
