Quick glance at a couple of differences between the nanny and babysitter:
1. Nanny can be a full time or a part time employee or an independent contractor whereas babysitter is as needed basis employee or an independent contractor.
2. Nanny is hired based on consistent and a structured schedule whereas babysitter is more like a temporary employee with a flexible schedule to watch children of all age groups, when parents have appointments or special occasion, and they can't bring their children with them.
3. Nanny provides holistic childcare service keeping in mind child's well-being and overall development while a babysitter has more role to play in keeping the baby entertained and supervised to avoid accidents.
4. Nanny helps family with multiple chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry, light housekeeping or run errands while babysitters have minimal chores in their job listing.
5. Nanny has advanced training in child development either with experience or she has some educational training in the field that helps her to implement at her job place, besides many of them are CPR trained or know how to do first aid or how to manage the challenge in case of emergency whereas babysitter does not require any specific training or an experience.
6. Nanny is more expensive as compared to the Babysitter.
7. Nanny position is more like a regular official position. According to the Department of Labor the employment law and benefits for domestic employees are same like an office employee. Nannies are issued an official paycheck which means to deduct taxes from her pay deposited to government after every quarter and give her other benefits like unemployment, paid Holidays, sick leave, and health care benefits at the same time. Nannies are expected to receive minimum two weeks of paid vacation every year along with paid national Holidays and the bonus on Christmas. Babysitters are more like an independent contractor.
8. For Nannies childcare is a long-term career goal and they have bright chances to grow. As the children age, the family requirements also change, so families prefer to keep the same nanny as long as they need help for their children. Their kids also feel comfortable with the same nanny in the years to come since she took care of them when they were small babies. Babysitting is more like a temporary job for individuals who wants some extra cash and provide temporary care to the children when parents are away. Their primary goal is to make sure children are safe and they are well supervised in the absence of their parents.
9. In nutshell babysitters are temporary as needed basis employees and parents use their service when they have long work hours and their nanny's shift is over, or they have special occasion, and they cannot bring their children, or they have some appointments. Parents may hire babysitters to pick up their children from school, bring them home, give them snack and take them for extra activities, bring them home and stay with them till the parents come home like 3:00 PM do 7:00 PM Monday through Friday or if both parents must go out on Friday night for some hours, they hire babysitters. There are so many ways parents can ask babysitters to help them occasionally. Parents expect babysitter to do extra chores like driving children around, help with Child’s homework, some cooking, laundry, or some light housekeeping then the higher wage is expected for these extra chores. Actually, these kinds of jobs are not included in babysitters job duties list.
10. Nanny’s role is much more as compared to the babysitter’s job duties. she provides childcare in a complete way. Male nannies are called ‘Mannies’. Many families like to hire Manny especially when they have boys and no girl in the family. Mannies are the best match for such families. They set daily schedule and outdoor activities for children and help the family to take care of their children's emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. Nannies have a lot of job duties to perform around the house like cooking, helping children with homework, load unload dishwasher, laundry, taking kids to activities like swimming lessons, Basketball/Football game, Gymnastics, Piano lessons, singing lessons, Dance class, Tutoring centers and many more activities like these, a few to name.
11. Babysitter run errands like drop or pick up clothes from dry cleaners or grocery shopping etc. whereas nanny is more a part of the family. She does all the chores inside the house related to parents and children. In other words, she is family’s essential full-time employee like other household staff example Cook/Chef, Butler, Gardner, janitor etc.
12. Nanny has more involvement in the family she is more like a substitute of the parents. Her responsibilities are more serious than the babysitter. she is more like a co-parent than just a childcare provider. She is involved more deeply in parenting, raising, and disciplining your child then the babysitter.
13. If family wants to hire a live-in Nanny, they must provide her a separate room and a bathroom in the house with food and salary. Many families love to take their nanny with them for vacation who would take care of their children in hotel or other places of interest they visit. They pay for their visa, plane ticket and their monthly salary.
14. Hiring a nanny is a big commitment and parents must sign the contract with nanny very carefully before they hire her and make sure all the clauses cover holiday policy, benefits, taxes, mode of payment, sick leave policy, termination notice etc. in depth.
15. People are sometimes mistaken that Nanny and Babysitter both are same. The above mentioned points clearly differentiate the role and activities of Nanny are different from the Babysitter, that is why there is a difference in the pay scale of both the categoties.
