The Calendar Group

Hiring guide

Nanny

A dedicated childcare professional who brings warmth, structure, and judgment to your children's daily rhythm.

Begin a search for this role(877) 404-5290

Compensation

$80,000–$150,000 base

Typical base compensation, major U.S. markets, 2026. Scope, travel, and household complexity move the range.

We advise on offer structure — schedule, housing, benefits, bonus — before every search. The right package is how great people stay.

The right nanny changes the texture of your family's day. Mornings that begin calmly. A child who arrives at school fed, dressed, and settled. A parent who can take the call, board the flight, or simply sit down — knowing exactly who is with the children and how the afternoon will unfold.

In a private household, a nanny is more than coverage. She is a steady adult presence who understands your parenting philosophy and carries it out when you are not in the room — the tone of voice at bedtime, the boundaries around screens, the way a tantrum is met. That consistency, over years, is what children remember.

We look for nannies with real tenure behind them: professionals who have grown with families through infancy, school years, and the complicated middle. Credentials matter — early childhood training, current certifications, verifiable references — but judgment and fit matter more. A nanny who fits your home stays in it.

What the role owns

  • Full care of children across the daily routine — meals, dressing, bathing, bedtime
  • School drop-off, pick-up, and transport to activities and appointments
  • Age-appropriate play, enrichment, and developmental support
  • Children's laundry, tidying of play areas, and meal preparation for the children
  • Scheduling and coordination of playdates, lessons, and pediatric appointments
  • Travel with the family, domestic and international, as needed
  • Clear daily communication with parents on milestones, moods, and logistics
  • Partnership with other household staff to keep the children's world seamless

What great looks like

A great nanny manages the day so the parents feel more connected to their children, not less — she narrates the small things, shares the photo from the park, and steps back the moment a parent walks in.

She adapts as children grow; the professional who was superb with a toddler is reading chapter books and navigating friendship dramas three years later without being asked to change gears.

She holds your household's standards under pressure — a delayed flight, a sick sibling, a schedule that collapses at noon — and the children never feel the turbulence.

Her references describe tenure in years, not months, and former principals speak about her the way people speak about family.

She is discreet by instinct: what happens in your home stays in your home, and she never trades in the details of a previous family's life.

Interview questions worth asking

  1. 01

    Walk me through a full day with your last family, hour by hour — what did you own, and what did the parents keep for themselves?

  2. 02

    Tell me about a time your approach to discipline differed from the parents'. How did you handle it, and what did you change?

  3. 03

    How have your responsibilities evolved with a family over several years? What did you do when the children aged out of what you were hired for?

  4. 04

    Describe the hardest conversation you have had with a principal. What prompted it, and how did it end?

  5. 05

    What would your most recent family say is the one thing you did that they never had to think about again?

Questions

Hiring a nanny, answered.

How is a nanny different from a family assistant?
A nanny's day is built around the children — their care, development, and schedule. A family assistant supports the whole household: errands, logistics, calendar, and often some childcare woven in. If your children need a dedicated, consistent caregiver, hire a nanny. If you need a flexible right hand who can also cover a school pick-up, a family assistant may be the better fit.
Should we hire live-in or live-out?
It depends on your home, your privacy preferences, and the schedule you actually keep. Live-in arrangements suit families with heavy travel, early mornings, or unpredictable evenings — and homes with genuinely separate quarters. Most families in major markets hire live-out with defined hours and paid overtime. We will tell you honestly which structure your schedule requires, because the wrong one is the most common reason a good placement ends early.
What does the vetting process involve?
Every candidate we present has been interviewed in depth, reference-checked with prior principals directly, and screened through background, driving, and credential verification. We also spend time on the quieter questions — why each position ended, how the candidate talks about former families, whether her instincts around discretion hold up. You see a short list of people we would trust in our own homes.
How long does a nanny search take?
A well-run search typically takes several weeks from intake to offer, depending on your requirements — schedule, travel expectations, languages, and location all shape the candidate pool. We would rather present three right people than ten possible ones. Trial days with your children are part of the process; how a candidate reads your child in the first hour tells you more than any résumé.

Begin

Looking for a nanny?

Tell us about the household and the role. A senior advisor — not a coordinator — will come back to you within one business day.

Held in confidence. No obligation.