Hiring a travel nanny or babysitter during your family vacation can be the perfect way to balance time spent with your children and meaningful moments alone with your partner (or by yourself!).
[LEARN MORE: Why you should hire a travel nanny]
But you and your caregiver should discuss and agree upon daily expectations for this working arrangement.
Plan Ahead
Outline a vacation schedule before you go — to avoid dealing with miscommunication or conflict during precious vacation time. Be careful that she’s not on-call all of the time, which means she’ll get burnt out and you’ll end up paying her lots of overtime. Read the rules about nannies and overtime.
When planning, think about what’s important to you. Are you and your partner anticipating the luxury of sleeping in each day? Are you planning on enjoying some adults-only dinners (or daytime adventures)? Do you expect the sitter to take a more hands-on approach at certain times, and function as “back-up” during others? Most importantly, how will you determine what on-the-clock vs. off-the-clock time will look and feel like?
Sample Schedules
Here are four sample schedules for inspiration (on-the-clock time is in bold). You can either repeat the schedule that works for you each day, or alternate between schedules through the trip — it all depends on the type of vacation you have planned, personal needs and habits, the kind of kid-free time you’re envisioning and your children’s ages.
And don’t forget that this is a vacation — as long as your sitter is clear about expectations, you both might find that some flexibility will be a welcome asset from day to day!
Schedule 1
7 a.m. – 10am. Breakfast on your own
10am – 12pm. Morning activities with child(ren)
12pm – 2pm. Lunch on your own/Free time
2pm – 3pm. Accompany family on activity
3pm – 5pm. Do activities with child(ren)
5pm – 6:30pm. Accompany family to dinner
6:30pm – 8pm. Handle bedtime with children
8pm – 7am. Free time/Sleep
Schedule 2
7am – 8am. Get up with children
8am – 9am. Breakfast with kids (parents sleep in)
9am – 12pm. Family activity
12pm – 1pm. Take children to lunch
1pm – 6pm. Free time
6pm – 8pm. Parents’ dinner date/put kids to bed
7pm – 7am. Free time/Sleep
Schedule 3
6 am – 9 am. Get up with children and feed them breakfast (parents sleep in)
9 am – 11 am. Free time while family goes on activity
11 am – 12 pm Accompany family for lunch
12 pm – 3 pm. Take children on activity
3 pm – 5 pm. Free time
5 pm – 6 pm. Feed children dinner
6 pm – 8 pm. Watch children while parents go out
8pm – 6am. Sleep (on-call if kids wake up)
Schedule 4
6 am – 7 am. Get children ready for day
7 am – 8 am. Breakfast with family
8 am – 11 am. Activity with children
11 am – 12 pm. Lunch on your own
12 pm – 2 pm. Kids’ naptime (on-call if they wake up)
2 pm – 5 pm. Entertain children
5 pm – 7 pm. Cook dinner while parents have time with children/eat Dinner
7 pm – 6 am. Free time/sleep (parents will put children to bed)
Alexandra Kadlec is a freelance writer. When not writing, doing crossword puzzles or playing competitive games of Scrabble, she is known to get effusive about modern art, Jane Austen and karaoke.
