Live-Out
The live-out caregiver typically comes to your home for a 9-10-hour day, 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m., five days a week. You and your live-out caregiver will arrange a set weekly schedule, with weekend care arranged separately. It is the responsibility of the nanny to provide her own transportation to and from your home. The beauty of this arrangement is that your nanny will have a life of her own when she leaves her job. This allows her to relax and rejuvenate before her morning return. The live-out nanny may cost a little more, but she is generally more independent and fulfilled with her personal life outside of the job. Live-out nannies consist of full-time, part-time, after-school and summer nannies!

Live-In
Live-in caregivers are generally on duty 10-12 hours, day five days a week, and an occasional evening. They eat meals with the family and share in the cooking and cleaning up duties. Be assured that nannies will expect most nights and weekends off unless previously arranged. Most live in nannies require a private living space, use of the family’s car, and specific hours on and off duty. You will also need to discuss visitors for the nanny and any quiet times or a curfew. Both you and your nanny may have to make concessions. It is your house and you have the right to set reasonable rules. Live in nannies can help out with emergency babysitting and depending on your personal preference can become a big part of the family. Keep in mind that your nanny does have a life beyond your job and she is not at your beck and call. While it may seem convenient and less expensive to hire a live in nanny it is harder to keep the relationship professional. It may be difficult to spending so much time together under one roof.

Shared Care
A less talked-about yet more economical alternative is shared care. This situation involves one nanny and two neighboring families. The nanny works in one home and might spend part of the day at the other home. The nanny cares for both families’ children in one home. Before you and your friend or neighbor decide to share a nanny, discuss and agree upon a philosophy for child care. You need to discuss exactly what each of you will want the caregiver to do on a day-to-day basis. And realize when hiring this nanny that she must be able to handle all types of personalities in order to please two families at once.

Family Assistant
A growing area of care is the nanny manager / family assistant. These are nannies caring typically for older children who still require care, but are in school full-time. Family assistants take on tasks helping around the house, errands, meeting with vendors, scheduling appointments, meal prep and more. They do not provide cleaning other than maintaining work areas, or in between regular visits of a cleaning person.

The professionals at ��ë���˵���personally assist nannies, babysitters and families in��St. Louis, Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Charlotte, Miami and Orlando to find the right childcare arrangement. Our mission is to provide a safe and personalized ��approach for families and caregivers to connect with each other that is not an internet search. TLC has worked with families, nannies, sitters, newborn care providers, and tutors for over 35 years and looks forward to working with you! To find great nanny and babysitting jobs visit us at��tlc@tlcforkids.com��or Call 314-725-5660.

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Devote Time to Recharge

To provide the best care and environment for your extrovert, you need to devote time to unwind and recharge yourself. For many introverts, prolonged periods of social interaction can be daunting and often leads to feeling anxious or stressed out.

If you’re in a bad mood, there’s a good chance that your child will pick up on that. This can lead to your child feeling depressed. They may blame themselves as a result for something that couldn’t possibly be their fault. Schedule an hour out of the day for a break, to process and manage your stress. Explain to your child why it is important for people to recharge their batteries and turn it into a positive experience for them. This will also give your child the opportunity to process their feelings and experiences.

Provide Opportunities for Interaction

It’s important to provide many opportunities for social interaction for your extroverted child. However, that doesn’t mean you have to turn your home into a hangout spot for all their friends. Schedule social interactions for your child with a wide variety of people. Spend time with family members, schedule play dates with friends from school or take a trip to a public play place where your child can meet new friends.

By establishing interactions outside of the household, you can provide an appropriate level of social interaction for your extrovert while also keeping your personal space. It is recommended, however, that you allow your child to enjoy interactions with their friends in your household on occasion. Even if it’s just once or twice a week, your child will greatly benefit by having a social outlet on a more personal scale.

School Environment for Your Extrovert

Make sure your child is getting an education that properly caters to their extroverted needs. Meet with the school’s staff of teachers and assess what type of classes would be best for your extrovert. Seek out teachers that have a significant amount of practical “field work” in their lesson plans.

The best thing you can do for your child is to get them involved in extracurricular activities, preferably involving groups of people or clubs. This is something that they’ll already be interested in getting involved with. It is a wonderful way for them to socialize and build relationships with like-minded people, as well as learn valuable skills. Discuss what activities your child is interested in – whether it be sports, the chess team or the drama club, and get them involved in as many as you and they can comfortably manage.

As an introverted parent, an extroverted child can sometimes seem like quite a handful. But, even if you aren’t excited about expressing your feelings or meeting new people, it’s important that your kid gets the chance to do so. Every chance that you give them to interact with people will help them to develop their social skills and maybe even earn them a new friend.

TLC for Kids is currently placing summer nannies in St. Louis, Atlanta, and South Florida. If you need reliable, energetic, and professional child care visit our website at��tlcforkids.com��Or, email us at tlc@tlcforkids.com.

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” My two kids are at the babysitter’s today. They’re running around in the watchful and loving care of my friend, Seyly, while I sit in a cafe and type on my laptop, listening to movie soundtracks in my earbuds. This is my one full day outside of the home to work as a freelance writer. My one day to chase my dream.

The rest of the week, I chase my other two little dreams. One has my laugh; the other has his daddy’s. For a long time, I felt guilty about doing something like this for myself. Then, I realized, it really does take a village. You, the babysitters, helped me overcome some pretty difficult stuff, and it’s time I shared my thanks with you.

Soon, I’ll pull into my friend’s driveway, and feel a flutter of excitement at the thought of seeing my children. I’ll open the door and find them both, safe and sound, racing around the house. It’s possible that they’ll react to my entrance by running away and sobbing, but I’ve come to take that as a good sign. They had a good time.

There’s no telling what kind of day my friend had, however. No telling how many bodily excretions she had to smell or wipe up. No telling how much food my kids spilled on her table or floor. I’ve been that sitter, as many of us have, and I just want to say,”Thanks.”

To all the sitters: You’re awesome and you probably don’t get paid enough. Some of you even choose not to get paid at all. You love our kids and keep ’em safe while we, the parents, try to remember the basic functions of adulthood sans babies.”

What a sweet thank you!�� Read the full blog

If you are interested in becoming a nanny or babysitter contact TLC for Kids!�� We are hiring in St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Boston, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.

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Here are some of the comments clients have shared with us:

• “Laura has been great. She has helped in every way. She has taken care of my newborn and has also now won over by very choosy toddler. My visit to Florida would have been very difficult without someone like Laura who is willing to help with everything and who is reliable. I would like to put her in my suitcase and take her back home with me “

• ”��Erin was amazing! She far exceeded my expectations. I was a little worried about needing a sitter for 8 hours because that’s a long time and I was afraid the sitter might get worn out or frustrated after a while. Erin was so patient with the kids and kept them entertained the entire time. The biggest surprise for me was when I walked in the room and saw my 3 yr old was already in his pajamas and sleeping, and had been sleep since 9pm! Bedtime with him is a struggle, even for me! I feel triumphant if I can get him to bed before 11pm on weekends and even that requires a battle but Erin had no problem getting him to bed. My daughter is very picky about sitters and she loved Erin. She like her so much she even left the cutest note for me to find once I got back to the room. I thought it was very nice and a reflection of Erin’s great work so I attached it to the email for you to see.�� My experience with TLC was amazing overall and I will definitely use the service again if the need arises!”

• ” Julie was wonderful. I’m actually going to be specifically requesting her on my future TLC needs.”

• ” Courtney was a fantastic nanny. I chatted with her for a while before we left, and I felt very comfortable leaving my son with her. She was warm and friendly and��has a lot of newborn experience. My son has been having issues taking a bottle, and she even got him to successfully take down a couple ounces. I would highly recommend her and I hope to get her again. She also said wonderful things about TLC and the type of training she received through your service, making me even more confident booking a nanny��through TLC again. “

If you are in need of a babysitter in St. Louis, Missouri or South Florida ��ë���˵��� here for you.�� Our babysitters are experienced, screened and reliable.�� To learn more about requesting a TLC sitter visit our website at tlcforkids.com.

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Chances are sometime this school year your kids will have��sore throats, runny noses, fevers, or the flu and will need to stay home.���� It is not easy for working parents to stay home from work when their child is sick.

In fact, A��2012 study by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital��found��that 50% of today’s work force is worried about finding sick child care.

is here to help!�� TLC temporary caregivers are available to take care of sick kids who can’t go to school or daycare.���� If your school or daycare calls during the day and your child needs to come home let us know.�� We can try to send someone over within a few hours.

If you need help after hours our Emergency Service Coordinators Sarah and Debbie��are available until 9:45 pm��Sunday through��Thursday��and start working again at 6:30 am Monday through Friday.

All TLC for Kids caregivers have experience working with children and have been screened by our professional staff.�� Register with TLC at tlcforkids.com or call 314-725-5660 for the St. Louis, Mo. office and 305-256-5905 for the Florida office.

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Nanny tax experts Breedlove and Associates��share the reason��why.

Nannies who work for one or more families on a temporary basis usually have lots of tax and legal questions. There are special provisions in the law for “casual babysitting,” so here’s what you need to know:

Temporary nannies are still employees; not independent contractors.�� They are employees of the family.

A nanny working in a family’s home — whether the job is temporary or permanent, part-time or full-time — is an employee of the family. It is illegal for the family to treat you as an independent contractor (a designation which increases your tax burden significantly). The “employee” classification is not determined by how much you are paid or the amount of time you work for the family; it is determined by the nature of the work performed. The IRS has ruled definitively that caregivers are employees of the families for whom they work.

Your employer may not need to withhold taxes from your wages.

Household employment tax requirements are determined by the amount of the gross wages paid to an employee. In 1995, the IRS modified household employment tax requirements to exempt temporary employment and casual babysitting from the tax process. This is sometimes referred to as the “Casual Babysitting Exemption.” As a temporary employee, if you earn less than $1,900 (2014) in a calendar year, your employer is not required to withhold any taxes from your salary.

However, if you earn more than $1,800 (2013) from a family in a calendar year, your employer — the family — must meet the household employment tax withholding and reporting obligations. They are required to withhold payroll taxes from your wages and then report and pay those taxes to the tax agencies quarterly — along with some employer taxes that provide you with retirement and unemployment benefits. At the end of the year, the family should give you a Form W-2 detailing your wages as well as the taxes that you have pre-paid throughout the year.

If your employer fails to withhold taxes and file employment tax returns, they are breaking the law — and you will not be entitled to the retirement and unemployment benefits mentioned previously. Hopefully, you won’t face that situation. But if you do, the best thing you can do is make sure you avoid tax and legal problems for yourself by reporting your wages and paying your income taxes at the end of the year.

You are responsible for keeping track of your wages.

If you are paid less than the $1,900 (2014) threshold per family you work for, you will most likely not have any taxes withheld from your pay since your employers are not obligated to do so. However, temporary nannies are still required to track the amount of money earned from every employer — no matter how little you are paid. You are responsible for reporting all wages earned during the year by filing annual income tax returns — even if your wages are not high enough to trigger a tax payment.

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