When Seattle families say they need a nanny, they’re often describing vastly different roles without realizing it. One family needs someone for overnight newborn care on a temporary basis. Another needs someone to manage three kids’ complicated schedules while also handling household tasks. A third wants a traditional full-time nanny to care for one infant five days weekly. All of these families call the position “nanny,” but they’re actually looking for completely different specializations that involve different skills, different compensation, and different career trajectories.
The same confusion exists among people considering nanny careers. Someone interested in newborn care thinks that means she’d be good as any kind of nanny. Someone who loves working with school-age kids assumes all nanny work is similar. But the various specializations within “nanny” are actually distinct career paths with different demands, different lifestyles, and different professional requirements.
After twenty years placing nannies in specialized roles across Seattle and nationwide, we know that matching people to the right specialization matters enormously. Families hiring the wrong type of nanny end up disappointed even when the person they hired is excellent at their actual specialization. Nannies taking positions that don’t match their strengths end up miserable despite being competent caregivers. Understanding the distinctions between specializations helps both families and nannies make better decisions.
Newborn Care Specialists: Temporary Intensive Expertise
Newborn care specialists aren’t nannies in the traditional sense. They’re experts who work with families for eight to sixteen weeks during the newborn period, providing intensive overnight care, establishing sleep foundations, supporting feeding, and educating parents about infant care.
This role is temporary by design. You’re not building a years-long relationship with a family. You’re providing specialized support during a specific window, then moving to your next family. If you’re someone who loves the intensity and expertise of newborn care but doesn’t want long-term placements, this specialization fits perfectly. If you need stable long-term employment with one family, newborn specialist work will frustrate you.
The schedule is also completely different from traditional nannying. Most newborn specialists work overnight hours – typically 10pm to 6am or 8pm to 8am. You’re sleeping during the day, working at night, and your life rhythm is inverted. Some specialists also work 24-hour or multi-day shifts with sleep breaks built in. This lifestyle doesn’t work for everyone, and understanding the reality before pursuing newborn specialist training prevents getting certified in something you won’t actually be able to sustain.
Compensation for newborn specialists is typically higher than general nanny rates because you’re providing specialized expertise and because overnight hours command premiums. But the temporary nature of positions means you’re constantly searching for new placements. Some specialists love the variety of working with different families and babies. Others find the constant job searching exhausting.
The emotional element is different too. You’re working with families during an intensely vulnerable time, but you’re not there long enough to develop the deep attachments that long-term nannies build with kids. If you’re someone who needs those long-term relationships to find childcare work fulfilling, newborn specialist roles might feel too superficial. If you prefer professional boundaries with less emotional entanglement, the temporary nature might be ideal.
ROTA Nannies: Split Schedules for Intensive Coverage
ROTA (rotation) nannies work alternating periods with one family, typically one or two weeks on duty followed by one or two weeks off. During on weeks, you’re essentially always available – working long days, potentially including overnights, providing intensive childcare coverage while parents travel or work demanding schedules.
This isn’t traditional nine-to-five nannying. During on weeks you’re living with or near the family, working sixty to eighty hours, and your entire life revolves around this job. During off weeks you have complete freedom with no work responsibilities. If you’re someone who needs consistent daily routines, ROTA work will make you crazy. If you love intense work periods followed by extended time off, this schedule is amazing.
The lifestyle implications are significant. ROTA nannies often can’t maintain traditional relationships or family commitments because they’re unavailable for extended periods. You can’t easily have a partner or your own children who need daily presence. You can’t commit to regular weekly activities or social plans. But you also get extended time off that salaried people never have – weeks at a time to travel, pursue hobbies, visit family.
Families hiring ROTA nannies are usually wealthy households where parents travel extensively or work in industries with unpredictable schedules. These families need more flexibility and availability than traditional nannies provide, and they pay premium rates for ROTA arrangements. But they also expect intensive engagement during on periods. You’re not just putting in hours – you’re providing full-service childcare and household support around the clock.
Many ROTA positions involve multiple ROTA nannies rotating to provide continuous coverage. You might be one of two or three nannies working with the same family, which creates interesting dynamics. You need to coordinate with your ROTA partners, maintain consistent approaches with kids, and handle the reality that you’re sharing this job with others who might do things differently.
Travel Nannies: Mobility as Core Job Requirement
Travel nannies accompany families on trips, providing childcare during vacations, work travel, and extended stays in multiple locations. This isn’t taking occasional trips with families you nanny for locally. This is a specialization where extensive travel is the primary job requirement rather than occasional perk.
Some travel nanny positions are full-time year-round roles where you’re constantly moving between the family’s multiple properties or traveling with them to various destinations. Others are seasonal – summer nannies who travel with families to vacation homes, or positions where you accompany families on regular international trips. Either way, your life is oriented around mobility rather than stability.
This lifestyle only works if you genuinely love travel and you’re comfortable living out of suitcases without permanent home base. If you need routine, familiar spaces, and geographic stability, travel nanny positions will be miserable regardless of how glamorous they sound. The Instagram version of traveling the world while working looks aspirational. The reality of constant packing, time zone changes, sleeping in unfamiliar spaces, and having no personal life separate from work is actually quite difficult.
Travel nannies also need different skills than stationary nannies. You need to be incredibly flexible and adaptable. You need to manage kids in airports, on planes, in hotels, and in various environments without the familiar structure of home routines. You need to handle logistics like international documentation, health and safety in unfamiliar locations, and entertaining kids during long travel days. You need to maintain professionalism while essentially living with families in close quarters.
The compensation and benefits need to reflect the demands. Travel nannies should receive higher base rates plus coverage of all travel expenses, and travel time should be considered working hours. The families hiring travel nannies also need to understand you can’t maintain a separate living situation if you’re traveling constantly, so either they’re providing housing during non-travel times or they’re paying enough that you can afford to maintain your own housing despite being absent frequently.
Traditional Full-Time Nannies: Foundation of the Field
Traditional full-time nannies work regular schedules (typically forty to fifty hours weekly) with one family for extended periods, providing consistent childcare in the family’s home. This is the version of nannying most people think of first – you show up Monday through Friday, care for the same kids every week, follow established routines, and build long-term relationships that last years.
The appeal of traditional nannying is stability. You have predictable schedules, consistent income, and the ability to maintain personal life separate from work. You’re building deep relationships with kids and watching them grow over years rather than moving between families after short periods. You develop expertise in these specific children’s needs and you become genuinely integrated into family life in ways that shorter-term positions don’t allow.
The challenges are also about that stability and integration. You’re doing similar routines repeatedly, which some people find comforting and others find monotonous. You’re working within one family’s parenting philosophy and household culture long-term, which only works if their approach genuinely aligns with yours. You’re building relationships that make leaving difficult when it’s time to move on.
Traditional full-time positions also vary enormously in scope. Some families hire nannies solely for childcare – you’re focused entirely on the kids with no household management responsibilities. Others hire “nanny plus” roles where you’re handling kids’ laundry, meal prep, scheduling, and errands alongside direct care. Understanding scope before accepting positions prevents mismatch between expectations and reality.
Compensation for traditional nannies typically falls in the middle range – higher than part-time occasional care but lower than specialized roles like newborn specialists or ROTA nannies. Benefits are important considerations since you’re full-time long-term employment. Health insurance contributions, paid time off, guaranteed hours, and annual raises should all be part of traditional full-time nanny packages.
Family Assistants: Not Actually Nannies
Family assistants occupy a weird space that’s often confused with nannying but is actually a different role entirely. Family assistants handle household management, scheduling, errands, and light childcare, but they’re not primarily childcare providers the way nannies are.
If a family needs someone to manage their complex household operations including coordinating contractors, managing calendars, running errands, organizing spaces, and incidentally helping with kids when needed, they need a family assistant. If they need someone whose primary focus is child development, education, and care with household tasks being secondary, they need a nanny.
The skills required are different. Excellent nannies aren’t automatically excellent family assistants and vice versa. Being great at engaging toddlers and supporting development doesn’t mean you’re great at managing household logistics. Being exceptional at organization and household management doesn’t mean you’re great at childcare. Some people have both skill sets, but families should hire based on their primary need rather than expecting one person to excel at both.
Family assistant positions also typically pay differently than nanny positions, often landing somewhere between nanny and house manager compensation depending on scope. The career trajectories are different too. Nannies often move between nanny roles or become newborn specialists or pursue early childhood education careers. Family assistants often transition into house manager or personal assistant positions or eventually move into professional organizing or project management roles.
The lifestyle implications differ as well. Family assistant work is usually less emotionally intensive than nannying because you’re not providing primary care for children’s emotional and developmental needs. You’re managing systems and logistics, which requires different type of energy than constant emotional engagement with kids. Some people find this less draining. Others miss the relationship aspects that make childcare work meaningful to them.
Part-Time and Date Night Nannies: The Flexible Options
Part-time and occasional nannies work limited hours with one or multiple families, providing childcare during specific times rather than full-time ongoing care. This could be regular part-time (same family, same hours weekly) or occasional backup and date night care for various families.
These positions work well for people who can’t commit to full-time nannying due to other responsibilities, school, or personal preferences. They provide more flexibility than traditional full-time roles while still allowing you to work in childcare. They also let you work with multiple families simultaneously, which provides variety and prevents over-dependence on one income source.
The trade-offs are less stable income, no benefits typically, and less deep relationships with families and kids. You’re not there enough to become truly integrated into family life or to provide the consistent developmental support that full-time nannies offer. You’re backup support rather than primary caregiver, which affects how families relate to you and how much autonomy you have in decision-making.
Compensation for part-time and occasional care is typically higher hourly rates than full-time positions to compensate for lack of guaranteed hours and benefits. Date night rates are usually the highest per-hour since you’re working evenings and weekends when most caregivers prefer time off.
Choosing Your Specialization Intentionally
The biggest mistake nannies make is falling into whatever position becomes available without considering whether that specialization actually fits their strengths, lifestyle, and career goals. Someone who would thrive as a ROTA nanny takes a traditional full-time position and feels stifled by the routine. Someone who’d be excellent in traditional long-term care accepts newborn specialist work and feels destabilized by the constant job searching.
Before pursuing any nanny position, honestly assess what you actually want from the work. Do you love intense temporary placements or do you need long-term stability? Do you thrive on variety or does routine feel grounding? Are you willing to have your entire life revolve around work during intensive periods, or do you need clear separation between work and personal time? Does your life situation allow for the demands of ROTA or travel work, or do you need predictable schedules that accommodate other responsibilities?
Your answers to these questions should drive which specialization you pursue. Don’t take positions just because they pay well or because someone offered you work. Take positions that actually fit who you are and what you can sustain, because mismatched specializations lead to misery regardless of compensation.
What Families Need to Understand
Families hiring nannies need to be clear about which specialization they actually need rather than just saying “we need a nanny” and expecting anyone with childcare experience to fit. Be honest about whether you need specialized newborn expertise, intensive ROTA coverage, traditional long-term care, household management with light childcare, or occasional backup support.
Also understand that specializations command different compensation and people excel at different roles. You can’t hire a newborn specialist at traditional nanny rates. You can’t expect traditional full-time nannies to work ROTA schedules. You can’t ask family assistants to provide the same developmental focus as dedicated childcare providers.
Matching your actual needs to the appropriate specialization and compensating that specialization appropriately is how you find the right person and build successful long-term working relationships. Trying to force mismatches or expecting one person to provide multiple specializations simultaneously creates situations where nobody succeeds.
After twenty years placing nannies in various specializations across Seattle and nationwide, we know that the happiest families and nannies are the ones who’ve correctly identified which specialization fits their needs and situation. Not all nannies do the same job, and understanding the differences helps everyone make better decisions.
