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IN THIS ISSUE:
A Message From Kim Change, however, is always a little unsettling. The same things that can be exciting about a new school year—new classes, new schedules, new friends—can also cause anxiety, for your kids as well as for you. I’ve come to understand this anxiety first-hand, That’s why MBF is here to help steady things for you, whatever your needs may be. We will do our best to offer you solutions to whatever school-related dilemmas may arise (see this month’s Ask the Expert column). For now, here’s wishing your family a safe, healthy, and sane school year ahead!
It’s that time of year again to celebrate our wonderful nannies! The week of  October 22-26, 2007 is Annual Nanny Recognition Week! Our nannies are a shining part of our community and we are proud of the service they provide. In their honor, Mom’s Best Friend will host a Nanny of the Year Celebration at the Dallas Arboretum on Monday, October 22nd. T here will be lunch and drinks provided, and all nannies and their charges are invited to join in on the celebration!  We will also be announcing our Nanny of the Year at this event. To nominate your nanny, please go to the Nomination Form. Please encourage your nanny to attend, and be sure to send your nanny a personal thank you message that she will receive at the event. We are pleased to throw this party for all of our metroplex area nannies and look forward to especially appreciate our nannies all week long. If you are looking for ways to appreciate your nanny throughout the week, please click here for ideas. Please encourage your nanny to RSVP early to reserve a spot.
New Parent Consultations
October 15: Deadline for submitting a Nanny of the Year Nomination Form and for sending your nanny a personal thank you message October 22: Annual Nanny Recognition Week Celebration
Despite What Hollywood Says, Most Families Make Excellent Nanny Employers 
Law firm tackles workers' juggling acts Nanny, household staffing service expands to San Antonio Press Release: San Antonio Moms Find New Best Friend
A: Household employees – including nannies – must be paid according the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). That legislation dictates that families who hire a live-out nanny, must pay her overtime for any hours over 40 in a 7-day workweek (please note: live-in nannies are exempt from overtime). Each of the overtime hours must be paid at a rate that is at least 1.5 times that of the regular rate of pay. So, let’s say you pay your nanny $11.50 per hour. Based on your 48-hour workweek, she would be paid $11.50/hour for the first 40 hours and $17.25/hour for the eight overtime hours. If your nanny is on a salary, you are allowed to manage overtime in a different manner. Let’s say you both have agreed to a salary of $600 for the 48-hour workweek. In this case, the contract should explicitly state that the regular rate of pay for the first 40 hours is $11.54/hour. The overtime rate for the remaining 8 hours per week is $17.31 per hour. Therefore, the total weekly salary is $600. While it may seem superfluous to split the salary into regular and overtime rates, it is an important protection. There have been many lawsuits around the country brought by former nannies claiming families did For those families, it’s a very costly situation. The good news is it can easily be avoided with a couple of simple sentences. As a partner of MBF Agency, we’re happy to give you a complimentary, no-obligation phone consultation to provide answers and advice to any and all tax and legal issues related to household employment. It’s free and painless – and it will likely save you money. Founded in 1992 — by household employers for household employers — Breedlove & Associates has served more than 10,000 clients and processed more than $1 billion in household payroll. By focusing on the unique needs of household employers, Breedlove & Associates’ expertise and efficiency has been recognized in The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, Business Week and SmartMoney.com. For more information or a free phone consultation compliments of MBF, call 1-888-273-3356 or visit www.breedlove-online.com.
A: With back-to-school upon us, we have been asked this question quite a bit lately. Let me start off by saying that, while we always try our best to respond to the ever-evolving needs of our clients, we also adhere to a policy of scheduling our caregivers for a minimum of four consecutive hours per shift. This is largely out of professional courtesy to them. In order to maintain a livable salary, a nanny hired for the split shift you suggested would most likely need to find regular work to fill in those hours in the middle of the day when she was not working for you. Since it can be difficult (or even impossible) to find work strictly limited to the hours between 9 and 2, and with gas prices always on the rise, the cost of daily transportation between multiple job sites can be a true drain on finances, we feel this sort of arrangement is just too much to ask of our nannies. We can offer you a possible solution to your dilemma: a full-time nanny manager. If you are not already familiar with the role of a nanny manager, you can hire her to perform all the regular childcare functions of a nanny—but a nanny manager can take on other responsibilities as well. These can include chores and errands you might normally take care of yourself in the precious few hours you have after work, such as shopping for groceries, picking up the dry cleaning, etc. In other words, a nanny manager can utilize those school hours to handle all sorts of tedious but necessary household functions, creating more time for you to spend with your family and recharge yourself in the evenings. And, while we understand a full-time nanny manager may not fit into everyone’s budget, you do have the option of sharing your caregiver with another family—and splitting the cost for her services as well. If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of hiring a nanny manager, I discuss more in-depth the tremendous benefits this type of caregiver provides in my latest blog post on our website. Until next time!
With school back in session, you may be dealing with the artwork that is sent home with your younger children. To organize these papers, you will need a gallery for displaying your little Picasso’s work and a system for archiving what you want to keep.
One solution for additional gallery space is the “clothesline” technique. You can use a beautiful ribbon and pins for hanging up the line, and then get attractive clips to hang the items from it. This clothesline can be hung up either vertically or horizontally on whatever wall space you can spare, or even across a window. To manage your gallery, use the “one in, one out” technique. When you are ready to take down older items, ask your child which pieces are most important to him or her, and keep those, along with your own favorites. If you have too many items, you can consider taking a photograph of the artwork with your child, and then discarding it and keeping the photo as a memory. To archive these items, make sure you label each item with the child's name and age and the date. Usually we recommend using one large plastic bin for each child’s work. For larger items, the Container Store sells art portfolios that store easily behind a shelving unit or under a bed. Don’t fall into the trap of feeling like you need to keep it all! It’s not realistic to keep every scribble. Taking just a few moments to organize the masterpieces will provide many memories for years to come.
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and I know how reassuring it can be to have support in maintaining something like normalcy in the first months of school.
Q: I need my nanny to work 48 hours per week. Do I have to pay overtime?
not pay overtime. Unless overtime is explicitly addressed in writing, the judge will almost always assume overtime was not paid and force the family to pay back overtime wages plus interest.
