The Mavo blog

Caregiver handoffs · July 2, 2026 · 7 min read

Nanny household handbook: onboard a regular sitter

A nanny household handbook to onboard a regular sitter or nanny: the weekly schedule, house rules, what they can decide, pay and hours, and standing contacts.

It's the third Thursday your nanny has come, and you're texting them the pickup time from a meeting again. Same time as last week. Same as the week before. The schedule is steady now, but it still lives in your head and your thumbs, and every week you text out another piece of it.

The instinct is to write a better sitter note: longer, more thorough, everything spelled out. But a sitter note is built to be read once and thrown away, and a regular caregiver isn't there for one night. They come back every week, and what they need barely resembles a note at all. It's one page that hardly changes, that they read on day one and keep coming back to.

What a weekly caregiver needs that a sitter doesn't

A one-night babysitter needs tonight: the plan, the contacts, when bedtime is, what's different this evening. You can capture all of that on a single handoff sheet and hand it over at the door.

A grandparent covering a whole week while you travel needs something bigger, a day-by-day week-long care sheet that walks through every pickup, meal, and bedtime, because they're running the show solo.

A regular nanny, after-school sitter, or au pair sits between those two. They're not solo, and they're not one-and-done. They come back into a rhythm that's mostly the same each week, so the thing that saves you isn't a fresh plan every time. It's a standing one: the weekly schedule, the house rules, the calls they're trusted to make on their own, and the numbers that never change. Write it once, and you stop re-explaining the basics every Monday.

The weekly schedule, and each kid's day

Start with the part that repeats. A regular caregiver mostly needs to know what a normal Tuesday looks like, not a one-off evening.

Lay out the standing hours first:

  • The days and times they cover, and who's home when they arrive and leave.
  • School or daycare hours, and who does drop-off and pickup on each day.
  • The standing activities: swim on Monday, the Wednesday piano lesson, the Thursday playdate that's always on.
  • Nap or quiet time, snack times, and the rough shape of meals.
  • What the afternoon and the pre-dinner stretch usually look like.

Then go kid by kid, because a caregiver watching two or three children is really running two or three routines at once. For each one, write down:

  • Nap or rest windows, and what helps them settle.
  • Snacks that are a yes, and how much screen time is allowed and when it stops.
  • Allergies, medicines, and health notes. Keep the full version on a one-page kid health sheet the caregiver can read in ten seconds, so the handbook points to it instead of burying it.
  • The small stuff that prevents friction: the cup that leaks, the stuffed animal that goes everywhere, the sibling dynamic to watch.

The things that happen on a clock, the 4:00 allergy medicine, the every-other-Wednesday early release, are the easiest to forget and the worst to miss. If you set those as reminders in Mavo, the caregiver gets one instead of waiting on your text.

What they can decide, and what they check first

A one-night sitter texts you about everything because they don't know your house yet. A nanny who's there every week can make most of those calls on their own, once you've told them where the line is. Write down both sides so nobody has to guess.

Situation Green light Check with you first
Weather ruins outdoor play Move it inside or to the porch Driving somewhere new to get out of the house
Food Anything on the approved snack and meal list A new food, or anything with allergies in play
A rough afternoon Rearrange the plan, add a book, more rest time Anything about discipline you'd want handled your way
Bumps and scrapes Bandage, ice, a cool cloth, comfort A kid who seems sick, hurt, or not themselves
Medicine Comfort for a low-grade complaint Any medicine, including over-the-counter
Screens Up to the daily limit Going past the limit
Who's around Keep a playdate already on the schedule A new guest, or letting anyone into the house
Pickup Follow the schedule as written Any change to who does pickup or where

The gray areas are where the texts pile up, so spend your specifics there. A caregiver who knows they're trusted to move play to the porch, and knows to wait and ask before any medicine, stops sending the anxious what-do-I-do messages and starts running the afternoon.

Pay, hours, and the contacts that don't change

Money and hours are the part everyone means to nail down and then handles by memory. Put the numbers in writing so there's nothing to relitigate on a Friday.

Write down:

  • The hourly rate, and how extra hours or overtime work.
  • The regular weekly hours, and the earliest and latest they might be needed.
  • How they log hours and when they submit them.
  • Payday and how they're paid.
  • What happens on a sick day, a holiday, a snow day, or when you're running late: paid, unpaid, or made up later.
  • Time off, and how much notice each side gives.

A regular nanny can also change your own paperwork. Once you're paying a caregiver steadily, you may count as a household employer, with Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment obligations a one-off babysitter never triggers. The IRS lays out the thresholds and forms in its Household Employer's Tax Guide, and it's worth ten minutes before the first payday rather than a scramble at tax time.

Then the contacts that don't change, the ones worth their own line because a caregiver may need them months from now:

  • Both parents, and who to try first.
  • A backup adult nearby who can step in.
  • The pediatrician or clinic.
  • The school or daycare, and the after-school program.
  • Your home address, spelled out, for anyone who has to give it to a dispatcher.

For real danger, the caregiver calls 911 or your local emergency number first. The handbook only holds the everyday context, kept in one place so a capable adult can act calmly.

The household handbook, ready to copy

Here's the whole thing as one page. Copy it into a shared note or print it for the binder by the door, fill in the blanks once, and update only the lines that actually change. Most of it you'll write a single time.

NANNY / CAREGIVER HOUSEHOLD HANDBOOK

Caregiver: __________________    Started: __________
Kids: _____________________________________________

STANDING WEEKLY SCHEDULE
  Days / hours covered: ___________________________
  Mon: _____________________________________________
  Tue: _____________________________________________
  Wed: _____________________________________________
  Thu: _____________________________________________
  Fri: _____________________________________________
  School / daycare hours: _________________________
  Drop-off / pickup owner by day: _________________
  Standing activities: ____________________________
  Nap / quiet time: _______________________________
  Snack + meal times: _____________________________

ROUTINE BY KID
  [Kid] ______  Nap/rest: ______  Settles with: ______
    Snacks (yes): ______   Screen limit: ______
    Allergies / meds: ______  (full health sheet: ______)
    Good to know: ______
  [Kid] ______  Nap/rest: ______  Settles with: ______
    Snacks (yes): ______   Screen limit: ______
    Allergies / meds: ______  (full health sheet: ______)
    Good to know: ______

HOUSE RULES
  Screens: ______    Food: ______    Outside play: ______
  Rest / quiet time: ______   Answering the door: ______
  Pets: ______   House quirks: ______

THEY CAN DECIDE ON THEIR OWN
  - _______________________________________________
  - _______________________________________________
  - _______________________________________________
CHECK WITH US FIRST
  - _______________________________________________
  - _______________________________________________
  - _______________________________________________

PAY + HOURS
  Rate: ______    Overtime / extra hours: ______
  Regular hours: ______   Earliest / latest: ______
  Logs hours: ______   Payday + method: ______
  Sick / holiday / snow day / late: ______
  Time-off notice: ______

CONTACTS THAT DON'T CHANGE
  Parent 1: ______ (try first? __)   Parent 2: ______
  Backup adult: ______
  Pediatrician / clinic: ______
  School / daycare / after-school: ______
  Home address: ______
  Emergencies: 911 (or local emergency number)

Keep the schedule where you both can see it

The handbook covers the things that hold still. The schedule is the part that moves: a season ends, a lesson changes nights, one parent covers Thursday pickup this month. A page taped to the fridge can't keep up with that, and the moment it's wrong, you're back to texting the nanny from a meeting.

So keep the standing schedule somewhere you both actually look. In Mavo, the weekly rhythm lives on a shared family calendar the whole household can see, and each pickup, lesson, and handoff can carry an owner, so the caregiver opens it and knows who's driving Thursday without asking. Add the nanny as one of the people on your plan and they see the same schedule you do, plus the reminders you set for the things that happen on a clock.

The next step is small: fill the handbook once for the durable stuff, and put the standing schedule where the sitter and you share one plan instead of one memory. Do that, and a normal week stops depending on you being reachable. The nanny walks in, sees what today holds, knows which calls are theirs to make, and you get to be in your meeting with your phone face-down on the table.

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