How To Become A Family Nanny: What It Is and Career Path

What is a family nanny and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Laura Schroeder

A family nanny's primary role is to provide a safe, caring, nurturing, and stimulating environment in which the children thrive and develop. Their responsibilities are changing diapers, doing laundry, planning meals, preparing food, feeding the children, arranging playdates and outings, and performing educational activities and crafts.

They need to be a high school graduate who has received further training in child care and development. If interested, applicants can take training as a teacher, and they may wish to pursue a governess position, which combines nanny and teacher roles.

Family nannies can make an average of $30,436 per year and $14.63 per hour. They may need to work in a child's home as a childcare worker, or typically work for one family at a time, and may also live with them.

What general advice would you give to a family nanny?

Laura Schroeder

President, International Nanny Association

Young graduates will need to have some knowledge or experience in early childhood education, as help with the school day has become an important part of a nanny's job since the pandemic. They also must be able to work independently and be self motivated as their bosses will likely not be on site. There are jobs for nannies all over the U.S., but the best paying jobs tend to be in wealthier areas and larger cities, for example L.A., San Francisco, Seattle and Boston.

ScoreFamily NannyUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $37,809

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.03%

Asian 6.62%

Black or African American 6.94%

Hispanic or Latino 17.82%

Unknown 6.23%

White 61.36%

Gender

female 92.18%

male 7.82%

Age - 35

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 35

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.1

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a family nanny

Explore family nanny education requirements

Most common family nanny degrees

Bachelor's

61.7 %

Associate

17.4 %

High School Diploma

13.3 %

Start to develop specific family nanny skills

Skills	Percentages
CPR	23.35%
Kids	23.33%
Art Projects	11.93%
Caregiver	9.61%
Meal Prep	9.13%

Complete relevant family nanny training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New family nannies learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a family nanny based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real family nanny resumes.

Research family nanny duties and responsibilities

Spend multiple weekends caring for kids when parents are on work trips.
Watch the children, make meals, help the kids with homework, transport to various extra-curricular activity
Generate nutritional meals addressing food allergies and meeting nutritional needs.
Generate nutritional meals addressing food allergies and meeting nutritional needs.

Prepare your family nanny resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your family nanny resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a family nanny resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable family nanny resume templates

Build a professional family nanny resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your family nanny resume.