You might need the help of a babysitter or a nanny to look after your children for an evening or for a day, on a daily basis or from time to time.
Both nannies and babysitters work privately and are not required to register with the public authorities for young children and parents: Office de la naissance et de l’enfance (ONE) or Kind en Gezin.
The best way to find a nanny or babysitter is through a dedicated agency or website, such as Ligue des Familles. The advantage of these agencies is that they do background checks on their childcare providers. If you want to hire a nanny or babysitter through your own network, it is best to ask for their experience and qualifications beforehand.
The average price is €10 per hour if the babysitter works a few hours per week (less than 8 hours per week).
GOOD TO KNOW : if your child(ren) is/are sick, many municipalities organise home care for sick children and most national healthcare services (Mutualités) also offer this service. Find more info in our chapter on childcare.
Unlike France, there is no legal framework for this activity so in most of the cases, there is no work contract. In addition, this activity, considered as an “intellectual service”, is a form of domestic work which is not subject to rules and taxes of the ONSS (Office national de sécurité sociale) if the three following conditions are met:
If you need a nanny or babysitter more than 8 hours per week, you can hire the person under a work contract as an employee. Nevertheless, the costs will be very high and can amount to around €2500/month to cover the salary and all the social charges.
In any case, don't forget to subscribe to a domestic staff insurance.
GOOD TO KNOW:
You can find a babysitter through a friend, a neighbour…or dedicated online platforms. Here are four platforms out of the many which are available.
This organisation, which fights for parents' rights among other things, also offers a babysitting service that provides parents with a certain guarantee of service. Parents and Ligue des Familles babysitters, who are pre-selected by the Ligue itself, are offered a quality charter and support. For example, babysitters receive 3 days' training before being included on the list of babysitters approved by the Ligue des Familles. Parents interested in these services will therefore need to be affiliated to the organisation in order to benefit from them.
Bsit is an application that combines two principles: the ease of the Internet and the trust of word of mouth. Bsit lets you find babysitters recommended by friends or neighbours near you. Once you have downloaded the free application, Bsit will suggest recommended babysitters in your area, or even your neighbourhood, so you can quickly feel confident about the person's qualities.
Public community platform connecting parents with babysitters. You can read reviews and detailed profiles with user verifications.
A genuine platform designed to help families in their daily lives, Yoopies is positioned as a site that connects babysitters and parents looking for a childcare solution, based on fairly comprehensive search criteria. As applications are not seen directly by the site, unlike the Ligue des Familles, it is important to pay attention to the recommendations of the site's users in order to be sure of the seriousness of the babysitter.