A.  That depends.  Is the contract concise and written well?  Can you change its terms, or are you stuck with a one-size-fits-all PDF file?  Does the contract address all the major legal pitfalls?  If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, we recommend against using the contract.

You get what you pay for, as the saying goes, and that’s true even with nanny contracts.  In our experience, many of the free nanny contracts we’ve encountered online are written poorly and open to one or more legal pitfalls.  In addition, many of the free nanny contracts are not user friendly because they’re in PDF format or designed to be cut-and-pasted from a website.

Nanny care is expensive, and parents rightly watch out for unnecessary costs.  A good nanny contract, however, is an investment in what will become an incredibly important relationship.  For that reason, parents are wise to purchase a reasonably priced, professionally developed nanny contract.