Digital Nomad Childcare: Here’s What You Need To Know

As digital nomad parents, we need to find reliable childcare just like our 9-5 counterparts. Whether your need time to work, want more socialization opportunities for your child or just need a break, we’ve all been there! Finding digital nomad childcare can be a challenge if you are in a new country every few months though. This guide has everything you need to know about finding childcare as a digital nomad.

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What Kinds Of Digital Nomad Childcare Are There

The types of childcare available to digital nomad families are really no different than the types that you would expect to find back home. Most digital nomad family bloggers talk about how they use childcare and almost every country has childcare options as working parents everywhere need someone to look after their children while they work. Here are the types of childcare digital nomads can look out for

Babysitter Or Local Nanny

Call them when you need them and pay them by the hour. A babysitter is the typical teenage girl next door type job. With no fixed hours or contract, use a babysitter if you need occasional childcare at home.

If you work remotely, work outside home or just have a lot of work to do each day, a local nanny may be a better fit for your digital nomad childcare situation. You can establish regular hours for a local nanny to come to your house and watch your child.

Using a local nanny or local baby sitter is great if you want your child to pick up some of the local language while you’re there. This is especially beneficial if you travel to countries which share a language often (think Spanish and South America.)

Where to Find A Baby Sitter Or Local Nanny

If you are looking for a babysitter, the first place to look is your circle of friends. If you know other families there, ask them if they know anyone. If you know some local people, such as an AirBnB host, asking them will find you someone quicker, cheaper and closer to you than looking for an agency (which may not even exist.)

Facebook Groups Are also a good place to find potential babysitters, search using your location. E.g.

Baby sitter agency websites can also be a quick and easy way to get yourself reliable childcare, such as:

  • Sitly.co – One of the biggest sites for finding sitters and nannies worldwide.
  • Great Aupair – Has baby-sitter available in countries all over the world
  • Marypop – All Over But Mostly Europe
  • Babysits – Worldwide, check for specific countries

Be sure to meet them first and for the first few times have them babysit while you are there. Only after you feel comfortable with the babysitter should you leave your child alone with them.

Cost will change depending on where you are in the world, e.g. a Thai Nanny $500-%1500/month. Check out this post where I compare the cost of childcare for digital nomad families in Asia.

Traveling Nanny

For an even more permanent solution, you can find a traveling nanny. This is someone that will travel with you and your family and watch your child on a regular permanent basis.

A traveling nanny provides much more stability and reliability than using a babysitter or local nanny. You wont need to find someone new every time you reach a new destination and your child wont need to constantly reestablish a relationship with the childcare provider.

According to Zip Recruiter a travel nanny from the US will cost you almost $60,000 before taking into account their travel expenses.

Where To Find A Traveling Nanny

Finding a Nanny that is willing to leave their life behind and travel with you, even short term, can be a challenge. Rather than asking around, I recommend you look at specialized travel nanny agencies. Let them do the safety and experience checks so you can find the best childcare for your nomadic family.

Childcare Center

A childcare center is another great option for digital nomad childcare. You can drop them off and pick them up at prearranged times, giving you the house to yourself to work.

A childcare center is a good option if you want a more social environment for your child, where he/she can play with other kids. Childcare centers will have activities and games scheduled to keep the children happy.

Local childcare centers will usually be in the local language, although bilingual places do exist, they are usually more expense though. If you want your child to pick up some of the local language a regular childcare center could be a good fit for your digital nomad children.

Where To Find Childcare Centers Near You

Finding a childcare center for your child is usually not so hard. Googling childcare + your location is a great start. If you’re somewhere a little more obscure, you may need to translate that into the local language first, Google will help with that too.

Nursery

If your child is old enough, finding a good nursery or school could be an option and may even be free (depending where you are.)

Where To Find Nurseries Near you

If you’re having trouble finding a nursery online and you’ve even searched in the local language, all the locals you know don’t have kids and you have met any expats yet, go to the local play-park.

Saturday morning in the local play park is prime playing time for nursery aged kids, which means you’ll have a group of parents with children of similar age to ask!

If you don’t speak the language at all, try speaking English, usually an English speaker will appear out of the crowd. If speaking to people feels awkward when you don’t know the language, take someone with you that does!

School

I recently wrote an article where I weighed up the pros and cons of sending your child to a local school vs. homeschooling them. If you are planning to send them to a local school, it wont be hard to find and unless you’re staying in a huge city, there wont be that many options to choose from.

Many schools wont take short term foreign students however so you may also want to consider an international school which are more accustomed to your nomadic lifestyle.

Gregory Gaynor Avatar

Meet Gregory, a writer and the brains behind Face Dragons. He's the go-to guy for getting things done.

Gregory's been living the digital nomad life in Asia for as long as anyone can remember, helping clients smash their goals. He writes on topics like software, personal knowledge management (PKM), and personal development. When he's not writing, you'll catch him at the local MMA gym, nose buried in a book, or just chilling with the family.