Recently, i was looking for a nanny for my second child, first one goes to river school. All the nannies that I found through newportmommy were charging pretty high $500 per week on an average. And, when i would ask them to drop my elder one to school by 8:30 and pick him up by 6:15, the charges would simply increase by $50. I finally gave an ad in Sulekha and found a wonderful nanny at $450 per week who will stay with me from 8 to 7 and will fulfill all my needs.
The point of writing this whole story here is that i feel the nannies who are already employed in Newport and neighbouring areas are charging too much. I had a nanny for my elder one till last yearband she was a gem and just charged me $350 per week. I did not expect the rates to shoot up like this. Duting my search for nannies, i read someone mentioning that they have form a union kind of thing and have pre decided rates, timings, etc. If they can be united, why cannot we. I know Supriya is already doing a wonderful job of maintaining the nanny lists to ease our search. I would also suggest if we can maitain the charges for full time, part time helpers, cleaning and cooking charges too then it can help mommies who are new in this area or first time mommies.
Any suggestions are most welcome, also if there is a way that I can contribute in listing the charges, i am ready to collect the stats and post them here.

Thanks,
Swati

PS: I am posting this in the discussion forum after being fully satisfied with nanny i got through Sulekha.