Our Five Shanghai Nanny placement Pillars

Before reading the five pillars, a quick decision frame. Three questions usually settle which one you need:

• How many hours of coverage per week? Under 25 → part-time ayi. 40–60 → full-time live-out. 60+ or evenings/overnights → live-in.
• Is Mandarin the household default or English? If you want children's primary household language to be Mandarin, you need either the bilingual immersion pillar or to layer a Mandarin-only ayi over an English-primary nanny. The latter is more expensive and more complex.
• Are you arriving with a newborn under 6 months? Yes → start with a yuesao placement, plan the handoff to an ongoing ayi for month four. No → skip the yuesao pillar.

Families who answer "both/sometimes" to any of these usually end up with a two-role structure: a primary nanny plus a part-time ayi for the role the primary can't cover.

A nanny who lives in the family's home, with her own room (door that closes, ideally an en-suite). Coverage is 60 hours/week typical, one full rest day, occasional split rest day. Salary band ¥ 8,000–18,000/month plus room and board.

Best fit for: families with non-standard work hours (finance, consulting, founders), families with two young children where evening cover matters, families who want continuity rather than a daytime-only schedule.

Not a fit for: families in a 1-bedroom or studio FFC lane house with no separate room (live-in needs the separate space — without it, the role degrades inside 30 days). Families uncomfortable with another adult in the household at all times.

Full live-in service page →

A nanny who commutes in. Standard daytime schedule, usually 07:30–18:30 or similar; 45 hours/week typical. Salary band ¥ 7,000–14,000/month plus commute reimbursement past 45 minutes one-way.

Best fit for: families with predictable working hours, families in apartments without an ayi suite, families who actively prefer the household-default-empty feeling at night.

The live-out vs live-in delta is roughly ¥ 1,000–3,000/month for the equivalent profile — but if you factor in food, board, and the implicit value of housing, the all-in cost is closer than the headline numbers suggest. The salary bands page has the full worksheet.

Full live-out service page →

Hourly or sessional coverage. Most common pattern is the international-school after-school window — 15:00–19:00 weekdays, school pickup, homework supervision, dinner cover. Some families layer a Saturday-morning ayi for weekend hours. Rate band ¥ 50–120/hour, minimum ¥ 100/visit is common.

Best fit for: families with a stay-at-home parent who needs structured cover for specific windows, dual-career families using a school day plus an after-school ayi, families bridging between a yuesao and an ongoing full-time hire.

A common structure: one part-time ayi for after-school and homework, a second part-time ayi for weekend mornings, occasional Saturday evening date-night cover. Three part-time roles together can rival the cost of a full-time nanny, but with more flexibility and less household-presence load.

Full part-time service page →

The premium pillar. A nanny whose Mandarin is the household default — the children hear and speak Mandarin from the moment they wake until they sleep — with English available as fallback for the parents and for safety-critical communication.

This is different from "a nanny who speaks some English." It requires a candidate with genuine bilingual fluency, structured immersion training, and the temperament to hold the Mandarin default even when the children push back. Salary band ¥ 12,000–22,000/month, with the top end reserved for candidates with formal early-childhood education credentials and prior immersion-household experience.

Best fit for: returning Chinese-heritage families, expat families committed to Mandarin as a second language for their children, families in international schools that don't offer enough Mandarin contact hours.

Full bilingual immersion service page →

A yuesao (月嫂) is a specialist newborn-care professional who handles the postnatal period — typically the first 30, 60, or 90 days after the baby arrives. The role covers night feeds, newborn care, light meal preparation for the mother (often following the 坐月子 postnatal-recovery framework), and basic newborn-health monitoring.

Salary band ¥ 18,000–35,000/month, tiered by credentialing. Gold-tier yuesao with verified certifications and 5+ years of experience sit at the top of the band; entry-tier yuesao at the bottom.

The key structural decision: plan the handoff to an ongoing ayi or nanny before the yuesao contract ends. Families who don't do this end up either extending the yuesao at peak salary into month four or scrambling for an ayi at week eleven.

Full yuesao service page →

Regardless of which pillar you choose, the realistic timeline from first conversation to start date is 2–4 weeks. The shape of those weeks:

• Week 1 — role scoping with the family, brief to partner agency, agency shortlists 3–5 candidates.
• Week 2 — first-round interviews (30–45 minutes each), family selects 2 finalists.
• Week 3 — second-round interviews, trial day or trial half-day where feasible, reference review.
• Week 4 — contract drafting and bilingual review, signing, start date.

Yuesao placements compress this — if a baby is arriving on a known date, the agency can shortlist faster. Bilingual-immersion placements typically take longer at the candidate-finding stage; 4–6 weeks is realistic for that pillar.

Two paths in:

• Send an inquiry — 3 minutes, gives us enough to scope the placement before our first conversation.
• Book a 20-minute call on our booking page — if you're still deciding which pillar fits, this is the faster route.

The 20-minute call is free and there is no candidate list at the end. We will tell you honestly which pillar matches your situation, and whether you should work with us, work with a partner agency directly, or hire through your existing network.