More and more households are seeing one or both parents working full time, which makes finding childcare absolutely essential. When options like daycare and babysitting can’t offer the level of care that parents need, obtaining nanny services provides children with regular, quality care. Here’s what your household should expect when looking to hire a live-in nanny for the first time.

What Does a Nanny Do?

The duties of a nanny go well beyond simply monitoring your children. Nannies provide the nurturing and routines children need for healthy mental, physical, and emotional development. Nannies can also support parents by ensuring household tasks and errands are taken care of. Every family will have different needs, which makes it that much more important to ensure the right nanny is chosen for the position.

Keeping Children Healthy

A nanny’s priority is to support children’s health and well-being. This is accomplished in several ways. In being able to understand what a child needs on an emotional level, a nanny can offer both love and security. Typically, a nanny will have obtained a degree that allows them to offer early childhood education, as well as use specialized skills to provide quality care.

Activities

In households where children have developmental and other challenges, a nanny agency search should include those with specialized training in these areas. Children also need activity to help meet their physical, social, and mental health needs. This requires a nanny who can plan these sorts of activities. They may take children to play dates, stimulate their minds with trips to the theater, zoo, or museum, or arrange for in-home activities like making crafts and playing games.

Physical Health

The health of children also extends to the kitchen, where, in some cases, a nanny helps out with preparing healthy meals appropriate for the age of the children they care for. Additionally, a nanny may also be asked to carry out the nutritional wishes of the parents. For instance, parents may dictate that all foods their children eat be prepared at home and not purchased ready-made.

Development of Healthy Habits

Nannies must also ensure that children develop healthy habits. Bathing, dressing, and brushing teeth are just a few of the many tasks that nannies can assist children with. Healthy habits also include maintaining and enforcing the rules, rewards, and routines set out by parents.

Children who enjoy a daily structure have confidence and remain engaged in learning. A nanny is a positive role model, sharing their own values and lessons with children to help them understand and appreciate different life experiences.

What Nannies Do for Parents

There is no doubt that the care a nanny provides can have a direct and positive impact on children, and not only during their childhood. The experiences children have with their nannies can last a lifetime, affecting everything from their relationships to the ways in which they deal with stress. In addition to the unparalleled care nannies offer children, they can also offer positive support to the parents.

Parents Who Work Away from Home

With so much time in a parent’s day being devoted to working, there may not be enough time to complete all that needs to be done. This is exactly the situation where household staff can be incredibly useful. Light housekeeping, doing the children’s laundry, and helping with homework are all duties which can be accomplished by nannies.

Parents can also enjoy more time with their children when they have a full-time nanny. Instead of having to run errands with their children in tow, the children can remain at home with their parents while the nanny shops for groceries or picks up the dry cleaning.

Parents Who Work in the Home

A parent who works remotely from home is still a working parent. For these families, a nanny can offer in-home childcare while a parent works. When it’s time to enjoy lunch or a break from work, the nanny can attend to other duties within the household while the parent feeds or plays with the children.

Full-Time Parents

In households where one parent is at home full-time while the other is away from home working, a nanny can be of great help. The full-time parent can complete tasks around the home, like laundry and preparing meals, while the nanny keeps children occupied. The reverse can also be true, where the parent spends quality time with the children and the nanny completes household tasks.

Being a full-time parent is a demanding and multi-faceted job, especially when there is no family nearby. Parents also need time to care for themselves. This is also a situation for which nannies can be ideal. While the children head to the park for a play date, there is time to relax and rejuvenate, which ultimately helps parents become even better at what they do.

Families Who Travel

When the full-time nanny is not available to accompany families on their travels, or they only require a nanny for their vacation period, a travel nanny is another option. These individuals help parents enjoy themselves and relax on their vacations by caring for the children alone or in concert with their parents.

Travel nannies can entertain children on a long flight, research and suggest vacation activities, and pack luggage.

Finding Your Ideal Match

A full-time nanny will be much more than someone who takes care of your children; they will become an extension of your family. That being said, there are a few items to consider when starting your search.

The first is to ensure that you are very clear about your expectations. In doing so, you can receive exactly the services you are looking for. The nannies you’re considering also need to be clear about the expectations they have for the prospective families they will be working for.

Even after you’ve developed a short list of prospective nannies, you will still need to meet with them to determine their fit for your needs and family. What should you look for when interviewing a prospective nanny? The first thing is whether or not the candidate showed up on time. This will tell you much about how they prioritize and handle challenges.

Look for good grooming in your candidates, as this will speak volumes about how they will care for your children. Ensure they interact with your children during the interview and observe how they handle your child’s reaction. Also, consider the kinds of questions they ask you. If their questions are focused on your children, this is where their priorities will lie.

After the Interview

Of course, there are also things to ask yourself following an interview with a prospective nanny. First, check in with your intuition. Did things feel right, or did something just not add up? If something doesn’t feel right, it’s important to trust that feeling.

It can be very helpful to take a few minutes and make some notes about the interview. This will help you distinguish one interviewee from another. Jot down a few words about how well the candidate interacted with you. Did they seem as though they could think on their feet and follow instructions?

Chemistry is another vital aspect to note in the interview; the better the interaction, the better the fit. You will need to be able to communicate freely with one another about everything related to the children, including any awkward topics. If they are easy to talk to and seem likely to easily offer you information about your child when you’re not there, consider these a big plus.

Finding a nanny shouldn’t be difficult. Staffing at Tiffanie’s offers a hassle-free process by conducting confidential nanny searches of top professionals. Ideal matches are then sent to you for interviewing and selection. Contact us today to begin your search: (866) 484-5550.