10 Nov
Today Emma is writing about Stage 4: 9 - 12 months
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I truly believe those were my only options.
I was falling behind with my work, the dishes piling up in the sink, the dog was neglected, the garden was abandoned, my friends thought I left the country …you get the idea. Eric is a great kid, and he needs a lot of attention so I wasn’t making progress on anything else. The situation was getting ridiculous: when I was with Eric, I couldn’t stop thinking about the work, and when I was trying to do the work I was feeling guilty about not doing enough for Eric.
This had to end – and I started to look for a nanny. I knew from the very start that it will be hard to find the kind of nanny I’d like my baby to have. She has to be very kind, gentle and patient with him, she has to pay attention, she has to understand when he’s cold or hot, she has to know when he’s hungry or thirsty, she has to know how to make him smile, she has to …be me.
Life teaches us all about compromises – so I sat down and drew up a nanny profile.
Age: not too young because I want someone responsible, and not too old because she won’t be able to keep up with him – and he is one quick little boy.
Gender: hmmm, I know that I don’t get on very well with women – so why not have a male nanny? Let’s say that both are acceptable, there are not much men in that profession anyway.
Education: I prefer people who had certificates in child related education. Why? Two reasons:
1) I might learn something from them without having to do the course myself
2)They will help my baby’s development because they are trained to.
Certificates: Two that are a must: pediatric first aid and police check. I didn’t insist on a clean driving record because she wasn’t going to drive my baby anywhere.
References: I wanted recent references with contact phone numbers. One can’t be too picky when it’s about their baby’s well-being.
And then the search began. I posted an ad in the online classified ads portal. There were some responses but mostly from students and people who were looking for a summer job – not really what I had in mind.
So to get some serious results fast I bought a subscription to a nanny database website. It took me a while to pick the right website – there were too many. Here’s how I’ve chosen a good one: they all let you do a sample search for free, so you select your requirements (how many hours a day, how many days a week, baby’s age, etc) and get a number of carers available in your area. I have chosen the website with biggest number of nannies in my area, it has been around for two years and had a reasonable subscription price.
To be continued. Don’t go away, but if you do – subscribe.
8 Responses
nannies4hire
November 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
1Everyone needs extra pair of hands sometime in there life to keep it all going. I have hired nannies and they are great. Check out http://www.nannies4hire.com. We hired our current nanny from their site and love her. We couldn’t have found a better match for our family.
Working mom: get a nervous breakdown or ... get a nanny! (part 2) @ Baby-Log| Learning to be a Mother, raise a Baby and live as a Family
November 13th, 2008 at 4:51 am
2[…] second part of my success story about how I found a great nanny in just 7 days. You can read the first part here. Assuming that most of the nanny database sites are alike, you should do 2 things to make your […]
Working mom: get a nervous breakdown or ... get a nanny! (part 3) @ Baby-Log| Learning to be a Mother, raise a Baby and live as a Family
November 17th, 2008 at 12:26 am
3[…] for my prospective nanny – and the reasons for every question. I started it in these articles – click here to read part1 and here to read part […]
Working at Home on the Internet
November 28th, 2008 at 6:08 am
4[…] presents Working mom: get a nervous breakdown or ? get a nanny! (part 1) posted at […]
Work From Home » Blog Archive » Working at Home Blog Carnival-113th Edition
November 28th, 2008 at 6:45 am
5[…] by not making excuses and taking action to over come financial roadblocks.” Emma presents Working mom: get a nervous breakdown or ? get a nanny! (part 1) posted at […]
Detour Services
November 29th, 2008 at 1:00 am
6Congratulations on being able to find help so quickly and confidently. New parents and working parents sure have a lot of tough yet rewarding life adjustments to make. Another option for too-busy parents is to outsource all those other time-consuming tasks in your life: the dishes, correspondence with friends, walking the dog, etc.
Taking those items off your plate will also free up your schedule so you can feel like you are able to spend quality time with your family. Look up personal assistance or concierge services, such as Detour Services, in your area.
Discount Formula
December 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am
7I envy you for finding a nanny that fast. It is our main problem right now. We had changed nanny for the 4th time now. It is confusing my child. I hope I can find one that will stay with us indefinitely :)
Emma
December 7th, 2008 at 5:06 am
8I guess that was really lucky. She is still working for us and I am very happy that I hired her. The amount of attention my baby gets from her is beyond my wildest fantasies, this is the kind of person that she it.
I wish you best luck, hopefully you will find her identical twin soon.
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