We have had three wonderful nannies. When the first wonderful nanny left us to train as a midwife I dreaded her going and thought we'd never find someone good enough again. Since then I've learnt that each great nanny brings different strengths and helps H & K grow in different ways.
Finding a good nanny is still hard. It is such an important job. I want someone who loves our children and is loved by them, is proactive, positive, patient and playful and is interested in, and knowledgeable about, child development. I want someone who shares our values and will help our children to be intelligent, confident and caring.
I have interviewed people for lots of jobs at work. It is not the same. Choosing a nanny is a leap of faith. It is entrusting the most important people in my life to a stranger. It gives me great sympathy for parents arranging marriages.
When I employed our current nanny I knew she was going to university next year. Uni starts in March. I assumed she'd be with us until mid-February. She handed in her resignation last week. She is leaving us at the end of December. So now I am looking for a new nanny.
This is my fourth nanny search and so I have a lot of it sorted: I can copy most of the email I sent the nanny agencies last time, I just have to print out the interview and phone pre-interview questions, I know more or less what I am looking for. What I don't know is whether the right person is out there this time, whether I will recognise the wrong ones.
Wish me luck.
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3 comments:
Good luck.
vuvzqe: the emotional strength it takes to love other people's children and let them go.
The right person is out there... somewhere. Hopefully you will find the right person soon. Just curious, does nanny mean female for sure or would you have a male nanny? My colleague had a male nanny for his little girl.
If a guy applied I'd try hard to fairly assess him. Like any other nanny I'd want to do good reference checks. My prejudices would be easier to allay if he'd nannied girls before and done a good job.
The creche H & K go to had a good male supervisor who left at the beginning of this year. He was one of the very, very few men left in
early childhood education in NZ after the Peter Ellis case.
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