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How You Can Help Your Nanny Family Save Money

Good childcare can be expensive and some families might find themselves struggling to balance the cost of their other living expenses.

As a nanny, you can help to ease the burden for your nanny family by looking for opportunities to save them money.

Here’s how you can help!

Coupons!

Couponing is HUGE, and people everywhere, particularly large families are hunting down coupons in a bid to save money.

The idea of cutting out coupons and vouchers might seem somewhat tedious, but it doesn’t have to be. The next time you’re sitting down while the kids are watching a movie or taking a nap, have a quick look through magazines and newspapers, cut out a few coupons that apply to you and save them for later.

Follow these top tips to help you stay on top of the couponing game:

Subscribe to your local paper – Check that the papers include coupons that are relevant to you and if the saving exceeds the cost, subscribe to one or two so that you can start building your coupons.
Check store policies – Does your local supermarket accept more than one coupon per transaction or item? Find out what each shop you visit allows so that you can save time and take advantage of every saving opportunity.
Save the junk mail – You know the wad of leaflets pushed through the door on an almost daily basis? Some of these will include coupons or special offers from your local shop or supermarket. Look out for them!
Pick up a magazine/leaflet – As you finish your weekly shop, look for a leaflet or magazine containing store offers and coupons that you can take with you. You’ll be able to plan your next shop in advance to coincide with new deals or sales.
Pay attention to expiry dates – There’s no point having a purse full of out-of-date coupons that you have to search through at the checkout in the hopes of finding one that’s valid. Try to use coupons sooner rather than later, and do a weekly purge of any that have expired.
Plan ahead – Use your coupons and information about sales or special offers to plan your shopping trip in advance. Make a list and stick to it so you know beforehand exactly how much your shop will cost and what you’ll save.
Look online – You can find a whole host of coupons online. Be prepared to spend a little longer searching for coupons you can use, but the savings will be worth it!
Follow your favourites brands on social media – Some brands will only post their best offers to their loyal social media followers so be sure to follow, like and connect with them on all platforms to stay up-to-date with the latest deals.

Loyalty Cards/Reward Schemes

Most shops and online retailers now have loyalty schemes that reward you with points or discounts when you shop. Things like the Sainsburys Nectar, Boots Card, even the Costa coffee card and many more can help you save money on things like; the weekly shop, clothes, pharmacy, soft play centers and fuel.

If you shop somewhere on a regular basis, it won’t hurt to ask if they have a loyalty card.

Multi-Buy Deals/Special Offers

Multi-buy deals and special offers can really help you in the long-term, particularly when they’re for frozen food or non-perishable items. Think about the future when looking at multi-buy deals and remember that spending a little more now could save you money next week.

Find the Freebies

There are plenty of online retailers and companies offering freebies of new products in exchange for something small. Some want reviews of their products, others simply want to spread the word. Some might want your email or home address for marketing purposes, so check the T’s & C’s before you sign up!

Shop Smarter

Resist temptation – When you start collecting coupons, or building points, it’s easy to fall into the trap of buying things you don’t really need. Just because something is buy-one-get-one-half-price doesn’t necessarily mean you should buy two, if you don’t need two. Don’t be tempted to buy something you don’t need and won’t use, just because you have a coupon.
Shop around – Don’t be afraid to shop at different places. Just because you can get everything on your shopping list from one shop, doesn’t mean that you should. Other shops may offer certain items cheaper or have offers/coupons that you can use to bring your overall cost down.
Consider cheaper alternatives – There are many different brands of items to choose from when you shop. Take a simple tin of beans for example. There will usually be at least two different brands of beans at your local supermarket. Compare them see what you might save by switching to a different brand or a home brand and give it a try.

Use our top tips to start saving today. Apply them to your own spending as well as your nanny family’s and you’ll both be saving money in no time.

If you have any money saving tips you’d like to share, get in touch in the comments!

Why You Shouldn’t Micromanage Your Nanny

Many of us are familiar with the frustration that comes along when your boss or manager constantly breathes down your neck telling you how to do your job. It’s undermining, infuriating and annoying, and if done often enough, it can make you hate your job.

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Now imagine how your nanny feels when you tell her exactly what time she needs to put your child down for a nap, how many grapes he can eat, which games she should play with him, even what shape to cut his sandwiches. Sound familiar?

Your nanny is good at her job. You checked her references, read her resumé and can see she knows what she’s talking about. Bear in mind that a great many nannies have more experience with childcare than most parents have at simply being parents. She’s been doing the job a long time, it’s her life, her passion, and you need to learn to let go of the reigns a little and trust her judgement.

It probably won’t be easy, especially if you’re a new parent, it can be difficult to relinquish control to someone new and to put faith in them being able to care for your little one the way you would. However, if you don’t do this, there’s really no point in hiring a nanny in the first place and all your micromanaging will result in a frustrated nanny, a tense relationship between you and your nanny (that your child will probably pick up on) and you’ll find yourself feeling tired and on-edge, when you should be more relaxed and confident that your child is in capable hands.

That’s why we’ve put together our top tips to help keep your micromanaging to a minimum:

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Things you can do one handed, perfected after years of childcare

Eat

Eat most things in fact, with a spoon or a fork. You’ve also perfected the cut then eat manoeuvre.

Crack eggs

No you don’t need that other hand to stabilise the bowl. And yes, you can whisk them too, and flip an omelette. You’re the Queen of no-chop meals.

Continue reading “Things you can do one handed, perfected after years of childcare”

Social Media for childcarers

Social media can be a great personal and professional tool. It enables you to keep in touch with family, friends and organisations that you’re interested in (like us!), get ideas and share your own thoughts and ideas with others. But what if you’re sharing more than you think?

Privacy and safety aren’t just concerns for high-profile families. Everyone should be aware that sharing information can be detrimental to children’s safety and it’s particularly relevant for nannies, who often have a lot more freedom during the working day to use social media, and may use it to organise spontaneous nanny meet-ups or share photos of day out. But it also means increases the risk of child abduction or images being used inappropriately. Armed with information from social media sites an abductor could identify a child from photos, find out their name, age, places they go and maybe their likes and dislikes, and even pass themselves off as a trusted friend, convincing the child to come with them.

Some parents are happy for pictures and details of their children to be posted on social media sites. As long as the risks have been discussed and everyone has agreed boundaries of what is appropriate this is between the childcarer and the family. Photos and details should never be posted without express permission. If a family are happy for photos to be taken of a child but not happy for them to be shared then childcarers need to make sure any photos with their charges are safe. Agreements about social media should be written into a contract, or provided as a separate policy.

The safest thing to do is avoid putting photos, names and places on social media sites. Once the information has been shared there is nothing to stop someone with access to it sharing it with others.

Keeping children safe isn’t the only consideration. Childcarers with open profiles need to be careful what they say as potential clients and employers could trace comments back to them. Sharing photographs of nights out is also risky, and many nannies refuse to have their employers as friends on Facebook for this reason. A timeline full of tweets complaining about children’s behaviour, while possibly light-hearted, gives a bad impression of a childcarer’s ability and commitment. Employers and agencies can easily search the internet and if they find something which reflects badly on a childcarer it will probably colour their opinion, which may mean losing out on a job.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t use social media at all – we love it! But we are saying be safe, and follow these tips:

– Check your privacy settings

– Think twice before posting comments about your work

– Don’t post photos, names or places on social media sites without verifying the security of the site and gaining permission

Get Your Perfect Nanny Job – CV and Interview Techniques

How Should I Prepare My CV?

It’s important to give your CV some thought and spend some time on getting it right. A well presented CV which clearly details your skills and experience can make all the difference in getting the job you really want.

How Should I Structure My CV?

Your CV should be no more than 2 pages in length and include the following sections.

Personal Details
Employment History
Education and Qualifications
Key Skills/Strengths
Referees/References on Request

Format

Make sure your CV is well laid out so that it is immediately easy to read and understand.
Use a standard font size, which is easy to read, such as Arial 10.
Keep it simple.

What Should I Put In My CV?

Focus on information which is relevant to your own career goals.
Use concise, unambiguous sentences, avoid exaggerations and a flowery writing style.
Do not make false claims; honesty is always the best policy.
Bullet points are useful to highlight relevant skills and experience and help break up continuous text.
Stress your past accomplishments and the skills you used to get the results you achieved.
Put your highest level of education first.
Put your most recent job first and work backward chronologically in time.
Ensure all dates are accurate and include months as well as years.
If you are making a career change, stress what skills are transferable to support your new career objectives.
Explain any long career gaps (i.e. travelling, maternity leave etc.) these will only need to be explained to our clients.
Keep to the same tense.
Customise your CV for specific vacancies by focusing on previous experience or skills that are relevant to the role.
Most importantly, always thoroughly proof-read your CV or ask someone to do it for you.

Think about yourself

It is important before a job interview to think about all the reasons why you are attending it and what you have to offer. Be ready to discuss both short and long term career goals in general terms.

What If I Have A Gap?

You will need to explain gaps in employment. If you worked in a temporary capacity but didn’t put it on your CV, know the details of where you worked, what you did, and the length of the assignments. If you did not work but did search for a job give some examples of the research you did regarding job opportunities and the process you went through to find the position.

Reasons for leaving

Prepare to discuss the reasons you left your previous jobs. If it was for a better opportunity, explain why it was better. If you left involuntarily, present the reason in the most positive light you can. Make sure your responses are honest and be positive.

Some points to consider

You must try to consider how you can display your skills and experience in a good and honest light and provide employers with the evidence that you are the right person for the job. Here are some brief points to consider:

Are you a self-starter, able to work without constant supervision?
Can you be depended upon in critical situations and follow work through to completion?
Are you enthusiastic and easy to work with?
Can you work under pressure?
Recruiters need to know what drives you to want the job and why you want to work for them in particular.
Can you manage your time effectively?
How do you structure your day’s work?
How did you handle sudden unplanned work or a crisis?
Can you handle constructive criticism in a productive manner?
Are you objective in evaluating yourself and others?
Can you work well with a variety of people?

Points to consider throughout the interview

Aim for clarity and honesty. Give honest answers with a positive tone.
Concentrate on the employer’s needs, not yours.
Emphasise how you can help the interviewer achieve their goals.
Describe your past responsibilities and accomplishments.
Explain why you approached projects in certain ways.
Explain how the skills you bring will benefit the interviewer.
Don’t downplay your accomplishments or attribute them to luck.
Be specific in your answers. Avoid rambling or going off on a tangent.
Ask for clarification if you are unsure of the question.
Take responsibility for communicating your strengths. Don’t rely on the interviewer to pull it out of you.
Explain your past successes, the more you can clearly describe the experience, the people involved, the challenge and the solutions, the more you’ll stand out in the interviewer’s mind.

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Special Needs Nannying – Helpful Hints

During a full and rewarding career as a nanny, situations will inevitably arise that provide a real challenge to you, and as we all know, from day to day the job is always varied and can be very interesting!

One situation you may find yourself in is becoming a nanny for a child who has special needs or learning difficulties. This can be one of the most rewarding challenges you can face in your career, and making a difference to a child in this situation is something you’ll take with you, and ultimately give you job satisfaction.

Of course, each child is different in any situation, and special needs vary in severity, but here we have compiled some general helpful pointers:

Clarity from parents Before you start, you’ll need to know as much as possible about the child, his current care plan, what makes him tick and what his limitations and frustrations are. The parents should provide this information before you start, but you’d be amazed at how many parents let you find things out for yourself. Ask for a comprehensive written care plan from them, and if you feel it necessary ask for time to chat to them every so often about how the care is going.

Network If the needs of the child have already been picked up on and you are going into this role with knowledge that the child has special needs, It is very likely that you will be working alongside other professionals; speech, physio, and occupational therapists, teachers etc. It will make your life easier if you have contact with these professionals, so that you’re in the know about what care is already taking place, and they may be able to shed some light on anything particular to the child that will help your role.

Build up trust Again, managing this all depends on the severity of the child’s needs, but (as with all children you nanny for) building up trust is vital if you are going to make it a long term, happy arrangement. Many children with special needs will need more time than usual to get a trusting relationship built up, and their frustrations can show before this happens, however over time you’ll hopefully find that you strike up a really good bond between you both, which will lead to a really satisfying role for you in the child’s life.

Encourage capabilities One of the best ways of helping a child with special needs, is to make them feel capable. Getting a heads up from parents on capabilities and limitations is important, but as time goes on you will realise for yourself what these are. Providing developmentally appropriate activities that will help the child feel capable, whilst avoiding activities that can be done only a certain way is the best way to go about this.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to not get phased, and to remember what you’re there for! No doubt you’re already a fairly experienced nanny, meaning you know a bit about how to get the best out of a child in your care, and have a proven track record in doing this. Don’t lose sight of this role, and don’t be phased by this new situation. A good nanny will be aware of a child with special needs’ limitations, but also help them reach their full potential. First and foremost the child you are looking after is a child. It is secondary that they have additional needs.

Be sure to let us know if you have any experience or feedback on this issue, via our Facebook page..

What is a “Nanny Share”?

Imagine having your children cared for in the home while you work. You might argue that hiring a nanny is not something you can afford. Well, how about sharing your nanny with another family and paying her a part-time salary? A nanny share is an arrangement whereby a nanny is employed by more than one family to care for the children in each family. In this current economic climate where many couples are struggling with childcare costs, teaming up with another family and sharing a nanny may be the solution. It’s less of a burden on the family finances and at the same time, you have peace of mind knowing that your child is being cared for in a home environment by a professional.

Finding a family that fits
First, you will have to find a family interested in sharing a nanny. How can you be sure that you and the other family will be a good fit? You need to consider the following basic points: does the other family live close enough? Do you have similar child-rearing philosophies? You should explain your approach to discipline and your children’s dietary habits. Be as open and frank as possible. Discussing the care of your children can be the hardest thing in the world to do, but there is no use settling for something which may not work further down the line. It might be easier to share with a family you don’t know extremely well rather than a very good friend.

Both families and the nanny will have to tailor the arrangement to meet their needs. For example, will the nanny mind the children in your house or the other family’s or will she work half the week at your house and half the week with the other family? You should draw up a written contract to ensure that arrangements between all parties are agreed and understood. It should include hours of work, pay and duties and stipulate how holidays will be managed. It may not be feasible for both families and the nanny to take holidays at the same time. One family may have to make alternative arrangements if the shared nanny is on holiday at the same time as the other family. This needs to be written down in clear and precise terms.

Some advantages of a nanny share
There are several advantages for many families. Your children will have the best of both worlds: a one-to-one relationship with their carer but with other children for play and company. You have the flexibility of a nanny with lower costs. If the nanny is ill you will have additional backup – both families could share the childcare between them.

A little advice
It is very important that both families are flexible and tolerant, and you have to be ready to trust each other. Remember to always be punctual as it can mess up the arrangement for the other family. Do keep your nanny’s welfare in mind. She is the lynchpin of the arrangement. Provision will need to be made in the contract for the possibility of one family or the other opting out of the nanny share. It should be clear who has the responsibility for finding another family with whom to share should this arise. Lastly, it is a good idea for all parties to get together on a regular basis. It is not uncommon for niggles to arise over the fairness of the arrangement. The best way to resolve or diminish these problems is by planning to stay in regular contact and being open with one another. It may be worth meeting with the nanny and the other family on a fortnightly basis to ensure things are running smoothly and to iron out any difficulties.

Is it for me?
Increasingly we hear reports of childcare costs rising, often making it more difficult for both parents to continue working. A nanny share is a flexible childcare solution that appeals to people in a variety of situations. You may work full-time and wish to reduce your childcare bill; or you work part-time and only require childcare on specific days or at certain times; or you are on maternity leave and no longer need a full-time nanny. Whichever situation you find yourself in, it may be worth considering a nanny share for your childcare needs.

First day tips

Starting school is a nerve-wracking experience and that’s just for the parents. Here are some tips to help you make a success of that very first day.

Before:

Talk about school. Whether it’s looking back at your schooldays or reading books, chatting to older children or watching TV, take the chance to talk about school in a positive way so they’re familiar with the idea.

Walk or drive to the school. Children will feel better if they know where they’re. Most settling in sessions took place well before the summer holidays so the journey to school may seem unfamiliar territory, especially if it’s not right by a road you take often. If you do pass it regularly then point it out and get them excited about going in their uniform.

Remind your child if they already know children there. Whether it’s in their class or year, or in other years that they may see in the playground, children often feel better if they know they will have a friend with them, or at least a familiar face.

Prepare everything in advance. Minimise stress on that first morning by laying out uniform ahead, knowing the approximate timings of your routine, planning what to put in the lunchbox and packing bags to put beside the door.

During:

Stay calm, don’t cry. Children pick up on your emotions very easily and although it can be tempting to weep like the baby your child no longer seems to be they won’t understand why you’re upset. If they’re worried that going to school is what’s making you cry they won’t want to go and will spend their time wondering how you’re getting on!

Give them a kiss or a hug. And then give them another one or two to put into storage so they can draw on it later if they need to.

Don’t linger. If your child seems happy and settled then say goodbye and get going while the going is good.

Smile and be friendly to other parents. Leading by example means your child is more likely to make friends with the children in their class, and you might find yourself some new friends too.

Remind them where the toilets are. Small children can get nervous about being in unknown places because they don’t know where the toilets can be found and little worries can snowball into bigger ones. By removing this fear at the start you’ll help them feel more confident and at home.

After:

Come with a snack. Small children can be ferociously hungry by 3pm and a hungry child is often a tearful one. Bananas are a great non-messy and nutritious option. Bonus points for giving your child a banana box and some stickers to decorate it. Kids are easily pleased!

Be interested, don’t interrogate. Your child may not be very forthcoming about their first day and that’s okay. It’s a lot to take in and because Reception children are still in the Early Years Foundation Stage they really are expected to ‘just play’ all day.

Have a relaxed evening. School is tiring and the best thing you can do to help them get through the days, and weeks, to come is keep things low key. Go home, have an early tea, a calm bathtime and early bed.

Nannies and illness

Nannies are seldom sick. Even when poorly most will come in and take it easy for a day or so as long as you are understanding about it. If you don’t want your nanny turning up to work with a bad cold you need to make that clear at the start. Many nannies can’t actually afford the time off every time they have a sniffle, and your children have probably already been exposed to the germs.

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‘Help! I broke the teapot’ and other stories

CRASH! Silence…..Muffled swearing.

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Broken something, possibly something precious? Ruined a shirt or a pair of trousers? Melted a colander? Blocked the loo?

When you’re in someone’s house for 50 hours a week accidents are almost inevitable, even without counting the added risk of small children running around. Frankly it’s amazing that there are so few accidents. But what do you do when it happens to you?

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