Nanny references

Writing a nanny a reference can be tough. It usually means your childcarer is moving on and whether it’s your choice or theirs it’s often an emotional time. A glowing reference will help your nanny find a wonderful new job and show them how much you appreciate the job they’ve done for you.

Writing a nanny a reference can be tough. It usually means your child carer is moving on and whether it’s your choice or theirs it’s often an emotional time. A glowing reference will help your nanny find a wonderful new job and show them how much you appreciate the job they’ve done for you.

A good reference is about a page of A4 long. It often takes the form of a letter and includes your contact details so prospective employers can contact you. It should be written in the first person and split into easily readable paragraphs, each with a theme, for example your nanny’s day to day duties, their attitude to work, any particular skills they have and times they’ve gone above and beyond. You might find it helpful to refer to previous annual performance reviews when you sit down to write.

Give plenty of detail about your nanny’s current job and how that has evolved over time. If your nanny started when your child was a baby and they’re now at school you have 4+ years of very varied duties to cover!  Don’t assume that a new-to-the-nannying-world prospective employer will know what ‘usual nursery duties’ or ‘daily care’ involves. Expanding on these shows what your expectations of your nanny were on a day to day basis, and of course you should comment on how well these expectations were met.

Providing specific examples will also help a prospective employer build up a complete picture of your nanny. Perhaps your nanny helped your child overcome shyness or transformed a fussy eater? By giving details of how they accomplished that you can demonstrate their approach to the children in  their care as well as showcasing a positive impact they’ve had on your family.

Think about the kind of skills or attributes you really appreciate in your nanny. If your nanny is very organised or an excellent time-keeper then mention that in their reference. If the children are always  laughing when you come home in the evening or they always have something they created that day to show you then share that with prospective employers.  Bear in mind when writing a reference that  your nanny may not always work as a nanny, or even in childcare, so highlight two or three highly transferrable skills.

A trickier task is writing a reference for a nanny who has been less than satisfactory. In this case a brief reference confirming length of employment and duties with an invitation for prospective employers to contact you will be more than sufficient.

Expect to be contacted whether you give a positive or neutral reference. Prospective employers will want to both check the veracity of your reference and ask detailed questions of their own. Be factual and honest – if they ask whether you ever needed to use a disciplinary procedure and you did then you should answer the question fully and truthfully. If that was the cause for terminating the nanny’s employment you are allowed to share that. If it was resolved satisfactorily use it as an example of how your nanny took your feedback on board and improved their performance.

Writing a reference is one of the kindest and most lasting things you can do for an excellent nanny and it will serve them all through their career, so it’s worth taking the time to do the task fully and well.

Nanny review

Although a performance review can also be helpful at any time if there are problems with your nanny carrying out their duties they should not be neglected if everything is going well. A performance review is a chance to praise your nanny and let them know what a good job they’re doing.

It’s a good idea once a year to sit down for a more formal meeting with your nanny to review their performance, your children’s development and plan the year ahead. You may like to do this on the anniversary of them starting work with you, at the start or end of the school year or the start of the calendar year. We’ve put together some questions you might like to consider or ask your nanny to think about before the meeting so you can sit down prepared.

Although a performance review can also be helpful at any time if there are problems with your nanny carrying out their duties they should not be neglected if everything is going well. A performance review is a chance to praise your nanny and let them know what a good job they’re doing.

Many nannies expect a pay rise, or at least a pay review, at their annual review. If you don’t want to discuss finances then let them know in advance that the meeting is solely about their performance and you’ll set aside another time to discuss pay.

Schedule the review for a time when there are no children around. Children can be a distraction and it’s especially important that you are able to be honest with your nanny if either of you have concerns about the children or if you have something negative to say.

We hope you find these questions helpful in facilitating communication with your nanny about their performance and your needs!

The year just gone:

Is the nanny able to do everything on their job description? Is there anything they are doing which is not in their job description? Does the job description need to be modified?

How has your nanny coped with the workload? How do they feel they have coped?

What have been your nanny’s strong points this year? What are areas for improvement?

Have there been any problems? How were they resolved?

Are the any developmental concerns about the children?

The year ahead:

Are there any foreseeable changes to duties?

Are there any activities it would be good to introduce? How can the children’s development be stimulated?

Do any strategies for behaviour management need to be recapped or reviewed?

Are there any areas where your nanny would like to refresh or update their knowledge?

What are the goals for the year ahead? (These may be for the children, the nanny or you e.g. potty training, ensuring all laundry is up to date on a Friday night, ensuring the kitchen is tidy on a Monday morning)

Is your nanny’s salary competitive and a fair reflection of the job’s demands?

Premature babies and childcare

A baby born before the 37th week of pregnancy is considered premature. Premature babies born at 35 or 36 weeks may be perfectly healthy but slightly smaller than expect but before that they may have not had time to fully develop in the womb and need to continue developing outside. The lungs are the last organ to develop, which is why mothers at risk of preterm labour are often given steroid injections, so a premature baby may need help breathing in the first weeks and their lungs remain fragile for some time.

A premature baby who had breathing difficulties may be at increased risk of catching certain infections, such as RSV which is common in children under 5. Your doctor is the best person to advise you on the risks to your child but there is a higher chance of catching an illness in a group setting, so a care provider who comes to your home such as a nanny or who cares for a small group of children such as a childminder might be safer in the first years of life. It’s important that care providers are made aware of prematurity as they should take corrected age, rather than actual age, into account when assessing development and may need to be especially careful about hygiene. Some childminders, for example, will accept children with minor illnesses but you may be uncomfortable with that if you child is prone to infections so you will need to come to an agreement.

A good childcare provider will use their knowledge of healthy, term infant and child development to monitor progress bearing the adjusted age in mind. Most childcare courses cover child development in detail and, as premature babies may show some developmental delay, it’s important to bear the need to identify key milestones in mind when choosing a childcare provider, particularly a nanny where no minimum qualification is needed. One thing that can be difficult as a parent of a premature child is the temptation to make comparisons with other children. This is particularly obvious in a nursery setting where many children of the same age are grouped together but it’s important to remember that each child develops individually right from conception and a corrected age rather than actual age is more important up to the age of two.

It can be very difficult to take the decision to leave a child who was premature in childcare. Parents who are used to taking extra care with their baby may find it harder than usual to leave them with someone else, even when it is a professional child carer. You may need a longer settling in or handover period to adjust both baby and parent to the new circumstances.

Although prematurity can have lasting effects many babies are perfectly healthy and show only a slight delay so although it’s important to bear the circumstances surrounding their birth in mind, particularly when assessing development, most need no more care than a baby of their corrected age when entering childcare

Midwives – The Lowdown

Midwives – The Lowdown, NHS or Independent what are the pro’s and con’s?

Midwives are trained pregnancy and childbirth care professionals, available in the UK through the NHS or independently.

In the UK, midwifery-led care has become the norm, and midwives are generally responsible for the care of all low-risk patients – and some of them care for high-risk patients, too.  This has freed up a lot of time for obstetric consultants, who are now reserved for specialist pregnancy and labour care.

But how do you know what kind of midwife to choose? With independent midwifery clinics springing up across the UK, it can be a difficult choice to make.  In this article, we will attempt to make this choice a little easier for you.

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Nanny Skills: What Do You Need

As a nanny, you are responsible for the safety and well-being of the children in your care. As a result, it is important that your skills and training are up to scratch. You are likely to be responsible for the children in your care for many hours each week, making it even more important that your skill level is up to scratch.

There is no minimum level of education required to become a nanny – and, in fact, the best nannies are often those with years of experience but no formal childcare qualifications whatsoever.

However, it is a competitive world for childcare providers. The family that hire you want to know that you can do your job, and do it well. More importantly than anything else, they need to know their children are safe with you.

As the 2022 approaches, why not look into gaining some new skills as a nanny, or developing the ones you already have? Here are some ideas to consider.

Paediatric First Aid
This is arguably a qualification that every nanny should have under her belt. You may think you know the basics – and indeed, any first aid is better than no first aid at all – but techniques vary greatly between age groups. Recommended techniques  can change over time, so if it’s been a while since you attended a paediatric first aid course, now’s the time to do it. A basic course will equip you with the knowledge you need to help a choking child, deal with burns and bleeding, and how to administer
CPR. A more advanced course will likely cost more, but the knowledge you gain will be invaluable – and it will really help parents relax, knowing that their child’s caregiver is fully versed in all things safety.

A Driving Licence
If you can’t drive, now is the time to learn. A nanny with a driving licence will almost certainly be picked over a nanny on foot. As a nanny, you will often be responsible for school runs and ferrying children around to various extra curricular activities also. In big cities, public transport is usually very good so a nanny could theoretically get by without a car – but most parents would far prefer it if their nanny
has their own set of wheels (or is at least able to drive the family car).

Child Psychology
Many people (usually those without children) believe that looking after children is easy. This is not the case, as you probably already know. Children are complex creatures, just like adults, and by undertaking a foundation level course in child psychology you will have a far better understanding of the children in your care.
Understanding the motivations between children’s behaviours – especially the undesirable ones – is the key to being an empathetic and effective carer and educator.

Academic Skills
Depending on the ages of the children in your care, you will likely be called on to help with homework at some stage. If you feel your own skills could do with brushing up, don’t hesitate to do so! Look into adult learning evening courses at your local community centre to get your mathematics and literary skills up to scratch.

We are able to offer you some great courses with a training company at a discounted rate for our Nannies, follow this link for the ones they are offering to Nannyjob

Training for Nannies – Nannyjob

Explaining Terrorism to Children

As parents and caregivers, it can be extremely difficult to answer questions from children about terrorism. It’s a heart-breaking subject that you might wish you could push away or not discuss, but it’s quickly becoming a necessity due to the world that we live in.

The act of terrorism and the horror it brings is hard for even most adults to come to terms with and understand, which is why, following the terrible events occurring all over the world, we’ve put together some advice to help explain terrorism to your children.

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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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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.

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.

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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?

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