How to find a nanny
My son is one and a half years old. During this time, I recruited three nannies.
I met the first one in the playroom. Friends helped with the second. To find the third - the best - I spent two weeks selecting my resume, interviewing and organizing trial days. Now I know how to find a nanny who will suit the child and the whole family.
This article will come in handy if you want to find a nanny in London - and not negotiating with relatives, and are looking for a babysitter - and not with accommodation.
Costs
Babysitting is expensive. Prices vary by city, skill and experience.
It is more profitable for a nanny to work full-time in the same family. So she earns more, does not spend time moving between families and has a stable work schedule. If the nanny will work for you full-time - 40 hours or more - then you can agree to lower the price per hour. If you hire a nanny for half a working day or less, the price per hour can rise.
$ 13 I pay the nanny an hour if she works more than two hours
I pay the nanny $ 15 an hour if she works two hours, and $ 13 an hour if more.
How to know how much you can pay
When I found out how much a nanny cost in my city, I sat down at the table of income and expenses. On the one hand, I would be able to go to work and receive a salary, on the other, part of this salary would go to a nanny.
It is important to keep in mind that the child and nanny needs time to adapt. My advice is to budget for babysitting a week or two before you need to go to work.
When we hired a nanny, I didn’t work, so we could only afford ten hours a week. I used this time to find a part-time job. Then the nanny for the son cost $ 10 per hour. I found a job for 15 hours a week, paying $ 20 an hour. Therefore, we increased the nanny's employment to twenty hours a week.
Babysitting Expectations
As sson as you plan to find a babysitter in London, expectations are ideas about what kind of person you want to see with your child and what role he will play in the family. This will help determine the nanny's requirements and responsibilities.
A nanny can act as a caregiver, au pair, or play companion for the child. It is important to determine what your family needs. These expectations will not be formed by themselves, much less will they be fulfilled.
The next step is to submit a search ad, in which you need to describe in detail what you expect from the nanny. In ads, parents often write qualitative characteristics, for example: responsible, active, calm, kind, affectionate.
But all people understand such qualities in different ways. Someone thinks that the "calm" nanny does not show emotions, does not rejoice with the child and does not have fun. For some, this means that she will not panic in a stressful situation and will quickly find a solution to the problem. And a "good" nanny is a nanny who forbids nothing? Or who is attentive to the child's experiences? I recommend decoding the characteristics through actions in the declaration so that there are no ambiguous interpretations.
Nanny duties
The list of responsibilities is important for the nanny and the employer. Our first nanny didn’t put away toys and left dirty dishes. I was upset, but she was sure that it was simply not her responsibility.
A friend of mine worked as a family companion during their vacation abroad. When she asked about responsibilities, she received a very vague answer like "Spend time with children, do languages and sports with them." And two weeks later, it turned out that by “spending time with the kids,” the parents had in mind a strict schedule of daily activities, not a floating schedule. These are all unspoken expectations of parents. It will be easier for everyone if you initially specify what exactly the nanny should do in the family.
If you have determined that you need to hire a nanny in London , then it is worth describing her duties based on this role.
The list of responsibilities should be approached realistically. I use this rule: I don’t expect from the nanny what I don’t do myself. If I am alone with my son all day, then I do not have time for general cleaning, so I do not demand this from the nanny either.
A nanny may really want to get a job, so she will agree to any list of responsibilities. But there is a risk in this: she will get tired and not pay enough attention to the baby or quickly burn out emotionally.
It is important for me that the nanny has the strength and desire to smile at the baby, fool around with him and play hide and seek. To check that the nanny can handle the load, it is important to discuss everything at the beginning of her work: how the day went, what difficulties were, how tired she was. This will help you adjust responsibilities and build trust.