Many a time, we find ourselves with a dire need for someone that we can leave our young kids with. Whether the situation is warranted by you working away from home or just because an emergency occurred, your kids will need someone to look after them when you are away.
Depending on your needs and budget, you can hire an individual for a day, hour, week, or month. The bottom line is that you will have to engage someone if you are to be away from your treasured people for some time. This gives rise to the need for a childcare expert, who is like your second pair of eyes when you’re not with your children.
In most cases, people prefer looking for a nanny if they do not have other grownup children who can look after their siblings. The nanny can be hired for a set of hours for one day until you are back from your errands. The nanny can also be engaged for a set of days per week, over the weekend, or for a month.
Who is a Nanny?
The term nanny refers to an individual whom a family can engage to look after their children in their home setup. The nanny is usually a woman and, in most cases, they live with the family that employs them. However, depending on the family’s needs, the individual can work for a certain period of time as may be agreed between them and the employer.
Different Nanny Types
Depending on a family’s particular needs, they can hire a nanny from any of the three main categories. The categories are as explained below with their respective features:
- Full-Time Nanny
A full-time nanny works for the employer full time, just as the name suggests. This type of a nanny is usually a live-in one and stays with the employer’s family throughout the contracts period. Usually, the employer is required to provide them with a separate sleeping and living place, meals, and if possible, with a separate bathroom too.
A full-time nanny works any time of the day and night as duties become available. In short, this nanny is a full-time employee and provides care to the employer’s children for a period of 24 hours for a number of days per week. The number of days is to be agreed upon between the two parties prior to the commencement of the employment.
- Part-Time Nanny
The second nanny category is a part-time one and can be living with the employer’s family or on their own outside that home. The nanny works for a set of hours each day for an agreed number of days in a week. They can come over for five hours during the day or eight hours during the night per need.
Depending on the agreements, the nanny can be reporting to her place of work in the morning and leaving in the evening. While you are away, they assume the roles of a full-time nanny only that they end when you get back home. The employer, in this case, does not need to provide the nanny with living and sleeping space.
- Night Nanny
A nighttime nanny is like a part-time nanny only that they work over the night. They usually report to the employer’s home in the evening and leave in the morning.
Normally, a nighttime nanny is employed to help parents with newborn babies. They are usually tasked with assisting the parents and their new-borns with better sleeping patterns and schedules.
Duties and Responsibilities of A Nanny
Nannies’ duties are versatile and depend on the employing family’s needs. They also depend on the agreements entered into prior to the nanny starting their employment. It is important that the employer and employee, in this case, agree on every task, terms, as well as the eventualities that may lead to a change of the agreed terms.
Overall, the duties of nannies are common across most regions. The main ones include:
- All nursery duties.
A nanny is mostly employed to seal the loophole that might be created when a parent is away from their kids. To avoid expanding the void and losing touch with the child, parents may agree on hiring a nanny who will perform all the nursery duties that the parents perform while they are at home.
These duties include:
- Preparing a meal schedule for every child and depending on their ages. Since a young kid’s body is still delicate, they need to have proper eating schedules. They will also need to eat good and healthy food, and a professional nanny would be a good source of help here.
- The nanny can also feed the kids if they cannot do it themselves while also teaching them how to.
- If the kids cannot dress and undress themselves yet, a nanny would also come in and perform the duties for you. In addition, the nanny can also help with bathing them.
- The other nursery duty that a nanny can undertake is taking the kids to bed and also waking them up for breakfast or school.
- Keeping the Kids Active and Lively
A nanny can also help with keeping the children active and lively in order to promote their well-being and physical health. In such a case, the nanny can plan for and take them out for play dates, engage them with physical as well as mind games, and ensure they have a working games schedule.
Also, the nanny can take your children to such places as the zoo, museums, and other recreational activities. With such engagements, the nanny can help you identify any special needs from your kids and help with meeting them. They can also help to solve any underlying issue as they spend more time with the kids.
- Teaching, instiling and Nurturing Etiquette to the Children
As the closest person spending most of the time with a child, the nanny is like a second mom. In that case, they will be expected to teach the kids the basic etiquette and manners to observe when they are with their agemates or grownups. It is also the role of the nanny to nurture the good traits they instil in the kids.
- Light Housekeeping Chores
A nanny’s duties are mainly providing childcare. However, they may also offer their services for such other duties as light housekeeping duties. These are, however, duties that must be agreed upon before the employment starts.
The chores may include:
- Doing laundry for children or supervising them do it.
- Ensuring the children’s rooms are organised or organising them for the kids, and making their beds.
- Going to collect groceries, small shopping sprees, and running other light errands as they may agree with the employer.
- Emptying garbage bins.
- Collecting emails from the mailbox.
- Loading as well as unloading the laundry machine and dishwasher.
- Tidying up the kids’ play areas and putting their play items away.
- Accompanying kids to see their doctors, collect medication, or for a dentist’s appointment.
- Teaching kids additional languages.
- Teaching children extra-curricular activities like swimming, playing musical instruments like the guitar, and other indoor and outdoor games.
- Planning and taking the children for music, dance, and language lessons.
- Reading to and with the kids.
- Maintaining logs for kids and parents.
- Taking kids for educational trips and excursions.
- Administering drugs to the kids with the help and consent of the parents and when necessary.
- Potty training the kids.
- Creating a safe, engaging, as well as a stimulating environment that the children can grow in.
- Seeing children off to school and picking them up in the evening.
- Promoting the general social as well as education well-being and development of the kids.
- Using their skills to identify, nurture, and promote the children’s talents while they are still young.
Conclusion
When you hire a nanny, you are engaging with someone who can make or destroy what you treasure most. It is, therefore, important that you choose right and agree with your selected candidate on their duties. A basic rule to have in mind is that a nanny does not take or perform general household duties. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the employer to ensure that the nanny works hand in hand with, for instance, a baby sitter or house manager. However, the employer and the nanny can agree on any other extra duty for the nanny and whether they will factor it into the salary before the nanny can begin working for them.
