First Time Hiring a Nanny!

Hi - A friend of mine got their nanny from a referral agency. They do all the background checks for you and their nanny has been with them for 5 years now and they love her. This agency is in the bay area and would just refer you to a nanny. If you decide to hire one from their referral they would get a one time fee. Hopefully this will help. :)

http://www.in-housestaffing.com/

Hi J.,
I think you will know when you've found the right nanny. We found ours through a referral from our cleaning lady, who had been with us for 5 years. Our nanny had raised her own 7 children herself, so I asked what her children do now - 2 of them are ministers, 1 doctor, 2 at-home moms, 1 nurse, 1 teacher. All of them went to college (and she raised them in Mexico, poverty stricken). So that told me something about her resourcefulness and her ability to enrich a child's life. Next I asked to speak with people who had known her for a while - spoke with 4 or 5 people including the pastor at her church, people she had worked for before. I did not bother with a credit check or criminal check because she had only been in the US for a year at that point. Then, the most important thing, I took a week off from work during her first week with us and watched her interact with my baby. The second week, my husband and I dropped in on her at least once a day unannounced, and continued with that less and less often as we became comfortable with her. We were heartbroken when we moved 3 hours away, but we still exchange Christmas cards and see her when we are in the Bay Area.

We are on nanny #2 in our new town, and we found her the same way - through my mom's cleaning lady. This nanny had a lot of nanny experience so I spoke with her former employers, all of whom gave her glowing references.

Both nannies of ours have had infant/child CPR and first aid from the Red Cross. (If they are not already certified, pay for the class for them.)

If you are unable to drop in unannounced on your nanny, you should get a nanny cam. Your home alarm company can set it up for you and give you some peace of mind to be able to "drop in" whenever you like. Make it clear to your nanny that you will be dropping in to observe, and/or you have nanny cam - I do not know of any nanny who would be offended by this. Also you will need to make clear how you would like things to run around your house. For instance, our first nanny would gladly sit there for an hour rocking our daughter to sleep and would seriously even hold her while she slept! That didn't really work for me because I did not have time to do that at night or on weekends. So I had to walk her through how I wanted my daughter put down for her naps (awake). I don't think she agreed with me, but she did what I asked cheerfully.

Good luck with your nanny search. I hope your nanny is as wonderful an addition to your family as ours have been to us!

J.,
I was a nanny for many years, and I currently have a nanny for my 20 month old daughter. She has been with us since my daughter was 3 months old and I went back to work(not a nanny job). You don't mention checking references, although I bet you have done this...I think this is the most important part in researching a nanny. If you hear anything but glowing reports, keep seaching for the right person!
When our nanny began working we had a plan to do a monthly check-in, but we found it was not necessary as we were able to talk each evening before she left. Make sure you are very thorough about how you run the day with your child and how you would like her to run it, leave specific instructions for feeding, naptime, etc. in the beginning. Also I found it helpful to create her work schedule so that we would have overlap on both ends of the day in order to go over specifics before I left for work and to be able to hear about what happened in the day when I got home. Being a former nanny, I would have appreciated that instead of having to go over the day and answer lots of questions when I should have been already on my way home, and this eliminated the need for a formal check-in in our case. Also, be clear about what you expect her to do at your house in the way of cleaning up, etc. In my opinion, a nanny is a nanny who is there to enrich your child's life, they are not a maid! I ask my nanny to do dishes from her own meals and wash things she has used to feed my daughter only if she has time. I tell her she can use the computer and watch TV freely during nap times only (we do not have the TV on if my daughter is around, but that is just us). As you know, spending an entire day on your own with a child is hard work, and I wanted our nanny to feel free to relax during nap times. Don't be stingy with your nanny, both with money and kindness. While a good nanny should never let anything negative with the parents affect their relationship with the child, if you have a happy and friendly relationship I think this will only enrich the relationship that your nanny has with your child. As often as possible we invite our nanny to stay for dinner, go to the zoo with us on weekends, etc.
And mostly, build a relationship of OPEN communication...if anything seems off, ask about it right away, do not second guess or leave things unsaid, and encourage your nanny to do the same.
I know it is a very daunting thing to hire a nanny and leave your baby in their care, but a nanny can be a wonderful extension of your parenting and can become a beloved member of your family. Seeing how excited our daughter becomes when our nanny arrives or when we talk about her when she is not there is so wonderful!
Good luck!

Hi J.,

I don't know if you have found someone yet, but I am a stay at home mom to an eight month old and am looking to take care of one or two children. I was a nanny previously and babysat since I was a teenager I would love to provide you with references and so if you are interested. I live on the border of Campbell.

Do NOT use A Nanny Connection! The nanny we hired had false education on her resume, faked her abilities and did not contact us when our daughter had a 2-hour tantrum. We did not even find out about the tantrum until after we fired her. We argued to the Nanny Connection to refund our finder fee (as stated in the contract) and the owners husband is a lawyer. She used several legal tactics to accuse us of "harassment," and would not return the fee as promised in the contract. We later found out our daughter had a form of autism, which the nanny should have recognized when her resume stated "experienced in challenging and special needs children." Later we hired a better nanny, experienced and referred by friends. This nanny (who had prior experience at childrens hospital and a church daycare) thought our daughter had an illness and recommended an evaluation.