Frequently Asked Questions
This page contains answers to common questions
handled by our support staff, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful
and presented here as questions.
- What is a Nanny and what do they do?
- Do I need a nanny, baby-sitter, mother's helper,
or something else?
- What do you consider to be part-time, full-time,
temporary or long-term?
- Who should consider a live-in nanny?
- Will my care-giver clean my house, do my laundry
or run errands for me?
- I'm returning to work and will be working from
home, what kinds of things should I be careful of?
1. What is a Nanny and what do they do?
A Nanny differs from a 'baby-sitter' in that they are experienced,
trained and/or educated in Child Development. Their focus will be on the child's
development and education. Whereas a 'baby-sitter' would be focused on the child's
well-being and safety but would not be working on educating the child.
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2. Do I need a nanny, baby-sitter,
mother's helper, or something else?
Some common definitions follow:
Nanny: usually aged 21 and up. Has at least 2-3 years of
experience. Has a background, knowledge or
education in child development or early
childhood education.
Mother's Helper: usually a younger person with less experience that
works side-by-side with the parent or another care-giver. May be occasionally left alone
with children for short time periods.
Sitter: someone with 1-2 years of experience that is capable of
caring for the children, but won't have any child development or early childhood education
training.
Summer Nanny: often a college student, teacher or someone that
nannies for a teacher/professor. Generally works full-time Monday-Friday from the end of
May until about the middle of August.
Afterschool Sitter: often a college student that takes classes in
the morning. Picks up kids from school, prepares a snack, and helps kids with homework.
May be asked to provide some light housekeeping duties as well.
House Manager: a nanny that has the organizational skills to manage
the full household. Will organize, schedule appointments, make travel/trip plans, run
errands and generally see to the smooth running of the household.
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3. What do you consider to be
part-time, full-time, temporary or long-term?
The terms part-time and full-time refer to the number of hours per
week that the care-giver works. With anything less than 40 hours per week being
part-time and anything over 40 hours in a week being considered full-time.
Temporary is generally a job that has a set ending date that is
something less than one year. Anything without a set ending date, or lasting longer
than one year is considered long-term.
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4. Who should consider a live-in
nanny?
Often families make the mistake of thinking of a live-in nanny as
being a person that is available at
their beck and call 24 hours per day, seven days per
week. That would not normally be the case.
Whether the nanny is live-in or live-out, they are available to the
family for whatever schedule the two of you agree on. If you need the nanny
available to you 24 hours per day then you need to be willing to pay for that
availability. And you should strongly consider a live-in.
When you consider your nanny's schedule and availability you should
realize that it is their job, and no one wants to work all the time.
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5. Will my care-giver clean my
house, do my laundry or run errands for me?
No matter what you and your care-giver agree on for job duties,
please remember that the care of the children will come first.
A 'normal' part of any care-giver's job description is to care for
the children and maintain the household in the same condition as it was when they got
there. They can also keep the children's room picked up and do the children's laundry.
You can decided on extra job duties on a case by case basis. If you
do have your care-giver doing other household duties, you need to pay extra for that work.
The possible job duties would include: dusting, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, mopping
floors, parent's laundry and running errands (dry cleaning, grocery story, etc).
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6. I'm returning to work and will be
working from home, what kinds of things should I be careful of?
Parent's in this situation have the best of both worlds, but they
need to work hard at making this arrangement work.
This type of arrangement is much harder on the care-giver than when
the parent leaves the home.
If you want your care-giver to stay with you, you'll need to take
steps to make sure that she can do her
job. She is being paid to be responsible for your
children, and you don't want to undermine her position or her authority.
Your children should know that your care-giver is in charge and that
her decisions are final. If you have an issue with how she is handling the children, make
sure that you discuss that out of earshot of your children.
Keep in mind that crying is a form of communication. And that
for babies, that is their only form of communication. If you 'just can't stand to hear
your baby cry,' you should consider not working from home. If you run into the room every
time a child cry's they will very quickly learn that crying brings mommy/daddy. And you
will have an unworkable situation on your hands. Additionally, if you
have a toddler going through 'separation anxiety', you'll want to remain in
another part of the house as much as possible--every time you pass through
your child's line of vision, (s)he will experience the stress of separation,
which will quickly wear on both you and your childcare provider.
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