Setting Expectations

What do you REALLY need?

One of the most common complaints we hear from references we speak with is that they often wished after the fact that they had laid more initial, concrete groundwork in regards to expectations for a nanny. Many times, these were parents who had not worked with an agency and after taking on the task of hiring a nanny entirely on their own, they didn’t have much guidance about how to proceed further. Sometimes, an exhaustive search had just left them “out of gas” with the process and it was too difficult to backtrack after the fact. In either event, they may have been left with issues that arose because they weren’t specific enough at the start. Our job will be to guide you to make reasonable requests of your nanny while also meeting the demands of having a busy family.

Create a Plan

One of the major benefits to working with a highly qualified agency is that we’re going to help you develop an effective hiring plan and really get to the heart of what it is you’re looking for. The most critical thing that you can do prior to interviewing final candidates is to work with us to generate a concise, realistic set of expectations about what your family really needs. This produces a road map, not only for our placement coordinators, but also forces a critical look into what your anticipations really are.

The Nitty Gritty

The first job of a professional nanny is to take excellent and constant care of their charges. There is tremendous gray area in what additional household tasks are reasonable. Perhaps one of our nannies loves to cook and bake, and another is especially adept at helping with household organization. Our job is to make sure that we find out what our candidates may like to do domestically beforehand and connect their strengths with your requirements. Likewise, while beginning to work with you, we’ll cover a wide area of questions that encompass information like: Do you frequently work late and need flexibility? Do you need a nanny who can travel with you occasionally? Do you have a child with ongoing behavioral or physical needs? Do you want a nanny to also engage in specific household chores or focus entirely on the children? Are they expected to make meals? Do laundry? Will daily chores include taking care of a pet? Do you need them to also be able to help with homework, projects, and carpools?

Who is YOUR Mary Poppins?

Perhaps harder than coming up with a list of necessities and requests, is defining who your “perfect nanny” looks like based on gut instinct. While Mary Poppins was obviously a fictional character, chances are you’re coming into the process with some concrete ideas about what you’d especially like. Outside of suiting your needs on a day to day basis, there is some subjective area that just has to “feel right” with the nanny-parent and nanny-child relationship. We’ll work with you to define what that is for you, match it with one of our candidates and close that gap between reality and fiction.