When the time came for me to start loooking for a full-tim job, I started more seriously researching my options in terms of child care. My son was about 8 months old and my daughter was almost 4. Although she went to preschool three times a week, I still needed to find care for her after preschool and for the days she didn't go there.
I visited several __day care option__s in our area and besides their price, I wasn't happy with any of them. They were all clean, safe and looked like a load of fun, but I just couldn't envision leaving my kids there–especially my baby boy. So I decided to find a nanny instead and I totally lucked out! I found a wonderful woman who loved my children as if she was their grandmother!
She didn't have a master's degree, didn't speak Mandarin and didn't cook four-course meals, unlike many of the highly desirable and extremely well-paid (think $200,000 a month) nannies of the extremely wealthy. And I didn't care–not that I could've ever paid that kind of salary anyway!–because what she did have was a wealth of genuine love for my children.
This, in turn, allowed me to go to work not feeling way too horrible and guilty about leaving my children behind. I always knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that not only were they well-taken care of, but they were also being loved. Oh, and as an added bonus, our nanny also helped ensure that my bilingual children continued to be exposed to Spanish only at the house because while she didn't speak Mandarin, Spanish was her first language, which is much more important to me anyway!
My heart was broken when she announced she was leaving. After years of living in the United States, her family had decided it was time to go back to Mexico. She wanted to be closer to her own mother and the rest of her family. While I understood this wholeheartedly, I was devastated. How would I ever find someone to take her place?
And then, I lucked out again. She ended up recommending the daughter-in-law of one of her cousins and I hired her soon after our first interview. While our new nanny had very little prior experience with children, I knew she'd be great with them after our first conversation. I never imagined my kids would get so used to her after our first nanny left, but it's been over a year since then and my kids absolutely adore our nanny and she adores them right back. And that's all that maters. Oh, and did I mention she speaks Spanish as her first language too?
Do you have a nanny? What do you look for in a nanny?
Image via Ali Gold/flickr
