21 Jun What Are A Nanny’s Responsibilities? Here Are The Tasks Your Nanny Will Seamlessly Handle!
Whether you’ve had experience hiring nannies before, or you’re about to hire your first nanny, it’s important to know precisely what their responsibilities in the household are going to be.
Of course, this partly depends on the age of the children they’ve been hired to care for. If you’re bringing a nanny on board to help with a newborn baby, for example, they will do everything from changing diapers to regular feedings, and much, much more. In this article, we offer a roundup of the priorities nannies undertake when they join a new home and family.
1. Meal prepping, getting the children dressed, and getting them out the door!
In other words, helping children with all the daily preparations for their day is your nanny’s job. That can include getting the children out of bed, making breakfast and ensuring a healthy lunch is ready to go, as well as taking them to school. Whatever eases the time constraints on parents in the morning is usually handled by the nanny, and of course they are there to pick children up from school and take them home for a nutritious snack before dinner.
2. Baths and bedtime routines.
Toddlers and other young children enjoy (and need!) a regular bedtime routine, and your nanny can help establish one and see to it that the children stick to it. For example, they ensure everyone has brushed and flossed their teeth, had their bath and are in bed on time. Your nanny will also read to them from their favorite book (or encourage them to read), if mom and dad aren’t home in time to tuck in the children and say goodnight.
3. Nannies help with potty training.
This can be a stressful and lengthy process, depending on how easily and readily your child adapts to it. Your nanny supports your child through the process and uses positive reinforcements to make the potty training routine easy for everyone. A famous saying familiar to all nannies goes like this: “No one makes it to adulthood without being potty trained!” Your nanny brings expertise and experience to this task, so your child is in good, caring hands, and you can relax.
4. Homework and tutoring.
If you’re hiring a nanny who speaks a second language, you can agree (and put in their employment agreement) that tutoring your child in Italian, for example, is part of their duties. And of course your nanny will sit down and help the children through all their nightly homework tasks. Virtually all schoolwork that needs adult oversight is your nanny’s responsibility.
5. Playdates & fun excursions.
If your child has friends from school or in the neighborhood but is too young to arrange get-togethers, your nanny will gladly make all the arrangements. And taking your child to the zoo or local planetarium, what we think of as “learning excursions,” is also an outing your nanny will be happy to organize.
6. Children’s laundry and other light housekeeping duties.
These tasks should be agreed upon before your nanny’s first day of work, so they know precisely what is expected of them. Their first priority is childcare, but it is reasonable (and expected) that other duties come along with their new job.
7. Taking the children to and from sports and other practices.
If you’ve given your nanny access to one of your vehicles, they will ferry the children back and forth from games, recitals, music lessons, and any other extracurricular activities on the weekly schedule.
8. Arts & Crafts and other hobbies.
If you are keen to have your children exposed to as many cultural pursuits as possible, at Elite Nannies we can arrange that the candidates you meet for a nanny position have expertise in these areas. For example, perhaps your child has an obvious interest in, and talent for, painting; we can connect you with nannies with art backgrounds who bring that knowledge to their jobs. This is true for virtually any pursuit you hope to see your child engage in, not just artistic endeavors, including horseback riding, tennis or playing the piano.
This is a comprehensive list of the many duties your new nanny expects to undertake when they begin their new position, but it is by no means a complete one. When you are first interviewing potential candidates, be sure to have a list handy of all the tasks and chores you hope the nanny will perform, in addition to childcare duties. Professional nannies bring many skills and a great deal of education to their work, and they are ready, willing and eager to help you and your family’s lives run smoothly and easily. The scope of their work is not solely limited to childcare, as they are able to do so much more. The right nanny helps your family thrive, and lessens the load on parents by readily accepting whatever responsibilities you need them to take on.
At Elite Nannies, we have the right nanny for every family! No matter how old your children are, we have just the right nanny ready to step in and help, so that when you aren’t home, (and even when you are) you know your children are in loving, caring hands.