What are your family's needs?

Finding the right nanny for your family can be a daunting experience, especially if it is your first time. Utilizing your resources, such as your nanny agency can be of great help. There are many fears, concerns and questions that you may have, that with a little preparation, can be resolved. The result is finding a nanny who fits into your family.

Finding a nanny that is the right match for your family is a priceless investment of both time and money. When you find the right person, they grow with your family; there are decreased levels of conflict and increased levels of positive communication. The result? Less disruption to your family life, modeling of quality relationships for your children, and lasting memories. Maintaining a nanny long-term will provide your children with a sense of safety and security that will allow them to grow up healthy and confident. This process begins before you even meet your first applicant!

Benefits
There are many benefits to identifying your family’s needs prior to approaching your nanny agency. Every family is unique and has its own unique needs. When you are not aware of your own family’s unique needs, you may end up hiring someone who doesn’t fit into your family, which may lead to a firing. A firing can cause distress for you and your children. It will result in a disruption to your family life as well as more time and money spent towards finding someone new.

First Things First: Your Family’s Identity
Who are you as a family? Questions to consider include: What are your values? What are your religious beliefs? What holidays do you celebrate? What holidays don’t you celebrate? Are you a bilingual family? What are your family rules? What is your schedule like? Are you laid back or do you run a tight ship? What are your hobbies? Do any of your children have special needs? Are you an active family? Or do you enjoy spending time indoors playing games or baking? Do you have pets? What are your pet peeves? Your answers to these questions will help you to find the right match. Make a list of your answers and think about what other characteristics are unique to your family. The answers to these questions will help you to develop your family’s needs list.

What are your family’s needs?
What are the ages of your children? Do you need a weekend or weekday nanny? Full-time or part-time? Live-in or live-out? Are you looking for someone who does “all-things-child”? Or do you need someone who can also help with housekeeping or errands? Someone who drives? Someone who cooks? Do you want someone who will read books to your children? The answers to these questions will help you to develop a job description.

The next step
Once you have your family’s needs list and your job description in hand, you will be very well prepared to discuss this information with your nanny agency, and your nanny agency will be much more equipped to help you to find the right match!