My name is anita, a mum of 2 under 7 boys. you can call me the boys mama…… lol
As a career mum whose role at the multinational company where I work is critical and takes a lot of my time,it would be a lie to say I share a 50-50 approach to my home front and work front ( I will say 55-45…… not bad ) . Before I go on and on about my mummy guilt let me tell you about how I met my nanny.
I met my nanny through a junior colleague at work, As soon as I got promoted at work( been praying for one ) I knew with the promotion comes more responsibility and this would affect my home-front in a way, so I had to be pro-active and make sure my kid ( I had just 1 baby at the time ) doesn’t suffer for my success. Myself and hubby concluded that we get a part time nanny to take care of the kids till I get back, I also have a wonderful mum and sister who bump in once in a while to assist when I’m running late. My colleague told me about her neighbor who she knows to be very good with kids and also has 8 of her own. With that, I knew the experience is there and she should be able to take care of my baby. I interviewed her and she passed all of my questions. So, I told her to start and here we are 5 years later…..
so this is what I have learnt and how we have been able to hold our relationship for this long :-
- Mistakes happen, even you are not void of mistakes. If it is something you can manage then talk to her about it, but if you feel you can’t cope with her mistakes then you can let her go.
- You can’t have a perfect nanny, there will always be some characters that you wouldn’t like but your ability to overlook this things as long as it’s not affecting her job in any way would make you go far with her.
- I have learnt to respect her job because any job you do that gives you an income and also dignifies you can be classified as a career. Don’t treat your nanny like a slave, many nannies have been able to train their kids through this job so they should not be looked down on.
- Its’s okay to be annoyed when she does something wrong, but if it is something that can be corrected, why not get angry, relax after and try to salvage the situation.
- No matter how ill-tempered you are, don’t shout at your nanny. you wouldn’t like it when someone shouts at you would you? and if you want to reprimand her , don’t do it in front of your kids.
- Get to know your nanny, be approachable . I am not saying you should get to know her so that you guys can be best of friends, No. I am saying get to know her because their guard is always down at that time of gisting and you can detect a lie from there……
- As long as the kids are healthy, they are not complaining, they don’t cry or act scared when they see her and your house is in place then I guess you are on track.
- Understand that things can’t be done as perfect as you want them to be and if you are a perfectionist or you see something you can’t overlook, point it out or do it yourself right in front of her. there is a 75% chance that she would note it and start doing it .
- You can never ever find that perfect nanny. if you think you can’t manage any nanny and you keep dismissing them, you will keep doing so till thy kingdom come .
