We decided we would hire a full time nanny for when I go back to work as opposed to putting our baby in daycare. Given that I work from home at my current company, the transition to going back to work would be less painful for me given that I could still see the baby throughout the day between meetings if we had a nanny looking after her. And that was important to me given my remote work situation. If I didn’t have to go to an office, then why not have a nanny be here with her during the day?
The search was looking up initially. I had two solid leads and one “okay” lead that we had trial dates scheduled for. But then, out of nowhere, one of them bailed and said that she couldn’t start at the end of April. The second one, within a couple days later, told me she accepted a position with a family that she had done a trial with two weeks before that she didn’t think she’d hear back from. And then I was left with my third choice, which I wasn’t that enthused by given these first two didn’t work out. So I sunk into a hole and wondered if I’d ever find the right fit for my baby.
Chris found a site called Mommy Bites where parents can pay to recommend and list their nannies who are ending with them, so I used that site and ended up finding a lot of solid leads. Around the same time, I got a new lead from the Upper West Side Moms group. Now, we have about six potential nanny candidates who all seem to fit what we are looking for: passionate about babies, interested in baby learning and development, and generally easy going and relaxed. If you can believe it, one used to be a chef in Belize, but when she immigrated here, it wasn’t that easy for her to find a job in food. So she decided that because she loved kids that she would become a nanny. All her references have raved about her energy and interaction with their kids, and they even said that she cooked for the kids AND the families. She’d whip up gourmet meals out of scraps in their fridge. And when I scheduled the trial date with her, she asked if we could leave chicken and vegetables in the fridge so she could cook for us.
Guess who I am partial to?