Stress is hard to manage with any career choice. Being a nanny requires that you put yourself second after your job. It took me a while to deal with the stresses of being a nanny. I do think that I have a few tips that could help you all:

1. Know that yes, this is a stressful job… but, it doesn’t have to be. You need to grasp the idea that this is a job that requires babysteps (pun intended). You need to look at the big picture then break it down into mini-jobs. That makes it a lot easier to handle. I am not just a nanny… I am also a Housekeeper, cook, tutor, taxi cab… the list goes on. I learned that breaking my job title “House Manger” into little jobs, it makes it much easier to balance.

2. Make sure you take advantage of your breaks during the day. If you watch younger children, watch TV during their naptime. If you are not allowed to watch TV… Read a magazine, book or just sit in the quiet. If you watch older children, go and watch some TV. Sit in a quiet area and read a magazine with a cup of herbal tea. Or, I sometimes bake cookies. Just make sure that you sit down during the day. You will lose your mind if you don’t relax.

3. Talk to your boss about your workday. If you feel you are working way too many hours during the week, it’s your responsibility to speak up. You shouldn’t be working more than 45-50hrs per week. If you are working more than that, you need to speak up. Being a nanny is a draining profession. You need to have weeknights/weekends off to recoup.

4. Leave the stresses of work at work. Don’t take your problems home.

5. Remember that you are not the parent. This is a simple thing that you need to tell yourself. You are their nanny… Not their mom.

** Hope these tips help. **

Sittercity.com — sittercity was a website a fellow nanny informed me of. This is a well-designed site. I like the features that allow you to run background checks on yourself. This is a very helpful tool for the families as well. Also, this site allows you to post your education history, work experience, specialties, and a small Intro paragraph as well. You must post a photo of yourself. This site also has wonderful links to articles about parenting and being a nanny. This site also allows you to create profiles if you wish to broaden your job search. You can create an elderly care, petcare or housework profiles. There is no fee to sign up if you are a nanny.

Nannies4hire.com — This is a wonderful site. I actually learned about this site from Jon and Kate Plus 8. I figure if they could use and have success then there is a shot for anyone. This site is great because you create a profile, post a picture and write about yourself. This site as helpful tools about finding a nanny position… i.e. interview questions, reference folders and a great search engine. You can put in whatever state you are looking to work in and a bunch of family profiles pop up. You can message families that you may want to work for. Families can do the same. There is no charge for nannies but there is a charge for families. This site also has a neat feature called, “featured families and featured nannies” this allows your profile to show up so everyone can see you without doing a search. You do have to pay extra for this feature.

Craigslist– This is a more risky venture but from past experience it can be great! I was found on craigslist by my last employer and it was the greatest job. Craigslist is basically the classified ads online. It is a bit more difficult to use at first, but it gets simpler when you know what you are looking for. If you are looking for a full-time nanny position then you search those terms in the childcare section. You just have to make sure that the families are legit. No charges for placing and answering any ads.

I hope these tips are helpful! Good luck with all your searches!

1. TARGET- this is great for some basic t-shirts and sweats

2. Wall-mart- very cheap but most of the time good quality

3. Aeropostal- caters more toward the college crowd but has great prices on jeans and sweatshirts

4. Old Navy- they have amazing jeans!

5. American Eagle- look in the sale section. their regular price stuff isn’t worth it

6. New York and Co.- great sweats and jeans. plus, this is a great place to buy some interview outfits. And they have great coupons every month!

7. PACSUN- this store also caters to the younger crowd but they have great deals on basics (t-shirts, tanks, ect.) they also have a lot of really nice hoodies.

8. Your college store– before you graduate you need to stock up on hoodies, sweatpants and t-shirts because that is all you live in when you are a nanny.

I hope this is a bit helpful!

I started a job thinking I would be taking the kids to the park and other various activities. I was wrong. On day one, the oldest boy insisted on watching 9 HOURS of television. Now, the baby was sick so I couldn’t take her anywhere because of that. However, if the baby wasn’t sick my car-seats still we not assembled. This was the parent’s responsibility. Also, on the first day i noticed that the older child acted a bit odd. I asked in the interview if any of the children had any types of disorders and the mom said no. After the first day, I thought otherwise.

On the second day, the baby was feeling better but the older child was still acting out. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it except that he had had other caregivers before me. This should not have been such a drastic change for him. Until, i asked him what he and his other sitters used to do. they told me, “Noggin”. That was no surprise to me. This child knew everything there was about every show on Noggin. I am all for kids watching some TV but not 9 straight hours. That is rediculous! I say 1 hour maybe 2… 2 is even pushing it. When I was hired to be a nanny, I was hired to play with the children, do activities, drive them places… not sit in front of a TV and sing songs from Blue’s Clues.

The biggest thing I noticed with the older child was fascination with Noggin. Also, how he imitated every movement on the television. He would see a character running on TV and stand close to the TV and run in place. He would yell and scream. He would jump off furniture, All of these things I didn’t expect because I was never told about. He didn’t like playing any games and flipped out when i would turn off the TV. He didn’t want to play with any of his toys. In fact, he yelled at me saying, “My toys won’t let me play with them!”. After he told me that, I knew something was up.

The next day I asked the mom what he liked to do. She told me puzzles, games, everything that she said in the interview. Well, I had already tried all those options. She then proceeded to demean my character by saying, “Well, you are the adult, turn of the TV”. Uhh, yeah after that… I was about ready to walk out the door. I forgot to mention that she came home an hour late and only called to tell me 5 minutes before pulling into the driveway. These are all signs that you need to factor in when deciding if that job is right for you. I decided to turn off the TV for good (I unplugged it) and he flipped out and ran into his room. I went into teacher mode and started cutting out various shapes that we could glue together and make various farm animals with. He came out of his room, we made the projects in about 2 minutes and then he was back to demanding Noggin again. I didn’t turn it on and he flipped out once again. By this time I was so frustrated that I just let him flip out in his room until he calmed down. He ended up coming out of his room and brought out some matchbox cars. He was lining them up in the living room and when I went to check on him he started screaming and flailing his arms. I knew then that there was something seriously up with this kid. I didn’t feel comfortable in the situation because the parents either lied or withheld information from me about their child. I this had happened at any child care center this child would have been thrown out. The best I could do is quit.

When the mom came home she was already mad because I told her I was thinking of leaving. She told me that her child had issues. Well, that would have been helpful information during the INTERVIEW! She also said that I didn’t try hard enough to connect with her son. Well, lady your son has “issues” that you didn’t disclose to me. How am I supposed to deal with that? Also, she said that she chooses PBS over Noggin because PBS runs from 7-1230. Umm…. 5 1/2 hours of TV may be shorter than 9 hrs of Noggin but how does that benefit your child? The woman was a hypocrite. That’s about it. So she wrote me a check and then stopped me before I walked out the door to tell me that I am not a very good caregiver if I give up on a child after just 3 days. Here’s the deal. I don’t see it as giving up because this woman didn’t give me a chance. She withheld that information. Needless to say, I walked out of that house so happy I could cry.

As an aside, it wasn’t just the boy that made this job a living hell. There were construction workers banging on the house from 8am-4pm. Their dog was a barking beast that nipped at the baby. The house was in disarray. The list could go on and on. All I can say is that I learned a lot from this terrible experience and I hope I can save you all aggravation as well. Parents, be truthful about your kids. Nannies, pay attention to EVERYTHING!!!

You have to remember that it isn’t like you are coming in to work for a huge company. You are a nanny. You are an essential part in maintaining normalcy in the household when the parents are at work. It is not just YOUR first day… it’s the kid’s first day too. You don’t think they aren’t going to act-out seeing there is a new authority figure in their house? You need to prepare for that kindof stuff. You also need to know what their normal day-to-day schedule is. If you come into the house expecting you can change everything you are surely mistaken. Kids need a transition period too. Don’t make too many changes the first week. Take the first week as a trial period. Figure out what the kids like to do and try to cut out TV as much as possible. I am not a nanny who enjoys watching 8 straight hours of Noggin, sorry. I prefer playing with toys, going to the park, drawing pictures. I don’t even like to have the TV on in the background. I prefer to listen to music. I know that everyone has different ways of being a nanny but I prefer to be active in a child’s life rather than just observe it.

Here are the things you should look to do on your first day with a new family–>

1. Depending on the age of the children (my family is 1 and 4) you need to figure out what time they wake up and go to bed. You need to build a sleeping schedule so the children will nap and go to sleep at night. Don’t let them sleep too long during the day because they will not sleep at night. This is a trial and error process and it took me about a month to figure this out for my last family.

2. Eating habits is a BIG thing. Are your children small, tall, big? You need to know what they like to eat and when they eat. This is a definite thing the parents should tell you before your first day. Ask the family what the kid’s favorite foods are and when they eat.

3. Favorite toys and activities will give you an outlet to start talking to the children. If you are watching babies this doesn’t pertain to you. However, if you are watching children ages 18 mo and up… Talk to them! find out what their favorite toys are and play with the kids. don’t just sit there and watch TV all day! Your day will go so much faster if you just play with the kids. Also, ask them what they like to play outside. If they like soccer… take a soccer ball to the park. It’s as simple as that!

4. Maintaining your sanity is a key component to surviving your first day with your new family. It is very difficult to come into a person’s home and basically become “mommy” for 8hrs out of the day. You need to remember that you are an authority figure and if the kids are out of line you need to call them out on it. Don’t let the kids walk all over you on the first day because then they will never respect you. You can be their friend but you are an authority figure first. You are responsible for these children. A responsibility that should not be take lightly.

5. Knowledge that the first day is going to be rough no matter what. This is the best thing to remember. You need to know that any first day sucks. My luck today the baby was sick with a terrible fever and the boy just wanted to watch Noggin all day. I can’t stand Noggin anymore after today. haha. You need to know that if it doesn’t get any better after a month or so you need to look for a new family.

On NIck Jr. and Noggin–>

Jack’s Big Music Show

Little Bill

Franklin

Wonderpets

Go Diego Go!

Dora the Explorer

Yo! Gabba Gabba

Backyardigans

Blue’s Clues

Disney–>

The Wiggles

My Friends Tigger and Pooh

Johnny and the Sprites

PBS–>

Mr. Rogers

Sesame Street

Thomas

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=3571617&page=1

9. The knowledge of the “poop face”. This is the face the child makes as he/she is about to or is pooping. You really need to know it when you start the potty-training process.

8. Construction paper, crayons and gluesticks- This will save you from madness during rainy/ snowy days.

7. A midday snack– by the time 10am rolls around you are going to need some sugar. I recommend something small like a 100 calorie pack.

6. Experience driving mini-vans and SUVs.

5. A HUGE Nanny bag where you can stuff everything from the kids stuffed animals to their ziplock bags full of animal cracker crumbs.

4. First-Aid kit… Boo Boos happen

3. Patience– This is not an easy job. Don’t let people tell you that you are only a babysitter. You are nanny. Nannies put up with wayyyyyy more than babysitters have to.

2. A good magazine to read during naptime. You need to regain your sanity after a morning of madness.

1. A weekend off. Don’t work too much because you WILL get rundown. Plus, a little Friday happy hour never hurts.