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---------------------Nanny Net News------------------------
A newsletter for Parents, Nannies and Agency Owners
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Vol. 1, No. 8
June 2000
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Deborah Smith, Editor
Parents With Nannies, Inc.
Deborah@4Nanny.com
This newsletter is distributed by subscription only. If you
wish to unsubscribe, you can find instructions at the end of
this newsletter.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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* What's Happening At Parents With Nannies
*The Interview - An excerpt from this month's featured book,
The Good Nanny Book by P. Michele Raffin
* Article: The Traveling Nanny
* Website Spotlight
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Words to live by...
"Finding great child care is almost always a function of luck -
and the harder you work at it, the luckier you will get."
P. Michele Raffin
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WHAT'S HAPPENING AT PARENTS WITH NANNIES
**OUR BRIGHTER VISION LEARNING ADVENTURES
SWEEPSTAKES WAS A HUGE SUCCESS BUT NOW IT'S OVER. :(
GOOD LUCK TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTERED. THE LUCKY WINNER WILL
BE SELECTED AND NOTIFIED BY JULY 30TH.
DON'T FEEL TOO BAD THAT THE SWEEPSTAKES IS OVER:
You can still receive a free shipment from Brighter
Vision Learning Adventures by going to
http://www.learningadventures.com/4nanny-DXT4
OUR JUNE SWEEPSTAKES SPONSOR IS THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NANNIES
who will be giving away two(2)one year Nanny Memberships.
Membership Benefits Include:
**A Bi-monthly newsletter full of timely and informative
articles on child care issues.
**Discounts to NAN's National Conference.
**
Nannies, enter to win a free membership to this great
organization. parents and Agency Owners, don't feel left out,
enter to win a membership for a nanny you know and love.
Click on the link to enter http://www.4Nanny.com/NANsweepstakes.htm
VOLUNTEERS
We are still looking for volunteer hosts for our new
message boards. We need parents, nannies and agency
owners to help host the following boards:
Parents: General Questions
Parents: Child Behavior Questions
Nannies: How Was Your Day?
Nannies: Mentor Board
Agencies: Agency Forum
Also, if one of the other boards interest you, you
can always ask to co-moderate with the current host.
Please send me an email at Deborah@4Nanny.com and tell me which board
you'd like to host and why. We could sure use your help. :)
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The Interview:
an excerpt from The Good Nanny Book by P. Michele Raffin
The application form and prescreening interview should give you
enough factual data to decide if the applicant has appropriate
and sufficient experience for your job. A face-to-face
interview should then follow. It is the best way to gather
the intuitive information that is so vital in making the
right hiring decision. For out-of-state applicants you may
have no recourse other than phone interviews, but if so,
conduct several. However, if you can arrange it, try to
meet even out-of-state applicants in person before you
make a final decision to hire.
The interview is the time to understand a person's motives,
approach to problem solving, attitude, and style: in other
words, her personality. In all but a few jobs, personality
plays a role in an individual's ability to get a job done.
In the position of home child care provider, the person's
personality can be a determining factor separating a Nanny
from Hell from a Nanny from heaven. It is vital that the
nanny's personality mesh well with yours and your family's,
especially if she is going to be a live-in.
Interview all applicants - even those who will be live-out -
though you were interviewing for a roommate, business associate,
teacher and role-model for your children, and employee all
wrapped up in one. If you do not feel comfortable with an
applicant on all levels, you are asking for trouble down the
road. A significant portion of the Nanny from Hell stories
I have heard ended with a statement like, "The kids liked her;
she just drove us crazy."
Trust your instincts. One parent commented that when her
interview with a male au pair from Italy had finished, he
said good-bye to her and then kissed the children on the tops
of their heads. She said, "He did it so automatically, as
if it would be unthinkable to leave a child without showing
affection, that I felt comforfortable he was a warm person.
I hired him and even though he didn't stay as long as I
would have liked, he was very nice to my children while he
was here."
Be positive about the person you select. If you have any
doubts at all, keep looking. It is much easier not to hire
someone in the first place than to fire the person later.
The following tips will help prepare you to conduct your
face-to-face interviews effectively.
The Good Nanny Book Order
the Book
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P. Michele Raffin is the mother of four children who earned
her masters degree from Stanford Business School and live in
California with her husband and children.
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THE TRAVELING NANNY
Ten and a half hours on an airplane with twin two-year-old girls
is not an event I would wish on my worst enemy, yet it is
manageable and I have learned that it can even be fun. In the
previous ten months I have had the opportunity to travel
extensively with the twins I care for. We have spent time in
Amsterdam, London, Washington DC and Hawaii. Before each trip
the girl's mother and I discuss the challenges of each flight
and how we will time their naps and meals according to the
up-coming time change. On many of the flights they've slept at
least for a few hours, if not, much of the flight. But our most
recent trip was, by far, the most dreaded. Usually we fly overnight
to Europe and the whole family sleeps most of the way, making jet
lag much easier to overcome. But this time we were to leave L.A.
at 12 noon on a Tuesday and arrive the following day in Amsterdam
at 9am (Dutch time). So basically, we were flying all day at a
time when the girls would not be tired enough to sleep more than
one or two hours. Yet, upon arrival, we would still have to try
to keep them (and ourselves) awake as long as possible so they
would adjust quickly to the time change.
My stomach was tied in knots at the very prospect of what was sure
to be an agonizing trip. I had visions of flight attendants shooting
menacing glances in our direction and fellow passengers suffering
from "air-rage" somehow related to the twins. The worries and
projections turned out to be all for nothing. We made sure to
have a whole day's worth of travel-size activities at hand and
let them "get away" with a lot more then they ever do at home…
anything to keep them happy and quiet. For each of the girls we
put together a backpack full of surprises. Coloring books, new
markers and crayons, ink pads and Winnie-The-Pooh stamps, make-up
kits, nail polish, body glitter, and a few new "flap books" with
numerous flaps. The backpacks and a DVD player got us through the
flight quite nicely. It also helped to tell the girls that the
pilot was authorized to give "time-outs" to passengers who do not
follow the rules i.e.…"inside voices" and sitting down in our
seats when the "seat belt sign" is on. This worked so well that
while we were disembarking from our return flight to L.A. Justine
wanted to find the pilot to apologize for having a little tantrum
sitting down and buckling her seat belt when the sign was on.
Hannah was so well versed in proper airplane behavior she makes
sure to tell random children at the playground, ballet class and
the supermarket about the rules of air-travel. She is bound to
enter public speaking or law enforcement!
So, if you find yourself dreading a long flight with a couple of
toddlers….have no fear. Stay calm and hope to maintain that calm
while in the air. Children often react to situations by example
of the important people in their lives. Sure, they are going to
get messy, fidgety and to cry some…even I feel like crying
sometimes when cooped up on an airplane. They may, like Hannah
and Justine, walk off the plane with hot pink lipstick smeared
on their cheeks, stamps all over their bodies and glitter from
head to toe but all of this washes off and is easily forgotten.
The memories gained from your adventures will long overshadow
any difficult flight.
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Melea has been a nanny for ten years (off and on) and currently
cares for two well-traveled toddler twins. She holds a Bachelor's
degree in Creative Writing and gains insight from the children
she cares for who contribute greatly to her work. Melea grew up
in Connecticut, attended college in Massachusetts and now lives
in Southern California. She enjoys flying kites, swings, writing
and traveling the world.
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WEBSITE SPOTLIGHT
NANNY SPOT (http://community-2.webtv.net/NannySpot/NANNYSPOT/)
This site offers so much information for nannies as well as
parents I had a hard time choosing the highlights. If you are
a nanny new to the profession, this site holds a host of helpful
tools to get you ready for your new adventure. For starters, you will
find a list of questions to use with a prospective agency. After
you have found an agency, there are questions you can use for
interviewing prospective employers. The site also offers tips
on how to dress for your interview and how to conduct yourself
during your interview. Parents can learn a lot about what to expect
from a professional nanny by reviewing the information above.
Nanny Spot offers sample resumes for nannies to follow as well
as a sample Nanny-Parent work agreement. The site also provide
recipes for kids' stuff like goop and bubbles. For a fun break from all
the serious stuff test your nanny knowledge at the "Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire Game-Nanny Version" Answer questions like
"For $200 Which of the following is the general rule of thumb for
length of children's time outs?
A. One minute per foot of height
B. One minute per baby tooth lost
C. One minute per year of age
D. Always 5 minutes
or "For $16,000: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, babies must ride in a rear-facing carseat until
what age?
A. Six months old
B. One year old
C. Eighteen months old
D. Two years old
Nanny Spot is the creation of a professional nanny who "has worked
for all kinds of families in various locations as both a live-in and
live-out." She has been with her current family for over 4 years.
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Would you would like to suggest a favorite website to be
featured in this newsletter? please email me at Deborah@4nanny.com.
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I hope you have enjoyed this month's issue of Nanny Net News.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU DADDY SUBSCRIBERS!
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Please send comments about this ezine to Deborah@4Nanny.com
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