How to keep a good nanny working with you

1. Keep your initial agreement with the nanny
At the beginning of the job, a mother gives a promise to the nanny that she does not need to bed with the kids as the mother will look after the kids at night time. Meanwhile other parents may agree to pay over time and offer some holidays to the nanny. After working for a while, parents are satisfied with a good job by the nanny, they then leave their kids to sleep overnight with the nanny. When the kids become familiar with the nanny, the parents tend to ignore to look after the kids and let them stay with the nanny all the time. Finally, the parents forget to give holidays and over time payment to the nanny as she never dared to ask. Moreover, some families even asked the nanny to do dish washing, cooking for the whole family and add up other duties for her gradually. Most nannies dislike and get bored for these kinds of additional responsibility that they might quite the job respectively.

Therefore, it is suggested to parents that the agreement with nannies can be changed, but must clearly state among each other. If the nanny has to do more work, the parents should offer more payment. Moreover, the nannies should be informed their duties before starting working. She should not be forced to do. Instead, parents should leave some time for the nanny to think about it and get back to you later as some nannies might not dare to refuse at once. In the case of refusal by the nanny, parents then should be open-minded to accept the decision.

2. Dietary
Parents should pay attention to dietary for the nanny. Some families agree to arrange the nanny’s meal together with all members in the family. Nevertheless, that family cook food just enough for their members, not spare for the nanny. The nanny must have what is left over from them. It is recommended that food should be prepared for the nanny in particular. This is must informed clearly to the chef of the house as the chef might dislike the nanny while others might too much consider saving money for the employer that there is not enough food cooked for nannies.

It is suggested that if your family decided to cook the food for your family and share to the nanny, once the food is cooked you would rather keep it in a separate dish for the nanny. Due to unusual working time, the nanny can have it whenever she is free. In reality, no one likes to have her food left over from others. Therefore, please separate food for your nanny since it is newly cooked. Moreover, don’t forget to ask whether she needs more food. As she takes care of your kids, similarly she should be treated well vice versa. Some families prefer not sharing food with the nanny due to having western cuisine which is quite expensive. Other families may regularly have take away food. In this case, you can solve the problem by allocating a separate food budget for your nanny. It is to allow her buy her own food or buy fresh ingredients to cook in your place. If you are not happy to let her use your kitchen utensils, you may boy a separate set for her. The budget for food should be at least 1,200 per month due to high cost of living nowadays. Not only the food budget is provided, but also you should give some souvenirs or desserts for your nanny occasionally when you go out or return from up country or traveling abroad. The more attention is paid to her, the more love you will be received from your nanny.

3. Holidays and overtime payment
Generally, a nanny should receive at least one day off per week following the labour law. However, sometime you would like to take a rest on your holidays instead of babysitting, you may ask your nanny to work over time for you. Most nannies are willing to work extra as they earn a good over time payment which is around 400-600 baht per day. Although the nanny can often work overtime for you, she should get some days off at least one or two days in each month. If the nanny continuously works too long, she might get exhausted and cause to low proficiency.

Taking a rest is essential for a nanny to charge her battery ready to work for the next day. Nevertheless, please be on time to pay overtime wage to her. It is to encourage your nanny to work for you. When employers forget to pay the over time wage, some nannies might not dare to ask for. As the result, the nannies would not love to continue working for you due to unpunctual payment.

4. Treat a nanny
The way you treat your nanny is important to her feeling of continuously working with you. Many families ignore their nanny’s feeling. For example, when you dine out, you should ask your nanny what she would like to have for dinner or order some food and take home for her. You should not let her look after your baby whereas you enjoy eating without thinking of her hunger. Instead nanny is the person who takes care of your child, you should treat her properly especially your words. She should be respected by speaking polite languages and teach your child to do the same. You would rather teach your child to keep appropriate spoken language with the nanny, and learn to say thank you to her. Not only the nanny will stay longer with you, but also your child would be taught to pay respect to others. Especially, the nanny, she should be treated as your relative who your child should pay respect and obey, not to use impolite words or hit her when get angry.  Following these treatment, your nanny will definitely stay working with you.

5. Provide an opportunity for making decision
Some families almost never ever let the nanny make decision even small issues such as menu for the child, or which clothes to wear. Every activity must be decided and monitored by the mother. By this way, your nanny may feel uncomfortable to work independently. Therefore, you would rather give you nanny a chance to make her own decision such as today’s menu for the child. Instead, the mother may just provide a broad guideline that your child should consume at least three types of vegetables of different colours within a day in order to have sufficient vitamins for the kid. The process how to cook or what ingredients to put should be solely decided by the nanny. The mother, however, should not interfere in these activities. Besides, you might occasionally ask a comment from your nanny such as whether it is the right time to start toileting on a potty for the child or which brand is good for instant diapers or how good looking is your child wearing a red shirt? This is the way to give importance to the nanny’s ideas so that she feels proud and more confident in her childcare work.   

6. Do not use emotion to command or complain your nanny
Several families seem to use their emotions towards their nannies unreasonably. For example, when a child falls over, does not have his/her meals, be sick, gets a mosquito bitten, parents always put complaints to the nannies. Some families even converse inappropriate words to the nannies such as sarcastic or rude words. As a result, most nannies feel discouraged and unable to continue working. Indeed, parents would rather determine the actual cause of the incidents. When your child falls over, it is just a normal accident for a kid. The accident can happen even if the kid stays with his/her mother. You would better look at the nanny’s effort to protect the child as well as consider whether the accident caused from the nanny’s carelessness or it is really uncontrolled circumstance. If the mistake can be forgiven, you should have a chat with the nanny and explain properly to ask her to put more awareness on your child. The nanny then will understand and keep it improved, unnecessary to use fiercely emotion and rude words to her. It is believed that if the accident was caused from the nanny and someone pointed out the problem, the nanny may feel guilty and put more concern. On contrary, if the nanny keeps repeating the mistakes, you might consider to change a new nanny.   

7. Spend time with your child and forget the concept of optimize the money
Once you hire a nanny, do not forget to realize that you are his/her father and mother. You should spare your time to stay with your child as much as you can. You become the idol for the child as well as the close relationship and touching are valuable and meaningful to the child, leading to growing up with the ground of healthy mind and steady emotion.

You should not be worried that the nanny is quite free if you do some cooking, take a shower, feed the food or play with your child while the nanny is still on duty.  Some parents might have the attitude that they pay a lot to hire a nanny so it should be worth of money. Therefore, those parents keep sleeping, shopping or watch TV, never spend the time with their kids. One day, they will learn how valuable was the time passed by that they should spend it with the child, but the time cannot be returned. You are the most meaningful person to their lives, not the nanny. Your child is growing up, no matter you feel tired from working, you would better spend every minute you have with your child. Otherwise when the kids grow up, you may feel depressed to lose the precious moment you should spend with them when they were young. The concept of optimize money from hiring a nanny is not worth to do, compared to the time which the child lost with a good memory with parents. Love and relationship cannot be assessed the value. Having a good nanny is your luck, but time availability with parents is the most importance for your child. As well, the nanny feels happy when see parents spend some time with the kid. The child is then growing up with healthiness and happiness, supported by a good nanny who is your assistant to bring up the child. However, the nanny should not be replaced the real parents. We wish every family a very happy and have a good nanny working for you forever.