Lunch time at office is the time where in we pour our heart out. The discussions range from Bollywood linkups , movie reviews, current Indian politics, life in general to working mom concerns. One day one of my colleagues asked me why don’t I hire a nanny / maid to look after my baby as I was upset about the closure of day-cares during vacation. In this post here I am jotting down the 6 things to consider before hiring a nanny/ maid for your baby.
” She came to us when our baby was 3 months old , now our daughter is 4 , still she is with us. Aunty is truly a blessing. Without her we can’t imagine our day , she is God sent ” said one of my colleagues who has an amazing nanny who is part of their family by now. Touchwood !!
6 Things To Consider Before Hiring a Nanny / Maid for Your Baby:
1. Work Experience
Enquire about the work experiences of the nanny/ maid. If she has worked before , please make sure to get a feedback directly / indirectly as it would help you to make a decision going forward.
If your nanny is hired from an agency , make sure all the proofs are valid and look for the penalty rules/regulations if any. Also the salary to be paid should be told in advance in order to avoid disagreements later.
2. Age / Illness
Please make sure that the nanny / maid is healthy enough to take care of herself and your child. Please ask about the medical records or major illness your nanny has.
3. Hygiene / Cleanliness
Recently my colleague complained about the ‘pan chewing’ habit of her nanny and how she discourages it when she is at work. Hygiene is one of the most important factors in choosing a nanny / maid. Please make sure the habits like smoking/ chewing pan/ watching TV continuously encouraging the baby too to watch it / long duration mobile calls are prohibited while she is at your home taking care of baby.
4. Family/ Commitments
One of my colleagues got a maid from her native as she came to Mumbai with her baby. Soon the nanny wanted to go back throwing tantrums over her children whom she left behind for this nanny job. May be the reason is genuine in case of this nanny , but the colleague was in a shock to hear this within 2 days of arrival here in Mumbai.
Always enquire about the family commitments of the nanny before hand as you can avoid surprising and shocking incidents like the above mentioned.
5. Planned Leaves
Make sure you ask the nanny about her planned leaves for the year so that you can plan your calendar accordingly.
6. Responsibility/ Expectations
Make sure the responsibility of nanny / your expectations have to be told in advance. For eg. If you don’t want your nanny to wash the baby clothes leaving baby unattended, make sure its said well in advance. Plus the timings should be made clear.
Hope you like this post. Do you have a nanny who takes care of your baby ?
3 Comments
Thanks for the value add. Yes what a nanny teaches a baby is very important. And as you said , Family commitments check and background verification are also equally important.
This Nanny hiring was a heavy task for my since my baby was 7 months old then and my mom had to join Dad for a couple of months. My hubby was working in Pune and only came twice a month. I was staying with my college going brother and I didn’t want to leave my job. The worst drawback was my job timing – the hired Nanny would have to be at my place by 7.15am though she could leave by 3pm, still there were issues with the early coming. Secondly, our School Creche took kids who have crossed 18 months of age so keeping her at my workplace was also ruled out. Luckily it was during those days the Caretaker at our School Creche resigned on not getting an increment in her salary so I grabbed this opportunity and called her home with a higher pay. She readily agreed, infact my baby enjoyed being with her.
Below were some of the things which I followed during that phase:-
1) I kept ready her food, her milk, the sterilized bottle, her water, her basket of daily wear and all the other essentials right at the caretaker’s reach.
2) Locked all the bedrooms and cupboard
3) Removed the Cable-TV wires.
4) Only made the drawing room, kitchen, chokdi and bathroom accessible to her.
5) Allowed her to take two leaves in a month and more than that affected her salary.
6) Never got over-friendly but at the same time was kind to her – gave her gifts / bonus on occasions/festivals
7) Most important of all, had taken a proper review about her from our School peons, teachers and the agent involved.
She was a good lady but started getting dominating with time and hardly followed my instructions. I had no other option but to compromise with her irritating behaviour. I was relieved to the greatest extent on my mother’s arrival after 5 months which looked like 5 years to me. I would always recommend good Day-cares than hiring a Nanny at home.
Oh girl.. That was bad, but glad it got over 🙂