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Temporary Nannies Tips
Being Prepared For Emergency Childcare Services
Let’s face it: the time is going to come when you’re going to need emergency child care services. There are lots of situations that are completely out of your control. You might have a business trip you can’t cancel and your child is suddenly not feeling well and can’t go to school. In that case, you might need a temporary nanny to fill in the gap until the other parent or guardian can be home at the end of the day. Whatever the situation, it’s important to know what to do and where to go.
Child care temp agencies are a great way to help fill the gaps when you need them. Life is so busy it’s often hard to find the time to second guess what could possibly go wrong in terms of child care services. Still, it’s a good idea to be prepared for any eventuality. If quality child care is a priority for you, contact one of the many temporary nanny services available and register your name with them. You may never need them, but if you do, at least you’ll be on file.
Temporary nannies are available for last minute notification and can be relied on to help out when you need it the most.
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Nanny Tip: Babysitters Versus Temporary Nannies
You might be wondering what the difference is between a babysitter job and a temporary nanny job. Generally, a nanny is thought to be someone who is a professional, working to earn a livable wage whereas a babysitter might be the teenager who lives down the street and watches over the kids for a few hours while you go out. Recognizing whether you really just need a babysitter or a professional temporary nanny depends on a few things:
Are you regularly going to need someone to watch over the children, especially through the day when most younger babysitters are in school?
Does your child need specialized care that only a trained nanny could provide?
Do you expect additional work to be done around the house including light housekeeping and cooking?
These are just a few things to consider when looking at hiring a temporary nanny versus a babysitter. For the times when you just want to go out for a few hours in an evening, hire a babysitter. If you’re expecting more specialized, skilled care and involves light housekeeping, consider hiring a temporary nanny.
There’s nothing wrong with hiring a babysitter when it’s appropriate, but if you’re looking for more formal child care, you may want to consider contacting temporary nanny services to help you out.
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Breaking In To The Nanny Business As A Temporary Nanny
If you’re in college or university, maybe even in high school, becoming a temporary nanny is a good way to break into the business. Instead of jumping in with both feet, ready to commit instantly to a full time nanny position, why not consider being an on-call temporary nanny? Temporary nannies serve a valuable resource for stressed parents needing last minute child care services. Even the best made plans can fall apart, and a parent will remember how helpful and accommodating you were! The trick is to be ready for anything at anytime. If you’re serious about eventually working your way into a full time or part time nanny position, it’s important to realize that you might have to make a few sacrifices. It’s possible that your own plans might have to be cancelled at the last minute in order to accommodate someone who needs temp child care.
A temporary nanny gets to meet a wide variety of people and can quickly get an excellent reputation as the one to call for last-minute help. This all adds up in terms of how your resume looks and what your future jobs could look like. It’s okay to stipulate ahead of time the specific days when you know you won’t be available. That’s just being professional! The important thing is to be available when you say you’ll be available.
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Nanny Tip: Working Your Way to a Full Time Job by being a Temporary Nanny
As a person just starting out as a professional nanny, it might take a little time to build up a resume with legitimate references. One of the most common complaints of college graduates is that the jobs they apply for require a certain amount of experience, but nobody wants to hire them to give them the experience they need. It’s definitely a catch 22 situation. If your goal is to eventually work as a full-time nanny, you’re going to need to find a way to build up your job skills and experience.
Just like a newly graduated business school student has to work his or her way up the corporate ladder, the person trying to become a full time professional nanny has to do the same thing. That might mean applying for jobs where there are temporary nannies for hire. Temporary nanny jobs are exactly what they sound like. They’re jobs where the nanny could be on-call, has flexible work hours, and can fill in at a moment’s notice. For example, a family may have a full time nanny but, unless she’s superhuman, there’s a good chance she’s going to wake up sick one day, or request some vacation time. That’s where the temporary nannies come into the picture. You’ll be required to step into the picture, sometimes with very little notice, to save the day. If you’re able to do that with ease, you just might eventually find yourself with those references that you need.
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Finding A Temporary Nanny In A Rural Area
If you live in a small town, away from major metropolitan centers, it might not be that easy to find last minute temporary nannies. Sure there are all kinds of temporary nanny job postings on the Internet, but do they cater to your residential area?
If you know that temporary nanny services are scarce in your area, plan ahead of time so that you know what to do and who to call when you find yourself suddenly in need of a temporary nanny. Do you know another parent who could pitch in at the last minute? Is there a student in your area that would step in if needed? You don’t have to go through a formal child care temp agency to get the help you need. In fact, if there are no formal temp child care services close by, you could always place an ad locally. Meet some people in your area who might be interested in helping out and make sure to ask about their last-minute availability. After all, the nature of a temporary nanny job is the ability to respond to last minute requests!
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Nanny Tip: Temporary Nanny Jobs You Never Knew You Had
Sometimes creating a resume with a list of “previous childcare experience” requires a bit of creativity, especially if you’re young or haven’t worked in many places. You may have actually worked in a variety of settings that could be loosely classified as "temporary nanny jobs" and not even known it.
Your job as a lifeguard last summer might seem like the farthest thing from a temporary nanny job, but was it really? How many times did you help kids who cut their skin or cried because their sister or brother stole their sand shovel? Okay, maybe you just observed what happened, taking mental notes of how the kids’ parents or caregivers handled the situation. The very fact that you were responsible for the public’s safety says a lot about how you handle stress and responsibility. Make sure to add it to your resume!
Even if all you’ve ever done is babysit your relatives’ kids, add it to the resume. Ask the parents to use their names as references and list all of the different situations that arose and explain how you handled them.
Any situation where you were responsible for the health and well-being of a child could be construed as a temporary nanny job that you can use to your benefit when applying for full time or part time nanny jobs.
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How To Get Call Backs As A Temporary Nanny
One of the most important skills a temporary nanny can have is the ability to think ahead, be pro-active, and present a skilled, professional resume. If your goal is to work as a temporary nanny, consider putting together a professional temporary nanny “kit” of vital information you may need to present to a new family. Let’s face it, as a temporary nanny, you’re going to be called upon to work for families that you don’t know, and who don’t know you. If you’re working through a temporary nanny placement agency, the agency will probably screen you to make sure you are who you say you are, and that you have no criminal background. Still, if you’re being called on to work for a family out of the blue, you’ll look like a real pro if you have the following information, or “kit” ready to take with you:
Have two pieces of identification on you when you go to the home.
Bring a form (make it brief, the family probably won’t have a lot of time to fill out forms) asking for three emergency contact numbers, any allergies the kids might have, and any instructions you need to know to handle any medical emergencies that might come up.
Your business card. Create your own unique business card that families can refer to if they need temporary child care anytime in the future.
Leave a copy of your resume with references behind before you go.
These are just a few things that will show the family that you’re a professional and that you’re serious about working. The next time they need the services of a temporary nanny…they may just call you!
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Getting A Temporary Nanny Up To Speed Quickly
Under normal circumstances you’d take a great deal of care in hiring a temporary nanny to watch over your kids. Sometimes, however, there’s no time to think. A good quality, professional nanny temp agency will help alleviate some of your concerns by doing a pre-screening of the nannies they hire. This is especially true if the agency is specifically geared to place temporary nannies. While it’s always best to be able to give some notice, the nanny temp agency will understand if an emergency comes up and you need immediate, same-day child care.
In a rushed situation, you may have very little time to get your temporary nanny up to speed on everything she should know. For that reason, it’s a good idea to have something created in case you ever need it. Don’t wait until you’re stressed and late for work to try and hash out a plan with a temporary nanny. Create a one-page information sheet and keep it somewhere handy. That way, if you ever need to hire a temporary nanny, you can refer to the sheet, quickly going over important points and leaving the rest for her to read over. Leave a list of emergency contact numbers, any dietary restrictions your child may have, allergies, medications, if you have pets in the home, a minimum of duties you expect to be carried out, and any additional special instructions.
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Preparing For The Worst – Having A Backup Plan For Childcare
Temp nanny jobs are designed to give families emergency backup care when it’s needed. That doesn’t necessarily mean someone will be ready to help you out with only one hour’s notice! Still, there are on-call nanny temp agencies who will do what they can to help you out with a same-day request. It’s good to know that you can rely on a temporary nanny to bail you out of a tight situation, but it’s also a good idea to be prepared ahead of time with a backup plan for childcare. Consider some of these ideas:
Make arrangements with a neighbor to watch the kids if necessary.
Do you have banked hours at work that you can use if you have to? If you find yourself in a pinch for childcare, you might be able to call on a temporary nanny at the last minute, but you still might not make it into work until the afternoon. Plan for backup vacation time, or save some lieu time to use if you absolutely have to.
If the grandparents live nearby, consider asking them to help out with last minute child care if needed.
These are really just a few ideas to get you thinking about your back up plan. Remember, temporary child care doesn’t always have to come from a professional nanny placement agency, it can come straight from your own neighborhood.
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Flexibility Is Key To Being A Successful Temporary Nanny
If you want to be a temporary nanny or if you’re thinking about applying for a temporary nanny job, it’s important for you to have a high degree of flexibility. No, that doesn’t mean you have to be able to do the splits! It means that if you register your profile with online temporary nanny services, you have to be available when you say you’re going to be available, at least as much as possible.
Flexibility also comes in handy in other ways. When a full time nanny or part time nanny register their profiles for jobs, they might pick and choose the age groups of the children they want to work with, where they want to work, and the hours they want to work. As a temporary nanny, you won’t really get that luxury. The nature of the position is to be called to action at a moment’s notice, and it’s a really important service to be able to offer families.
To make the most of your temporary nanny job, be as accommodating as you can be (within reason). Gradually, as you make your way up to more permanent positions, you’ll have an opportunity to be a little more choosy. Until then, be ready for just about anything.
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The Well Screened Temporary Nanny
The process of being screened for temporary nanny jobs is a little different than someone applying for full time or part time nanny work. In most cases, a person applying for a full time nanny position would not have a detailed screening and background check done by the placement agency. Other than the initial screening of the resume, the placement agency will usually leave it up to the family to conduct the screening, or the family will pay an additional fee to the placement agency for the agency to do the work. However, the agency understands the time-crunch factor when families require last-minute temporary nannies. As a result, the agency will usually spend more time screening the applicant.
As an applicant, you’ll be expected to provide the agency with an up-to-date resume, a list of references, a detailed education history, and a completed criminal records check. The agency will conduct an interview with you either over-the-phone or in person to confirm the information you’ve submitted, and to get a better sense of who you are as a person.
When the agency contacts you to arrange for an interview, be sure to have your references ready if they’re not already listed on your resume. Check to be sure the references are current, and that they’re aware that they could be contacted regarding upcoming temporary nanny jobs. Because of the nature of the job, don’t be surprised to discover the agency wanting to do a little probing into your past.
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The Not-So-Temp Temp Position
So you’re excited about starting your career as a temporary nanny and everything seems to be going fine so far. You’ve met several nice families, taken care of a handful of smart, funny, energetic kids, and you’ve earned a little money in the process. Nice work! So what happens when the perfect family suddenly becomes not-so-perfect?
Let’s say you’ve been asked to work for two weeks for the family, but then two weeks becomes three weeks, and before you know it you’ve been showing up faithfully for a whole month? Generally, a family hiring a temporary nanny should be able to tell you with some accuracy how long the temporary nanny position will last. If it’s going to extend considerably more than originally planned, the family should renegotiate with you. Technically, you could be picking up other temp nanny jobs from families who may pay a higher salary, so if the family you’re working for wants to extend your work term, they should also be prepared to increase your pay.
Communicate openly with the family and talk to them about their nanny requirements. If your goal is to eventually work as a full time (or even a part time) nanny, this might be the opening you’ve been waiting for. Broach the subject of being hired on a permanent basis. The family may still be in “temporary” mode and may have not even had the time to consider hiring a full time nanny.
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Disclosing Medical Conditions
As a temporary nanny, you have the same rights as anybody else in the workforce. You do not have to put up with abuse, you shouldn’t be taken advantage of, and above all else you should be respected for the work you do. While you don’t have to disclose things like medications you might be taking, or why you’re taking them, in some situations it makes sense.
If you’re working with a child care temp agency, be sure to let them know of any potentially serious medical conditions you have. For example, if you have epilepsy that’s currently well managed with medications, the agency should know that. In addition, you should give the agency permission to release that kind of information to their clients. No, you really don’t have to, and a family cannot discriminate against you for reasons of health, religion, ethnicity, etc. However, if a family has a legitimate concern over the safety of their children in your care, they do have the right to refuse employment in that case. You know whether you’re fit to work in somebody’s home as a temporary nanny, but you may have to do a little educating on your condition, how it’s managed, and how you handle things on a day to day basis to put the family at ease.
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Disclosing Severe Allergies Before Accepting Temporary Nanny Positions
These days all you ever hear about is allergies. People are allergic to cat dander, pollen, dust, certain chemicals, perfumes, peanuts, etc. If you’re a temporary nanny, and you suffer from severe allergies, make sure to always wear a medical alert bracelet (or necklace) and let every family you work for know before you set foot in the house. In fact, as a temporary nanny with a medical condition like severe allergies, it might be helpful to only work with children or families with similar conditions.
For example, if you’re severely allergic to bee stings, working with children who also have the same condition will make your life a lot easier. The family will already have a good understanding of things like Epi-pens, antihistamines, and other medications you might have to use. A family who knows very little about allergies like this might not feel as comfortable having you work as their temporary nanny.
The bottom line is to be very open about your allergies, especially if they could threaten your life. It’s okay to specify that you cannot work for families with pets if they’re only going to make you sick. Your honesty will be very much appreciated by any and all temporary nanny services involved. After all, their goal is to make good matches between temporary nannies and families. Like you, they want repeat business!
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Beware of Nanny Scammers
If you’re looking for a temporary nanny job, beware of scams. You should never have to send money to a family for any reason. Likewise, beware if a family offers to send you money for travel expenses (if you’ve accepted an international position) with any strings attached. The best way to avoid scams is to work through a reputable, full service nanny placement agency. Whether you’re looking for a full time, part time, or temporary nanny position, scammers are out there.
Most online nanny placement agencies earn their money through families looking to hire nannies. The family might need a summer nanny, a full time nanny, or even just a weekend nanny. In order for them to acquire access to you (the nanny), they first have to purchase a membership through the agency. Once the fee has been paid, the family then has access to more of your contact information. No money means no commitment, and no commitment means no contact with the nanny.
To check out a company, have a look at the Better Business Bureau’s website for any warnings or reports. Make sure the nanny placement website also lists contact information that includes phone numbers and a real mailing address.
Whether you’re applying for a temporary nanny job, or looking to hire a temporary nanny, beware of scammers.
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Casting a Big Nanny Job Net
The quality of the job you get might depend on the quality of the ad placed. For example, if you’re out for your daily jog and happen to see a “Temporary Nanny Needed” sign written in Cherry Red crayon and stapled to a tree house, you should be able to figure out that you won’t be working for top pay. Magazines or websites dedicated to helping nannies find jobs are a good way to go. You can be relatively certain that you’re at least on the right track.
There are lots of places to look for nanny jobs including nanny websites. Don’t underestimate the value of local career resource centers either. Not everyone is computer savvy or is interested in posting online “nanny wanted” ads. Staff at local career resource centers or Human Resource centers should be able to help you refine your resume, and point you in the direction of their job board.
If all you can find are jobs for temporary nannies, but you were hoping for something more, expand your horizons by applying for nanny jobs in a variety of places. No matter what kind of job you’re looking for, it’s always a good idea to get your name out in as many different directions as possible.
