Different Childcare Styles – Do you align with your nanny?

When employing a Nanny, one of the most common questions that are not discussed at interview is the parent/nanny childcare styles they use day to day. There are many different approaches to care for children from child led, attachment parenting, routine based, boundaries, as well as following particular child development methods like Montessori, Pikler, Rudolph Steiner, Gina Ford, Alison Scott Wright, Rachel Waddilove, and many more!

It is important to understand where your nanny’s natural instinct lies when it comes to caring for children, as they can follow different methods, but if it does not feel natural or goes against how they feel this can cause difficulties in the employment.

Some of the problems that can be caused are

1. Friction between the nanny and employer-a “push/pull” relationship
2. Trust issues in the relationship
3. Confusion for the children which may go on to cause behaviour difficulties
4. Communication difficulties between all including the children
5. Unhappy employee
6. Reluctance from the Nanny to perform
7. A pressure for the Nanny to do things she does not agree with

Communication is an absolute must at the interview stage, with a clear vision from both parties how they would like the day to day work. Important things to cover are, depending on the stage and ages of the children would be:

1. Baby-routine or child led? Weaning-baby led or more structured with tastes and purees
2. Discipline – how do you deal with negative behaviour?
3. Rules of the house-what is acceptable to you?
4. Knowledge of development and milestones -what are they working towards?
5. How to communicate with each other -diary/handover/apps
6. Feedback for the Nanny and employer-is this an open dialog or a one way street on one side?
7. Activities during the day-what is acceptable?

It is important to know how confident the Nanny is at implementing your styles too. Have they worked like this before? Did it go well? As like most things, once you have all the information, you will be in a better position to make the right decision.

If you need advice about this, please do contact us to discuss.