Many parents are working from home and adjusting to new nanny-family relationships. Here's our guide to navigating this uncharted territory:
For parents, it can be difficult to work with interruptions from little ones showing their cool, new experiments, or creations. For nannies, boundaries can become blurred when parents visit their children throughout the day. This can lead to confusion about the nanny's role, responsibilities, and cause frustration about interruptions to the children’s daily routine. If your family or Nanny is struggling to adjust, read our recommendations below!
Create a routine with alarms
Establishing a routine helps nannies, parents, and children adjust to any new at-home arrangement.
In addition to scheduling meals, naps, playtime, and outdoor activities, consider scheduling parent time. These are designated times of day that parents and children play together. When parent time is near its end, give a friendly reminder that "We have 15 more minutes to play with daddy. When we hear the ringer, we're going to create a Rainbow Crystal!"
If a child is reluctant to end "parent time," schedule an exciting activity to redirect their attention to fun!
Establish authority, guidelines and a visiting schedule
When parents are home, lines of authority can become blurred. A cunning 6-year-old may defer to mom or dad when their Nanny says "no" to her request for ice-cream at 10:45 AM. This may result in a simple interruption to the parent's schedule, but 8 of these a day and "Houston, We Have a Problem."
Solve this with open communication between parents, the nanny, and children! Ask and answer questions like:
How many times a day can we come to your office or playroom? What times work best?
What will we do during shared times such as lunchtime?
Can I say no when littles ask for this ______?
When you are interacting with the children, how involved do you want me to be?
If a little one is hurt or in need of comfort, at what point do you want to be notified or involved? Can I text you if a difficult situation arises?
Tell the little ones that 9:00 - 11:00 AM is Eva (Nanny) and Lily (child) time and we can visit mommy as soon as the clock reads 11:01 AM.
Communicate these guidelines to children and stay consistent.
Establish a separate workspace
Parents' workspaces should be out of sight and earshot from common areas that a little one will be. This helps reinforce established boundaries, decrease distractions and interruptions, and set your family up to have a successful nanny-family work-from-home relationship.
At the end of the day,
with trust, respect, and communication, Nannies and newly work-from-home parents can spend their days harmoniously.
Our Coordinators take all of the brainpower out of navigating new relationships. We help facilitate and coach changes between nannies and families. Check out our Nanny Program or see how you can get exciting STEM projects and experiments delivered to your home!