Where are people finding all these great nannies?

[Anonymous]

I want to know where people are finding all these great nannies. My current nanny is a really hard working person but her English is terrible and I have a very hard time understanding her half the time. We pay her $21/hr/one child/40 hours a week and she was the best candidate out of the 5 we interviewed. Is this what's available in the nanny pool these days? First time mom here so I have no idea.

[Anonymous]

I find local/neighborhood list serves to be place to find a top notch people.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of people have nannies or daycares that aren't great, they just aren't going to admit it. Some of us aren't great parents and won't admit that either.

[Anonymous]

We actually paid for a nanny agency that does personality testing for candidates, and matches with families based on these results. Our nanny agency sent us three great candidates--I think we would have been happy with any of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to know where people are finding all these great nannies. My current nanny is a really hard working person but her English is terrible and I have a very hard time understanding her half the time. We pay her $21/hr/one child/40 hours a week and she was the best candidate out of the 5 we interviewed. Is this what's available in the nanny pool these days? First time mom here so I have no idea.

We actually found our (now-former, kids are older) nanny via a recommendation on DCUM. Her prior family posted a testimonial when they no longer needed her services.

But I would also add that while her English was less than perfect, she would have thrown herself in front of a bus for our kids. And took English classes at night while she was working full time. So I wouldn't equate fluency in English with greatness.

[Anonymous]

I found our great nanny on DCUM also. But neighborhood listserves or recommendations of friends are a good place too.

[Anonymous]

I found ours through care.com - but you have to be prepared to sift through a LOT of applications

[Anonymous]

We found our nanny through neighbors after a bunch of bad interviews. She had nannied for another family and the mom who recommended her to us was friends with them and had met her at the bus stop. It was luck. But maybe talk to your neighbors or people at your preschool or wherever and see if you can gt any leads. Our youngest starts school in the fall and another family down the street has already asked me about hiring our nanny at that time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We found our nanny through neighbors after a bunch of bad interviews. She had nannied for another family and the mom who recommended her to us was friends with them and had met her at the bus stop. It was luck. But maybe talk to your neighbors or people at your preschool or wherever and see if you can gt any leads. Our youngest starts school in the fall and another family down the street has already asked me about hiring our nanny at that time.

The family asked you and not the nanny, right?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't mind the terrible English as long as she'd be able to call 911 and being understood if need be. That'd be my 1st concern.
Then, I wouldn't want my child to be speach delayed because of their nanny.

[Anonymous]

We found ours through a Facebook mom/nanny/babysitting group. We were looking for someone and had particular hours in mind, and her schedule worked well with ours. She had great experiences and references. I interviewed her, took our baby, and they got along from the get go. She's been with us for nearly a year and is like part of the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found ours through care.com - but you have to be prepared to sift through a LOT of applications

Same. We have found a few this way.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the responses. For those of you that used care.com, what did you offer? I feel like 21/hr is pretty good. We also offer 80 hours pto plus fed holidays. Our work week is also only 4 days, 10 hours per day so I feel like it's not a bad deal what we're offering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find local/neighborhood list serves to be place to find a top notch people.

+1 Or any network with personal references. I found my nanny of 7 years from a coworker whose kids were old enough that they didn't need her services any longer. I see nannies advertised occasionally on my alumni listserv for college too.

[Anonymous]

I'm in San Francisco, but we hired a nanny service. We interviewed something like four people, and wound up choosing the person with the least experience. Half a dozen years later, still one of the best decisions we've made as a married couple.

Can you offer to send your nanny to an ESL class? Maybe she'd be open if you'd pay for it.