“How to Hire a Nanny” walks parents through the process of hiring, managing and retaining a nanny. The book stresses the importance of open communication and effective practices and procedures as the underlying message. Some important sections include using an agency, scheduling, wages, hiring laws, and discrimination. There is even a tools section with interview questions, sample offer letters, job postings, and important nanny websites like BestNanny.com

We recommend reading Maddalone’s book. You can find it at Borders.com and receive 30% off a single item with Borders coupons we found on a discount site.

If you know your nanny’s interests, this will be a big factor in narrowing down your search. If not, no worries, there are plenty of generic gifts that will suffice. Does your nanny drives your children to and from school, friends’ houses, sports/activities, etc.? Does she commute long distances to and from your home? If this is the case, travel electronics may be the area in which to look for a holiday gift for your nanny. Travel electronic gifts may range from a GPS navigation system, to car adapters and chargers.

GPS navigation systems tend to run on the expensive side. Perhaps, if the GPS is out of your price range, you may look into that for yourself; or your nanny may drive one of your own vehicles, in which the purchase may then prove more rational.

If your nanny is on the move quite often, adapters and rechargeable backup batteries may be ideal. Adapters range from headphone adapters to phone adapters. They are a more economical gift for your nanny. Rechargeable batteries are a reasonably priced gift. iPods and iPhones always need recharging, and when your nanny is traveling and transporting your children, she does not have time to find a wall plug, let alone sit and wait for her device to recharge.

This should prove a good start, if not solution for finding a gift for your nanny. You can find all the above suggestions at Brookstone.com, a leading electronics retailer. Use a Brookstone coupon for an exclusive 10% discount.

Here is a link that will instantly give you the discount when you sign up:

SAVE 10% on SITTERCITY REGISTRATION! CLICK HERE NOW
and ENTER PROMO CODE: SCSAVE10 when you check out!

I have checked and made sure that the code works on the registration, please let me know if it doesn’t work for you!

Some parents can afford a spare car for their nannies, though most cannot, let alone cover the car insurance. Times are tough, the economy is hurting, and now is the time to save money whenever possible. Here at BestNanny.com, this is where we feel that we can be of some assistance. Not too long ago, we noticed that a nanny of one of the family’s of a daughter in our son’s class had a different car every single week. This seemed odd to us, and quite curious. My first thought was that the husband was a car salesman, but after seeing the different car brands, I knew that was not the case. I soon came to find out that they had been renting cars on a weekly basis for their nanny to help cut costs through Budget Rent-A-Car. This thought had never crossed my mind. After seeing it on paper, the math spoke for itself. On top of this, the family was saving using rental car coupons they found online.

It is not too late to look into renting cars and Budget has several locations in and around your neighborhoods.

You also may not know that SitterCity offer more services than just baby sitters and nannies. They’ve also recently introduced a few new care types in addition to childcare and pet care services. Sittercity.com is now a great place to find tutors, house sitters and senior care providers. They have tons of tutors who can help with a variety of subjects and grade levels, in addition to home care providers who can watch your house and pets while you are away for the summer. Please remember, Sittercity members have access to ALL CARE TYPES when they sign up for a Sittercity membership.

If you are on the lookout for childcare, pet sitting, or tutoring, why not try and get it all for on fee and with one service?

www.sittercity.com

Here is the link to get started: Cafe Mom

CafeMom is an online community created especially for moms. CafeMom enables thousands of moms to come together online to swap stories and advice on a huge range of topics, share photos, and connect with friends. Plus, you can start public or private groups with other moms about common interests. The exciting new sweepstakes offer will be running until 6/15/08.

CafeMom Diaper Sweepstakes Details
• All new registered members who sign up for Cafemom will enter a chance to win 1 year free diapers

That’s it! So go ahead, sign up today for a chance to win and check out a great community of moms in the meanwhile. For you professional Nannies out there looking to network with a community of mothers, this would be a great place to meet them.

This is where the value of a nanny service or nanny agency starts. They build their reputation on providing quality childcare professionals and know that they may be providing this service ongoingly for some families. Whether you opt for the nationwide services such as SitterCity or Nannies4Hire or a local service, the key difference is the same. They provide a deep resource of candidates that can get you to the interview process rapidly with qualified candidates and if your current nanny decides to run off and elope they can help find a replacement quickly.

Additionally, much of the important work in clearing a nanny to work with you can be provided by the agency or service company. They do they DMV drivers record check, make sure they have CPR certifications, conduct criminal background checks and validate the quality of each candidates resume. All of these things are critical to do before employing someone to be in your house while you are away to care for your children. If you are new to hiring this type of help, you may try going to an agency first, learning their process and then start recruiting for yourself. If you have plenty of time to do this legwork your self, you may interview several services to learn about their process, the services they provide and then gauge whether or not this is something you can do yourself.

In retrospect, I think we would have had an easier time if we had gone with an agency, utilized their services and worked with professionals. If you’d like to try SitterCity, now is a great time as they are offering a promotion code that gives you 10% off on your service registration.

While not yet placed on our website navigation, expect it soon, and in the meantime, you can go to the following link and register or post your questions or open position to the group. You will be able to find the new forum here:

Best Nanny Forums

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

First of all, please look at some of the services we recommend or promote and consider signing up with them. It is free and the more listings you create, the more opportunities you will have in finding the right family situation for you. Secondly, there are several advertisers that reach people through our service that are localized to the area you live. Try these services as well to advertise yourself locally through the local agencies. Finally, feel free to post you information in the comment section of this articles for prospective parents to read and contact you.

In time, we are looking to launch a forum where nannies and parents can post and communicate directly and for free. Any feedback from the group? Good Idea? Let us know what you think.

This article is not intended to shock or scare anyone, rather, I am interested in what is the right balance between trust and checking up on things. These are our children after all. We have personally never used one, nor felt like we needed one. The thought occurs to me that if your child has a change of behaviour, or dreads seeing the nanny, it may be a good idea to get a clearer picture of how your child is being cared for. If these things are going on as described above, and you suspect your nanny is the cause of it, its probably time to find a new caregiver anyway.

There are positive uses for a nanny cam. If you work extensive hours it is a good way to check in on what is going on at home and to at least see the kids at play. If deployed in partnership with your nanny, it can be used as a means of communication between you, your nanny and kids.

Does anybody reading this site use a nanny cam? How and why do you use it?