The Nanny Life

Just me. And my shaaaaadow.

I've wanted to share the decision process for how we came to hire a nanny for a while now. I skated over it in earlier posts. The problem is, the decision of who will care for your children while you work OR if you will do paid work at all is one of the hotly debated topics of Mommyhood. I always find myself over explaining when I mention we have a nanny. I feel like I have to qualify our choice with information that helps the listener understand no we're not rich, we're not snobby and our child is not spoiled. It was just the best choice for OUR family.

This is the part I hate most about being a Momma. I don't mind if people want to judge me. I feel confident that my decisions are the right ones for us. What really bothers me is when I tell someone about my decision and it is an inferred judgement of their own life decisions. It's as if my choice to hire a nanny is a direct condemnation of their daycare or stay-at-home mom choice. I don't feel that way at all. Here is how I feel about it: All mom's work. Period. I get a paycheck which offers me some validation of my work and accomplishments. Prior to my paycheck, I had Alexa's beautiful smile as validation of the work I was accomplishing.

U like it when I smile like this Momma?

I was completely intimidated by the process of hiring a nanny before I started. I don't know anyone who has a nanny. I didn't know how to hire one. I had NO idea how to handle payroll taxes. But, I did what I do when I'm intimidated. I dived right in and figured it out.

We ended up using www.nannies4hire.com. We posted our family profile. We looked at nanny profiles. We accepted resumes. We held interviews. I couldn't make a decision so we asked follow-up questions. And then we made a hire and did an intensive background check. The background check was clean. We use www.4nannytaxes.com to handle payroll. Ta-Da. The End.

I'll be your body guard and you can be my long lost friend.

What I love most about our decision is Alexa's ease of transition. She loves having a play pal more than I thought was possible at this age. Her nanny is one of those people who just loves children. I know that Alexa has the comforts of home, combined with a loving and stimulating environment. As a cherry on top of this whip cream filled decision, I get some desperately needed help. The nanny does Alexa's laundry and helps keep the house clean.

It's good. It's Prada and Dior purse good. And since I'm paying a nanny salary out of my work salary, I won't be buying any Prada or Dior soon. So it needs to be good. I heard that some of my other posts have been helpful to others in their mommyhood decisions, and so I hope this one will be filed in that category as well.