NATIONAL NANNY RECOGNITION WEEK IS SEPTEMBER 23 TO 29 and we wanted to do something special for all of our amazing nannies!

I just spent 60+ hours with my busy and entertaining 2.5 year old grandaughter while her parents attended a wedding in San Francisco. The last day, I was truly looking forward to that two hour nap time break, but she just would not nap at all. It happens some times. It was a very special and fun packed, memorable weekend, with bike rides to the park, swimming, library story hour, but it was intense! I am used to having more ‘space’, more time to do my own thing.

I now have a much greater appreciation of what our nannies do day in and day out!

Do you have a wonderful, loving creative, patient nanny in your life who loves your kids like they were her own, builds forts with them in the living room, gets them to eat their brocolli, and comes up with amazing crafts and art projects? Has she taught them manners, to pick up their toys, potty trained them, made up songs with them?

Tell us about your WONDERFUL NANNY in a short essay–just a few paragraphs, and photos if possible, telling us how she has made your family life richer, easier and happier, and made a lasting impact on your family, and she’ll be entered into our contest! The winning nanny will receive a $50 cash gift as well as a free ticket to our 2013 National Nanny Training Day. Three runner-ups will receive tickets to the Conference.

The best hours of our week are doing follow up calls and hearing all the great stories of the difference our nannies have made in your lives, so lets all take this opportunity given to us by National Nanny Recognition

Week 2013to let our nannies know how much we appreciate them!

Check out the rules below and then tell us about your nanny! Send them to me at beth@acaringnanny.com.

Rules:
The Nanny needs to have been placed by Caring Nannies, and the essays and photos can be used by Caring Nannies. The deadline for submission is September 20.

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Caring Nannies Recently held a cutting edge one day training event in Paradise Valley with 37 nannies in attendance, greatly exceeding our expectations! We were expecting 8 but hoping for 20!  Nannies who had never experienced training geared to the private home environment were delighted and encouraged.

 Why do we need to train nannies? Doesn’t a good nanny already have the skills she needs to work successfully with children?

There is no other job as important as raising a child, your own or someone elses, and the informal home environment lends itself to parents and nannies thinking that ongoing training isn’t needed. It just comes naturally, right? However, research shows that nannies become skilled professionals when experience and a warm engaging personality is combined with knowleldge of how a child develops physically, socially, intellectually and emotionally plus creative ideas to make it happen.

The event was open to nannies throughout the community and many of the parents graciously paid the registration fee.

As in any profession, there is always more to learn, and it’s motivating to receive the appreciation for their critical impact in their unique role. The opportunity to network with  others in their field and exchange contact information is encouraging. Nannying can be isolating with no peers to talk to during the day.

With Kathy Rowe from Music Together, in a very hands on fun session, we experienced  how to incorporate music into the day–a huge brain boost to children. Jeremy King from Az Tutor and Life Coach laid out how to effectively develop responsibility and self-motivation, a seasoned Newborn Specialist explained the keys to babies and toddlers taking naps and sleeping through the night. Martha Rockwell, professional career coach and owner of A+Resumes, gave tips on how to find our dream jobs, and a panel of expert Home Managers discussed how to move from Nanny to Nanny Manager.

Breakfast and lunch were included as well as a goodie bag including a kid’s cook book. Fun prizes were raffled off including a large basket of essential safety devices from Childproofers USA, an hour of professional career and resume counseling from Martha, a make-over from Dephane Marcel from Salon Moda Fina in Scottsdale, and a Monster Repellant Spray from Fairytale Wishes. Lice Doctors generously sponsored our lunch.

The event was sponsored by Nanny Biz Reviews and was held in conjunction with National Week of the Young Child. Caring Nannies is tremendously encouraged by the success of this years training and is already at work planning our next training event this fall. At Caring Nannies, we are asking our caregivers to commit to two out of three training events per year, because we have experiencd the difference training makes.

Beth Weise
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