Embarking in this career will fill the life of the nanny with unexpected surprises and satisfactions in abundance. The catch is that the nanny must want to be one. Many people work in this field for the wrong reasons. It is not right to work as a nanny only because it is an easy legal way to make money, especially not by lacking experience and the knowledge needed to face all the challenges coming along.

Nannies must be ready to juggle between two different families along with dealing with their personal lives all at the same time. Nannies have families of their own coming from different mindsets and backgrounds, social status and culture, language and religious beliefs, personality etcetera. We must put it all aside to work in our boss's kitchen while they prepare their lunch, we walk all day through in their living rooms while they might be reading a book or watching TV and we use their bathrooms right before they will use them. We are in their homes most of the day, feeling constantly, directly observed and monitored.

Accepting a nanny job for the wrong reasons will do nothing but waste many people's time. The same is for parents hiring a nanny for the wrong reasons. The nanny hiring process takes several steps and each one must be considered very seriously if the goal is to achieve a healthy employment environment. Ignoring any of the steps will certainly bring consequences for both the nanny and the family.

The following letter was written by a nanny asking for help in a nanny chatroom:

"Hello, I have posted before about my most recent nanny position where I was being taken advantage of and unappreciated. I am glad to say that thanks to the wonderful advice I received on this forum I finally had the courage to leave that job. I have been out for a couple of weeks now. I didn't find other employment prior to leaving because I felt that I needed a little time off to get my head together after leaving such a stressful situation. But now the reality of having to find a new job is sinking in... I have decided that as much as I love working as a nanny, it just isn't for me anymore. I get too emotionally attached and let the families take advantage of me. I am hoping to find an office position as I do have prior experience in payroll, data entry, and accounts payable/accounts receivable. Has anyone else had experience with leaving the nanny field after 9+ years? I am really worried about how this looks on my resume. It has been so long since I have worked in an office setting, and with other adults. I worry that my potential employers will look down on my Nanning. Like I have just been wiping butts and watching doc mcstuffins for the past 9 years. Is it difficult for employers to look at you as a professional adult after working as a nanny for several years?"

Here is a perfect example of the lack of professionalism. Sometimes I can understand why some employers take so long to trust a great nanny. This person worked over nine years as a nanny and is tired of allowing her employer to take advantage of her. She also undermines some areas of the responsibilities pertinent to the job like changing diapers, and, why watching doc mcstuffins for that long? Why was she placed as a nanny in the first place? She doesn’t sound like she was ever serious about the job. It is obvious that this nanny and the family were a mismatch since the beginning. Before the interview for this particular case happened, extensive communication between the family and the nanny should have taken place. To me, this nanny took the first vacancy she found skipping through the steps before committing. 

 I allude from the letter the nanny might have found that job through an agency and that the agency ghosted the nanny at the end. I said this for her mentioning a need to change careers; otherwise, I can imagine that mistakenly she would be  willing to continue accepting the next nanny job falling on her hands.

Every day nannies in the US exchange hard work for money; but some nannies agree to every want a potential employer requests causing themselves to compromise their position from the start and not only their position but their whole career. It is also common that nannies accept positions where the description of the job conceals a heavy workflow not possibly done in one shift only because terms were not set clear before committing.

Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge coupled with discrimination and abuse broadly exist in the domestic arena. Authority figures with the sufficient voice can’t advocate for these workers because they can’t see it. What's worse, there are no Departments of law willing to help a worker of this class. Meanwhile nannies are allowed to keep working in circumstances they learn to hate consequently leaving a message that erroneously make some employers believe that nanny work relates to household duties paralleled to "babysitting". Lots of nannies prefer quitting their jobs before communicating their discontent to their employers because they lack the knowledge to speak up and in my opinion it is better that they quit. No one  hired to be a nanny should perform other duties like heavy housekeeping, pet sitting or free babysitting for others at the same time. Not if the description of the job did not specify it clearly. Nannies can join domesticworker.org to learn more about their rights. Good luck because no one seems to care.

Other key factors besides nanny responsibilities to address during the interview should be to clarify optional benefits and compensation guarantees. The benefits commonly available for nannies open a window to mutually negotiate. Employment is an exchange of guaranteed hard work for money.

The nanny employment agreement is the greatest tool that binds equitable benefits for both the employers and the nanny. Each point should independently and carefully be reviewed, before setting each side's terms on the table to avoid signing a commitment prematurely to prevent a break up.