I talk to professional women every day who would like to spend more time at home raising their children. But they also feel a strong need to provide financial stability for their family, and for this reason they work full time and hire a nanny to help them raise their child and keep their house running smoothly.
Deciding to hire a nanny is not an easy decision, and many mothers call me just to discuss the pros and cons, the cost, the nanny’s responsibilities, and how we find the very best nannies in San Diego, CA. I enjoy listening to a mother or couple work through this process and decide whether hiring a nanny is the right decision for them and their family.

Once a mother has made this decision, she should take the time to find the best possible nanny for such an important job. This nanny will do more than keep her child safe; she will basically fall in love with the child and provide much of what the mother would do in terms of love, teaching, setting limits, providing an enriching learning environment, feeding healthy meals, giving plenty of active play, singing, teaching, exploring, cuddling, loving and providing a calm, safe, structured environment. These are only some of what the nanny will provide. The list can go on and on…a nanny will truly become a partner to the mom and an extended family member who loves your baby almost as much as you do.

At the same time, the nanny needs to do things the way the mom would, and she needs to adopt the mom’s style. Nannies that we place throughout San Diego will have a great deal of knowledge and experience, but they know that the mom is the authority, and what she says goes. The best nannies are happy to do things her way and they take direction well. They are not trying to replace the mom; they understand their position and enjoy it. Great nannies love to be the mom’s partner, anticipate her needs, take amazing care of children, and help the house run smoothly and calmly.

This is why mothers turn to us. We do nothing else but find, screen and source nannies. Every day for 18 years we have been talking to nannies, interviewing them, checking references, and learning more about them. In addition, listening to moms, learning about their unique personalities and the needs of their children and families, and connecting them to the right candidates is what we do every day. No one is more experienced. And no one knows more nannies than we do in the San Diego, CA area.
Some families choose to go to an online site and find their own nannies. This is not something they do every day and they rarely know what to look for and what the red flags are. Parents can become overwhelmed with trying to understand which nannies are really trustworthy and which are not presenting their experience truthfully. It can be a confusing maze of trying to figure out what to look for, what to check, what to ask in an interview, and how to know that the nanny you’re hiring is really all that she says she is. Many nannies are enthusiastic in an interview but don’t have the maturity or judgment to handle taking care of another person’s children for many hours every day. Even well-meaning people feel they can handle this job and find out that they become frustrated, bored, burned out, or just lack the interest and motivation to attend to the child in the loving and engaging way that every child deserves.

Being a career nanny requires a certain type of personality. Finding a nanny in San Diego who is right for this career and right for a particular family and child is a daunting task, especially for parents who work full time and will not be home during the day. Those parents come to us, usually because they were referred by friends, neighbors or coworkers.
As a licensed psychologist with a specialty in personality testing, I developed a personality screen that we have been using for 18 years to screen nannies. This screen helps us to assess the nanny’s personality and decide if she is right for this career. This is only the starting point. Then we check all references thoroughly, interview the nanny in person for 90 minutes, and run high quality background checks. We also use the personality screen results to match the nanny to the right family. We want all families to use the nanny for a week of trial time before making their decision. We also provide a one-year replacement policy. But we are not a revolving door. We expect our nanny placements to last for years. We do not want a family to need to change nannies. We do the work to find the best nanny in San Diego, CA for each family, because we want the children to form a solid, long term attachment to their nanny to facilitate their emotional health and development.

As a mother myself, living in beautiful and sunny San Diego, my goal is to help moms who work to find the very best care for their child so that their children grow up to be happy, well-adjusted adults who were provided with the calm, enriching environment they needed as children to learn to cope successfully with the demands of adult life and form loving, fulfilling relationships.