| Author | Message | ||
     jro Citizen Username: Jro Post Number: 9 Registered: 8-2002 |
Does anyone have experience finding their Nanny through a Nanny Agency? Do you have one to recommend? | ||
| New In Town Citizen Username: New_in_town Post Number: 11 Registered: 12-2002 |
I recently used Americas Nannies - they have a website. I found a lovely, mature woman who is terrific with my children. She is a live-in, but they place live out as well. The fee is pretty steep - but they all are. I also paid a fee to NY Nannies. They seem to place much younger women, in their early 20's. It wasn't right for my children, but could be good fit for another family. Good luck. | ||
| New In Town Citizen Username: New_in_town Post Number: 12 Registered: 12-2002 |
I recently used Americas Nannies - they have a website. I found a lovely, mature woman who is terrific with my children. She is a live-in, but they place live out as well. The fee is pretty steep - but they all are. I also paid a fee to NY Nannies. They seem to place much younger women, in their early 20's. It wasn't right for my children, but could be good fit for another family. Good luck. | ||
| lah Citizen Username: Lah Post Number: 100 Registered: 5-2001 |
I do NOT recommend A CHOICE NANNY who supplied me with an alcoholic (for about a $2,000 fee which they did not refund). My recommendation is to find a nanny yourself and run the background checks through a local private investigator (there is one in town that works for many nanny agencies). | ||
| bmpsab Citizen Username: Bmpsab Post Number: 47 Registered: 3-2001 |
Lah, how did you find out that the nanny was an alcoholic? | ||
| lah Citizen Username: Lah Post Number: 102 Registered: 5-2001 |
After a couple of weird encounters with her, I noticed that one bottle of our hard liquor was completely empty. This bottle was a souvenier from a trip and I knew that we had never opened it. I then checked our rum and found that it had been refilled with water (I have a close friend in AA, who has explained many closet-drinking "tricks" to me). At any rate, I knew that it was neither me nor the spouse who was consuming the alcohol, so we fired her on the spot. I have since had a very positive nanny experience, but I really grilled all her references (I am talking over an hour on the phone in some cases), made her take a drug test, etc. She turned out to be a gem and it was a completely positive experience. My impression is that a nanny agency cannot do as thorough a background check as a motivated parent and that some parents -- myself included the first time around -- think that they can abbreviate their own reference checks because the nanny agency really checks their background. After having provided references for nannies now, I can tell you that is not always the case (and I suspect not often the case). | ||
| jro Citizen Username: Jro Post Number: 11 Registered: 8-2002 |
Thank you for your input. Do you have the name of the local private investigator? | ||
| lah Citizen Username: Lah Post Number: 103 Registered: 5-2001 |
I used a firm called "Mind Your Business" in Maplewood. They did the search for about $300. I haven't used them since 1998, so I don't know if they're still around. | ||
| papayagirl Citizen Username: Papayagirl Post Number: 59 Registered: 6-2002  |
On a related note, we have a classified board where i work, and a woman is offering one-week rentals of her Sony Dream Machine clock radio/nanny cam. She claims she fired her nanny the first day she used it, although i don't have any details. A coworker and i were curious to find out if she was determined and built the cam herself, or if she bought it. A quick internet search came up with cameras for sale for $200-300 that are hidden in all sorts of things - the Sony Dream Machine included. (BTW - I'm not suggesting that anyone here videotape their nanny... just sharing an interesting story.) |
