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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Ways a Nanny Can Save Busy Parents Time


Many of today’s two-parent households have both parents working outside the home. Time at home with the kids is tight, and parents are always looking for time-saving ways to make their lives easier. Fortunately parents that employ nannies have an advantage: their nanny. An organized, proactive nanny can help busy families save time and energy. Here are a few ways your nanny might be able to help your family.


Keep up with family laundry. Nannies typically do all of the children’s laundry as part of the traditional nanny job. However, that still leaves Mom or Dad washing, drying and putting away their own clothes, sheets, and towels in the evening or on the weekend. Because laundry requires that you’re home either for long stretches of time or that you do a lot of running in and out throughout the day, it can be an inconvenient and time-intensive chore. By including this in your nanny’s job description, parents can free up a lot of time and enjoy knowing that they’ll actually have clean clothes, sheets and towels when they need them.

Keep an accurate grocery list and household supply list. How many times have you gone to the grocery store or warehouse store only to realize that you didn’t know exactly what you needed? What a waste of time and energy. By using a simple inventory system, your nanny can keep your list up-to-date so you can make sure your pantry and refrigerator are stocked with everything you need to feed the family. She can also keep a running list of household items you need, such as toothpaste, toilet paper, baby wipes and laundry detergent. Putting your nanny in charge of your shopping lists helps you make the most of every trip and eliminates the need for any last minute, end of the day stops.

Handle grocery and household supply shopping. Having your nanny keep your shopping lists up-to-date is a big time saver, and if she also has the time to do the shopping during the day she can save you even more time. Stores are usually less crowded during the day so it’s likely that your nanny can get in and out quicker than you can on the weekend. She can also make it a fun learning experience for your kids too.

Schedule and oversee small household projects. Need to have the cable guy come out and fix a problem, but don’t want to waste a Saturday morning waiting for him? Need to get the air vents cleaned throughout the house, but can’t seem to find a good time to schedule it? Want to get an estimate on how much it will cost to retile the master bathroom, but don’t want to take off work to meet with the contractor? These and similar jobs can easily be handled by your nanny. She has the advantage of being able to be home for long stretches during the day so she can easily accommodate workmen’s flexible scheduling. Allowing her to manage jobs in a way that fits in with her overall schedule helps you without interrupting her daily rhythm.

Keep up with school to dos. Having children in school comes with a lot of extra projects and tasks. Your kids need supplies for the latest project. It’s your turn to bring in the class snack. The afterschool team needs a volunteer to help create the team roster and email regular reminders and updates. The spring play is around the corner and every child is responsible for his own custom costume. Parents who take on these tasks can save lots of time by asking their nanny for help with the logistics and details. This allows the parents to be active in the school community while delegating much of the behind the scenes work to the nanny. No, this isn’t cheating. This is putting your time and energy into what’s most important to your child.

Take on essential shopping and errands. In a busy household, there’s always something that’s needs to be done. Your child needs a gift for an upcoming birthday party, a new winter coat, or a replacement uniform sweater. The home office printer is low on paper and ink. You need to pick up a prescription refill before your business trip. Instead of spending an entire Saturday afternoon getting all of those things done, your nanny can spread the errands out over the work week or can pick up some extra hours in the evening or on a weekend morning to run errands while you spend time relaxing with your family. Parents who have a nanny have the opportunity to tailor their job description in ways that can really save them time. Remember as you decide what you want your nanny to take on that one person can only do so much. You want your nanny’s first priority to always be your child.

Source: enanny source
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