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What I’m Wearing This Winter

Not sure what you should be wearing to work this winter?

As I mentioned last week when I was talking about how the fashionable professional nanny should dress, kids are messy and clothes get super dirty. They’re also at risk of being damaged and permanently stained sometimes. So given that kids are super active and life as a nanny is fast-paced, practicality and comfort usually win out. This means gym clothes and tracksuits are perfectly acceptable most days.

However, that aside, it’s still important to put some thought and planning into your outfit. When winter comes around, I prefer to stick with comfortable materials that can be layered, are durable, and ready to wear. Here’s what I’m wearing this winter.

Nanny Style Series: Winter Fashion 2014

a winter beanie | a warm winter beanie is a great item to have tucked away in your nanny (or diaper) bag. If you’re anything like me, you like milking every last second in bed under the warm blankets before starting your day. Of course this means time spent in front of the mirror each morning is minimal. Pull on a beanie to keep unruly ‘bed hair’ in place when you’re required to report for duty on those early crisp winter mornings.

dark shades | go au naturel and make-up free with oversized sunglasses during the day. Because you’re worth it!

an oversized t-shirt | throw on a top that’s light weight and comfortable material to be wearing all day. Something that’s durable and sustains the mess that comes with working with kids and yet still looks professional enough to be seen wearing at the school pick-up.

a warm scarf | a good quality knitted scarf, like this weave knit snood, will make sure you’re warm at all times. When kids are bounding all over you and you’re in an out of jackets and jumpers, a constant warm material around your neck and shoulders will make sure your core body temperature is controlled.

baby friendly jewellery | jewellery can be a difficult accessory to get right when considering the most appropriate attire to wear when working with kids. Over the top bold pieces are too much and anything dangling is a disaster waiting to happen! Finding the right baby friendly jewellery, like silicone jelly necklaces for example, are a great way to jazz up your outfit whilst also keeping things practical.

comfortable jeans | a good pair of jeans is always a safe bet. They’re the ultimate fashion piece and can be dressed up or down. They’re also practical, generally sustain all kinds of wear and tear and keep you well covered in the cold.

winter jacket | warm jackets are tricky when working with kids. I find I’m usually so busy running around that anything too warm is going to make me hot and bothered. A good light-weight jacket is great because you can throw it on and off as you go about your day running errands. It’s best to make sure it’s washing machine friendly as it’s guaranteed to get dirty sooner than later. Something with plenty of pockets also comes in useful.

the vest | is probably my favourite fashion piece during the winter months. I love being able to throw one on over a long sleeved shirt and know that my back will be warm. It’s great because it means you’re arm movements aren’t restricted – essential when toting around babies and toddlers on your hip all day!

comfortable shoes | wearing ballet flats and converse shoes are probably one the best perks of the nanny job. Being able to get around in comfortable shoes that allow you to chase after a toddler and kick a ball in the backyard is a must!

Tell me, what’s your favourite winter wardrobe item? Are you a jeans or tights lover?

5 Things You Should Never Fudge On Your Nanny Resume

Continuing the theme of “the professional nanny”, today I’m sharing 5 Things You Should Never Fudge On Your Nanny Resume. Because, I’m telling you, I get it. Landing a job can be tough sometimes, especially if you’re looking mid season after all the positions have been filled. You need to pay your bills, you’re missing the kiddie interactions and worried about having too much of an unexplainable gap on your resume that screams “sketchy”. But I assure you, when it comes to writing your nanny resume, these 5 Things You Won’t Want To Fudge.

5 Things You Should Never Fudge On Your Nanny Resume

1. Don’t stretch your experience with varying ages

Whilst it’s part of the job to be familiar with all ages – in most cases nannies should be knowledgeable from new-born to adolescence – sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Your last three families all had school age kids and the only time you’ve been close to a baby was that time you babysat for a friend? The ‘baby’ was actually two years old and already asleep.

Some circumstances you can’t control. But don’t fudge it into more than it was. If interviewing for a position with a baby, the parents will appreciate your honesty rather than finding out two days into the job you’ve actually got no idea. If you are unsure or inexperienced, it won’t take long for the parents to see through your fumbled attempts at preparing formula and swaddling. Plus, honesty from the get go will probably sell you more than pretend experience will.

2. Don’t pretend to be a domestic house goddess if you’re not

The quickest and easiest way to create problems between you and your employers is failure to perform duties according to expectation. Even if you’re a super nanny and the kids adore you, failure to cover all aspects of the task will cause problems. If your employers expect light housework duties and you’re not doing them, they’ll be debating whether their financial investment is worthwhile. Seeing as there are many different types of nannies and that you should define what type of nanny you are, it’s perfectly acceptable to elect not to undertake these tasks. It’s also reasonable to stipulate your interpretation of “light housework”. Just make sure everyone is on the same page.

3. Don’t talk up your cooking abilities

A solid understanding of healthy eating, meal components and the importance of children’s nutritional guidelines are essential. But not everyone can be a master chef. Especially when you’ve got to multi task. However, if your idea of cooking is microwaved Mac n Cheese, don’t proclaim to be able to cook. Instead push that you’re willing to learn and will readily follow a recipe.

4. Don’t spin stories into happy endings

The interview process is rigorous. Families interview countless applicants and size them up according to individual ideals. So I understand that the need to sell yourself is crucial!

However, don’t pretend you left your last post of three months for positive reasons if they weren’t. Whilst job commitment is highly valued and a random three months raises eyebrows, it’s only natural that not every nanny will fit every family. Explain that you gave it your best shot but that it didn’t “gel”. This shows prospective employers you’re serious about getting it “right” and speaks volumes to your character.

5. Don’t commit long term if you can’t

This last one can have major consequences to your reputation long term. If you’re looking for a career that lets you go to work everyday and enjoy the playground as your office, the nanny job is for you. It’s also a decent interim job between career moves, travels or further studies. I’m sure you’ve realised that flexible hours, fun activities, and a reasonable income are alluring qualities.

Nonetheless if you know you’re going to travel in a few months, or that you’re likely to get bored and move on soon, don’t lead employers on. Committing to a long-term position and then breaking contract will hurt the children, your employers and ultimately your reputation. Instead, maintaining complete transparency with potential employers will be of greater benefit because the nanny community talks!

Are you interviewing for jobs and still waiting for call backs? Email me, I can help.
Are you a parent and not sure where to start with hiring someone to care for your littles?
Email me. I got this!

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For more on the professional nanny, check out these links:

Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT

The Professional Nanny Style Series

Ladies Fashion In The Workplace

Fashion in the workplace is a serious issue, especially when it comes to working with children. It’s also not just a concern for nannies. School teachers, childcare workers, and healthcare professionals must all consider their attire before leaving the house. Why? Because, as with most jobs, the clothing has to fit the demands. However, unlike most other jobs that place emphasis on the professionalism of the put-together ladies fashion attire, if you’re working with kids you must also consider the practicality. Simply put, kids are messy and clothes get dirty and ruined.

I was talking with a friend recently (she’s also a nanny and the owner of this nanny agency). It was a freezing cold winter day and so we agreed that it was a puffa jacket and converse kind of day. Which when you think about it, is something pretty special. Because there are very few jobs where you can get away with turning up at work in tracksuits, or gym clothes, or lazy oversized pullovers.

The general rules for your attire when working as a nanny can be pretty fickle. Gumboots, sloppy joes, and warm winter tights are all fine but heels aren’t? Yes you can wear gym clothes but a plain tank top is not advised? Confused? Actually, it’s pretty simple.

| “Dress for comfort, dress for practicality, dress for the weather, dress to show your employers that you know what you’re doing and to show your kids that you mean business.”

Whilst in some cases it may be appropriate for nannies to wear gym clothes to work, there are times where it may not always be the best choice. You should consider your surroundings, the wishes of your employers, the planned activities for the day and the demands of the job.

For example, I used to work with boys (full-on active boys aged seven and four years of age). Given they were highly active kids, most of the time I could get away with gym clothes. Almost every afternoon we were at a different sporting activity and if we were at home, you could find us kicking a ball around in the backyard or playing ‘stacks on’. Gym clothes allowed me the freedom to jump in and join the boys in their activities to be hands-on; an essential part of being a nanny.

On the other hand, some situations might give you the freedom to wear a more ‘put together’ outfit. For example, you may work with girls that are more at home doing craft activities and DIY indoors. In this case, you’re likely to be safe with a professional ensemble of jeans and a crisp shirt.

In your nanny career, when considering ladies fashion and professionalism, there are a few key points to remember when putting together your nanny outfit.

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The Professional Nanny: Things To Remember When Styling Your Outfit

be professional at all times | whilst you might be able to get away with wearing tights or gym pants at work, make sure you still look presentable. This means no offensive language printed on clothing materials, no visible body art or tattoos and no visible inappropriate body piercings. Key Point: be sure to limit your makeup. Instead keep it light, minimal and fresh!

dress appropriately | it’s important to take into account the nature of your work. This means if you’re working with kids (boys or girls, active or not) ensure your clothing suits the demands. Light summer dresses and skirts must be modest and your cleavage should be hidden at all times. If you think you might find yourself in a situation that prevents your from participating because of your fashion choices, don’t wear it!

consider your surroundings | as fashionable and stylish as you may be, we all have those days when we want to go to as little effort as possible with our appearance. But if you know you’re set for a day of parent teacher interviews at school or a day of running important errands, it’s best to leave the sweat pants for another time and instead dress in smart casual attire.

the children’s ages | kids are messy and dirty, especially babies and toddlers. As I mentioned in The Nanny Life (5 Things About My Job), they sneeze on you, wipe their snotty noses all over you, they get dirty and it seems like they’re always covered in food. Whether you’re simply carrying kids around, or in the direct line of fire from a baby having a food tantrum, at some point you’re likely to wear it. Just as most other professions have a work wardrobe and causal wardrobe, should too should you. Leave your sunday best for Sunday!

accessories | as always, minimal and modest is best. Whilst it’s important to teach children about how to treat personal belongings and to look after special items, dangly earrings and over the top jewellery are not great accessories for life working with kids.

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The key points: make sure your clothes are practical and appropriate at all times & be prepared for your clothes to be ruined, stained, ripped, and stretched out of shape.

What’s your take on ladies fashion in the workplace? Have you ever had a favourite clothing item ruined beyond repair at the hands of your littles?

images from Seed Heritage. this is not a sponsored post, I just think that currently, Seed gets the balance right between practicality and professionalism**

Children’s Birthdays: My Favourite Things

One of the best parts about being a nanny (in my opinion) is the children’s birthdays.

Birthdays have always been one of my favourite celebrations. Not for the material reasons, but as a time for family to come together and enjoy the moment. This year I was super excited to celebrate the birthdays with the kids I nanny for. Partly I think it’s the excitement and the party games and the pretty decorations. Hello balloon confetti! But mostly it’s because I feel incredibly privileged to be able to share in the special moments. Moments that are most often reserved just for family members.

Back in April we had a busy month. In the space of seven days we strayed from the norm for a non-traditional Easter egg hunt, did Anzac Day commemorations, and enjoyed four birthday celebrations. Yes, that’s right, I said four! Baby Viv turned one, Miss6 moved up to Miss7 and The Twins turned 12. Oh hey pre-teen adolescence stage, you’re going to be fun!

The week of endless cake and candles just happened to fall bang in the middle of school holidays. Whilst we tried to do most of the shopping online beforehand, I still found myself trawling the shops at the last-minute with a pram and a begrudging child. One of the more memorable items on the wish list had me fanatically trying to track down a particularly rare species of fish to match the aesthetic of the other fish already in the tank. Yep, true story. We also had to restock the elusive candles and matches, which had no doubt fallen victim to abyss that is “that cupboard” in the kitchen. I’m sure you have one too!

| “Making children’s birthdays special!”

This year the girls gave me quite a challenge for their birthdays. As well as the usual rattling off random items onto their wish list based on whichever ludicrous T.V. advert they’d just sen, I’d suddenly been promoted from nanny to cake pâtissier. Because apparently baking the trusty never-fail muffin recipe and banana bread each week implied that I was in fact a pastry chef. Of course I accepted the challenge with grace and gave it my best shot, although I don’t know if I’ll be volunteering my services for the task again next year. It might just be better to leave it up to the professionals.

So I know all of this happened way back in April, and ermahgerd we’re already in July. Seriously, how is it July already? My plans are way behind schedule and I’m freaking out! But just as I had the opportunity to share in the special family moments and celebrate the birthdays, and just as I have celebrated many milestones on seemingly ordinary days prior, I also want to invite you in and share these with you too. If only so I can get some feedback on where I went wrong with these epic cake fails!

1st Birthday Milestones

Baby fingers got to the icing before we could snap a picture!
Baby Viv’s 1st birthday was a pretty special moment for us. I’ve cared for this little precious girl since she was 7 weeks old and I’m thoroughly attached, perhaps overly! I was there when she first giggled, when she first could hold her head up and when she began scooting around on the floor. I was there that time she was feeling adventurous and fell off the couch giving me a heart attack!! And I’ve been there, day in day out, in the never ending battle of power over food and eating preferences. So it was truly special to be there to celebrate her 1st birthday with the family too.

We decided on a handbag cake for her special day. Baby Viv has long had a penchant for hand bags, sparkly things, pretty colours and anything that can be put over her head. From an early age she’d play with my scarf as I rocked her off to sleep and now that winter is here she’s enjoying them once again!

The 7th Birthday

Much to my panic and horror as I thought ‘how on earth am I going to make that?!’ Miss7 requested a puppy dog cake for her birthday. Miss7 and her puppy Beansie have a truly gorgeous relationship, and she and her sisters are very lucky to grow up with the benefit of pets. They truly provide so much love and care, not to mention responsibility. And I admit, I too am quite take with little isha-beansie-puppy-hat as she is lovingly referred to.

In the end I think the cake didn’t turn out too badly. Athough after 7 eggs, 1.5kg of flour, an entire evening in the kitchen, and a whole lot of chocolate icing I think I was happy to accept any attempt.

The Twins: Double Trouble Birthdays

A few days later it was time to don my chef hat once again to whip up something for The Twins. Thankfully they’d made it somewhat easy for me by requesting an old favourite; these Holey Moley Gooey Chocolate Brownies. I did make a short lived attempt to suggest that maybe brownies weren’t “birthday” enough, but I didn’t put up much a fight as they stood their ground. I did have fun with these though. Because given that we were all drowning in chocolate easter eggs (and by this stage completely done with gorging ourselves on birthday cake), I decided to melt some chocolate down to put into the brownies. The result was amazing, if I do say so myself. I threw some chocolate ganache and icing sugar of the top with some sprinkles and ta-da; the Birthday Brownie Cake was done!

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How do you make children’s birthdays special at your place? And is anyone else getting ready to live with teenagers?

Opening image, before edit: Poppytalk

This post is linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.

Living With Intention

In my Year 12 HSC English exam I had a meltdown. Although at the same time, I also had a breakthrough. It was both terrifyingly scary and yet strangely welcome. Because at last I was getting somewhere with things. At last I was getting somewhere with myself. At last I was able to let the words flow. I wrote that HSC English exam like I’m sure no-one else has ever written an education and career defining exam. Why? Because at the end of the exam when the bored old man called “time” on 12 years of English schooling, I ripped it up and left it all behind.

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Living With Intention: Writing + Life’s Lessons

Given that I write this blog, it’s perhaps no surprise that I’m rather fond of words. And whilst I’m a very diligent person who enjoys structure and stability and the predictability that goes with a more rigid passion, I’ve always been a bit of a creative. Be it words, or music, or dance or craft – I just get it. I feel it. With words, it’s been a love since forever. I enjoy reading them, I enjoy writing them, I enjoy listening to them and I love speaking them.

I’ve been pinning quotes to a Pinterest board lately to keep me motivated. They’re usually in quirky typography, maybe decorated with a few flowers and occasionally accompanied by a fittingly “pun(ny)” 1 liner.

Blessed with a good memory to be able to place small details that help me remember exact locations, years, and moments, these words come in handy. I can remember where I read them, what I was doing, how I felt at the time, and the significance of those words on myself and others. These words have a dear place within me and serve as inspiration, either for future blog pieces here, for future stories made up on the spot to cheeky children resisting the call of sleep, or to be moulded into song lyrics with Miss7.

Starting this blog was a natural extension of my love for words. I discovered the benefit of uncovering a much-needed way to express myself through writing. I felt as though I needed to document my journey working with children as a nanny and as a way to offer helpful resources to other aspiring professional nannies and in-home childcare providers.

However, I wasn’t always so great with words. There was a time in my life that the words failed me. I was left with an empty black hole in my head, with nothing going on up there. Struggling with severe depression and an eating disorder, I went into my Year 12 HSC English exam and stared at a blank page. Granted I could count on one hand the number of times I’d attended an English class in the lead up to the exam, I sat in that exam unable to comprehend the question, unable to gather my thoughts and unable to eloquently convey anything remotely appropriate. Into the thick blank booklet that was ‘supposedly’ going to determine the outcome of the rest of my life (as many underwhelming teachers had unwittingly preached) I wrote nothing. Aware that this was going to draw unwanted attention, and to quell the rising panic in my head as I began to realise what failing to write the exam would no doubt mean for my future, I channeled by energy and instead wrote a story.

In my Year 12 HSC english exam I sat and wrote a creative writing piece. Not a creative writing piece to match the prompts like every other student. I wrote a piece from the heart I’d felt compelled to let forth. This story spilled out from my brain from where moments earlier there’d been a blank space of nothing. So I went with it. I went with it and for the better part of two long hours I frantically scribbled words down onto the page. Words I then tore out and pocketed as I exited the exam. Words that wouldn’t have gotten me very far in the world of Year 12 HSC english, but that I’ve since toted around with me everywhere. Words that occupy a special place inside of me, and inside my treasure box under lock and key amongst things like baby bracelets and my grandmother’s jewellery.

These words were not even written in the language I was most familiar with. They were not English. Because for two hours in what was supposedly to be one of the most important moments in my life, in where I was supposed to display just how well I understood and could apply the english language, instead I wrote in French.

Because in that moment, I accepted I was unable to complete the task at hand and instead dedicated my efforts to be more productive towards an alternate demand. I practiced intentional living. That same afternoon I was to sit my Yr 12 HSC French exam, and I was determined not to let the events of that morning transpire to psych me out of doing well in my other passions. I took that opportunity, a time in where I could have easily thrown it in and walked away from it all, and I kept going with intention.

Needless to say, I aced that French exam. As for English, well I still got my HSC, I still went on to university, and I still came out on top. The world did not end.

Fast forward the years and my direction in life has altered course to match my evolving ideals and wants. The common theme amongst it all has been the resounding resolve that I’m not a quitter. I know what I want and I go after it. I dedicate myself to what I must do to achieve, and I make it work. Much like that time in Year 12 when I was down and out, and things were holding me back from my full potential, I embrace the challenges and live with intention. I do what I can to come out on top!

And I’m glad I had that experience, those horrible blurred teenage years. For now I know what hard work is. Now I know what it’s like when the odds are stacked against you. Now I know just how much strength and courage it takes to ‘keep on growing’, and I know that I will get there.

As my creative side – my writing and reading and artsy-fartsy – collides with my rigid enjoyment of rules and structure to make a melange of business nouse, I know I’ve got the skills to go forth and conquer in my entrepreneurial endeavours.

So to have been nominated for another bloggers award (by the lovely Norah Colvin) – the Versatile Bloggers award – is another timely little reminder that I’m doing ok here. The fact that you come back each time to read my thoughts, to share in my experiences, and sometimes have a giggle is the biggest thank you and reminder that this is what I’m supposed to be doing and that writing is ‘one of my things.’

Have you ever struggled with something that’s held you back from your full potential?

image: Southern Charm