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Prioritising Personal Time As A Nanny

The Nanny Life: Coffee & Socialising On Work Time – Ethical?

(Prioritising personal time) Life working as a nanny (just like most jobs where kids are involved) has its many good days and bad days. There are the days when you feel so much love, warmth and happiness you think your heart might burst. The days when you’re absolutely sure you’re doing exactly what you were destined to do and that things could not be more perfect if you tried. These are the days when the kids you nanny for, your ‘charges’, feel like your own kids. And happily so!

Then there are the days when the baby hasn’t slept all night, won’t eat, is resisting cuddles and fighting off all attempts to settle down for a nap. There are the days when the kids have gooey colds, insist on wiping their snotty faces all over you and think re-papering the floor in dirty tissues for you to pick up is a good idea. And there are the days when the 7-year-old fakes a ‘sicky’ from school, and in doing so foils your plans to get out for a run with the pram whilst bub is sleeping. Although still preferable to when bub is not sleeping.

Then there’s the days when you’ve scheduled to meet a friend for a quick coffee in between errands. The baby’s asleep, your to-do list is done and you’re out anyways. You’ve got a window of opportunity and regardless, you’d still be stopping for coffee. So if you’re meeting a friend, what’s the harm? Besides, a rare conversation with another adult wouldn’t go astray!

Except now you’re loaded with guilt. Because should you really indulge in a personal activity whilst on work time? Should you have told BossMum of your plans and cleared it with her first? Should you adjust your time sheet to account for a 30 minute break? Should you stay back late that night to make up for it? Or should you put forward that maybe the autonomy and freedom has gone to your head because you’re obviously prioritising your own needs over work demands.

It’s an ethical dilemma that I’m sure many of you have faced occasionally, regardless of the career and workforce you’re in. Whether it be running to the post office whilst doing office related errands or stopping at the bank whilst you’re out. It could be heading home early because you’re ‘not feeling well’ when really you have a hairdressers appointment, or simply going the long way back to work from your lunch break so you can window shop the latest fashions.The feeling of guilt is always going to be there, more significantly, it’s how you rationalise it that’s important.

For the nanny life, is it really a wrong move? Because let me tell you, being a nanny is not an easy job. Forget the parenting woes, the grumpy badly behaved children and the long hours, truthfully, one of the hardest and most challenging factors of being a nanny is that it’s isolating. And many others agree, see here, here and here!

As a nanny you go to work in someone else’s home, you don’t have colleagues, you don’t socialize outside of work and you don’t often meet new people. It’s just you and the kids, the house, maybe a pet or two and a constant list of chores and activities each day. Stay at home mums and dads, I feel you! Yes you’ve probably picked up some Spanish thanks to Dora, but unless you’re getting a meaningful two-way conversation regularly, is it really enough?

Not Your Standard Easter Egg Hunt

Before you say it, I know Easter seems like a long time ago now. Except, I don’t know about you, but I’m still clinging to the joy of long weekends and casual laid-back days. If you’ve been following the blog recently, you’ll remember I mentioned that the Easter school holidays were a busy time for us (and the days since have been equally challenging too)!

Whilst I did manage to tote the camera alongside and snap a few memories, time got away and I haven’t been able to slow down long enough to share them with you. That is of course until I found myself sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and my laptop. As autumn and winter are arguably my favourite seasons, I was enjoying the crisp autumn air and taking stock of the wintery changes we’ve been noticing lately.

So with the little one sleeping and a few spare moments up my sleeve, I thought it the perfect opportunity to share a few gems from the weeks gone by.

Easter in the nanny life was fun-filled, joyful and a mega long weekend of happy memories. Just to change it up a bit, we did the traditional easter egg hunt in the evening (I know, it’s not your standard easter egg hunt). We ventured down to the local park on dusk to find many bright colourful eggs had been left by the generous easter bunny. Originally Miss7 had been concerned we were going to confuse The Bunny by swapping the morning hunt to the evening but we were quickly reassured that The Bunny had indeed paid us a visit (and that he’d been extra crafty with where he left the chocolate eggs too)!

Armed with a flash light and a basket, Miss7 and I set off on a race to beat The Twins (and after a quick tête à tête we agreed we should forge our own discovery instead of following the older girls and getting sloppy seconds). After what felt like a few kilometres of back and forth to inspect tree branches and birds nest, of course accompanied by the standard excited squealing, we came out with a fairly sizeable haul of goodies. We even managed to come across a ‘baby friendly’ easter basket with squeaky turtle bath toys and (cheeky) grapes wrapped in pretty foil.

Unfortunately I was too caught up in the race to stop and take some photos of the night time search for chocolate, but I assure you there were smiles all around and plenty of family fun time.

I know it’s a while ago but how was your Easter? Did you go away? Did you break tradition and do something different from the standard Easter Egg Hunt?

This post is linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.

The Weekly List

Hi lovelies! Well it’s been another busy week here. We’ve survived the first week back at school after a frantic (but enjoyable) school holidays, we’ve well and truly welcomed the arrival of the winter season, and we’ve been getting back on top of all of our extra curricular activities. Hello ballet, gymnastics, drama, music, french, jazz, japanese and horse riding. You’re all so much fun to do but sometimes I don’t know where we find the time!

I’ve also been busy working on a very exciting new project to be announced soon. Hopefully it will be the start of some great new resources for you and provide lots of fun new tips, tricks and info. I can’t wait to share so stay tuned for the big announcement!

On Friday I also had a quick trip to Melbourne to attend the Kids Business Bloggers Brunch. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with some other bloggers and share our stories. There were some great brands showcasing some awesome new products to be released later in the year and a very inspiring story from Taryn Brumfitt of The Body Image Movement. If you’ve got a spare few minutes, have a read and get on board. I promise, you won’t be sorry! Plus, I’m still dreaming about the new products from Crayola and can’t wait to get my hands on some to road test with the kids!

My visit to Melbourne put me in a proper wintery feel good mood. The layered winter coats and scarves were warm and protective against the icy cold chill and these new boots were a much-needed retail therapy splurge! So now that we’ve welcomed the cooler weather to Australia, and heralded my favourite season, here’s a few favourites collected this week for The Weekly List.

The Weekly List Of Things I’m Loving:

Breakfast in bed and a sleep in sounds good but unrealistic? These DIY Fabric Photo Frames will do the trick for Mother’s Day next weekend!

I’m dreaming of this gorgeous Danish Modern house. It’s got winter luxury retreat written all over it. Love.

In need of some fun and easy craft activities to do with the kids? Check out my Crafts & DIY For Kids board on Pinterest.

Not sure what it’s like to work as a Nanny? Feel like you don’t understand the role your nanny has? This article has all you’ll need to know.

Think water is boring? Here’s why babies and toddlers don’t need fruit juice.

Do you like recycling and reusing. Quick Tip: use your leftover Jalna pots to hold your paints and craft things and give them a makeover too!

Dear Nannies: A Nanny’s best tool is herself is another great read from Nanny Magazine. If you’re not subscribed to Nanny Magazine electronic articles, you should be!

Living in Sydney and in need of a nanny? Precious Peeps Nanny Agency will provide you with a free consultation to answer all your questions and help to find the perfect candidate.

This collection of picture books about friendship will keep your night-time reading with the kids well stocked. Plus, pretty colours are always needed!

Some snail mail earlier this week brought the arrival of my newly designed business cards and reminded me that I’m on the way to making my dreams a reality!

What’s your winter style? Do you love the cold or hate it?

Happy weekend lovelies!

The Weekly List School Holiday Edition

Well I’m a little slow here in the blogging world at the moment. With easter and the girls birthdays falling over the busy school holiday period, I’ve had very little time to sit down at my laptop long enough to check my emails and catch up with my instagram feed let alone put together something to pop into your inboxes.

I did have a chance however to take a whole lot of snap happy pictures. The holidays are always a time to capture some great moments, and with MB and MD heavily caught up enjoying the moment, I saw it as a great way to steal some precious shots to paste into a photo album.

I do also have a post in the works to recap the awesome events and everything that went down for Miss6-who’s-now-7 and also for Baby Viv who’s now 1. Oh my gosh, where did the months from tiny baby to walking toddler go? So stay tuned for more!

Today I’m sharing with you a collection of photographs and amazing finds from across the web in recent days. Some crafty, some foodie, some beautiful and some funny.

This Friday I’m loving:

The opening photo of some buskers in the park providing some great entertainment as we celebrated Miss7’s birthday.

It’s school holidays here and families are buckled down battling kids among a frantic house, this is a gentle reminder to let kids be kids. Let them be messy, let them get dirty and let there be mess from nanny blogger They’re Not My Kids.

These lovely DIY embellished hand-made cards are absolutely beautiful. I pinned these to my craft board on Pinterest the second I saw them and swooned over them so much that I decided to make them myself. They were great personally gifted cards for the girls.

The Twins turn 12 today. Hooray, bring on the pre-teen stage! They’ve requested a Brownie Cake which is perfect timing seeing as it’s overflowing with easter eggs chez moi. This Mint Chocolate Brownie recipe from Bake Play Smile is top of the to-do list along with melting down some Cadbury eggs to add to the gooey mix of chocolate goodness.

18 years of school, and now I’m an over-educated Nanny is a fascinating article about the struggle between choosing a career out of choice and love and choosing a career that pays the bills.

This post from Freddie’s Food about battling on with the baby who won’t eat. Fussy eaters are a well-known problem in the nanny household. The Twins don’t like to touch anything except for Nutella sandwiches and fresh fruit, Miss7 will only eat plain pasta and ravioli and Baby Viv will eat only what she can feed herself. Sometimes meal planning can be a real challenge but this healthy eating & sustainability oriented blog helps keep me feeling like I’m not alone.

This heavenly delicious Honey Apple Bread has been on high rotation in the nanny household lately and reminds me of my family’s Dutch Apple Cake. Sophie Hansen of Local Is Lovely is a blog I’ve been following long before I became a blogger and is a constant source of luscious photos, fresh recipes and happy families.

Norah Colvin never fails to evoke inspiration and continues to urge me to do better and to be better with the kids. The magic effect – why children need books is a perfect reminder about why we shouldn’t forgo this activity with our kids, even if we’re busy or late to bedtime.

This bloggers brunch in Melbourne is happening next week and Nanny Shecando is going. All kinds of excitement going on here at the moment.. no words!

Do I need a Nanny or a Babysitter? And what’s an Au Pair? The Australian Nanny Association has a great article to break it down for you!

Finally, these Anzac biscuits will keep you going for the rest of the weekend after an early start at the Dawn Service this morning.

Happy long weekend lovelies, get those Anzac cookies happening!

Sidewalk Pavement Drawing With Micador Easter Egg Chalk

Phew, my oh my, the month of April is just flying by isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but our house always goes into over drive as the end of term approaches. I don’t know why the school has to schedule everything at the same time, but they do and it sure challenges my organisational skills.

We’ve had the craziness of end of term parties and friday fun days; coincidentally I consumed a lot of wine that night as reward for surviving the school term. We’ve had Easter bonnet parades at school; of course I’m now subsequently recovering from hot glue gun wounds as I burnt the midnight oil in attempt to finish Miss6’s Easter hat. And The Twins have been nervously undergoing auditions for the high school musical whilst also preparing for their yearly ballet exams. Naturally I got the task of helping them learn their lines. Of course this wouldn’t have been so bad if the school wasn’t actually doing High School Musical this year. Yes, the high school is doing High School Musical, amusing isn’t it.. A few days in I no longer thought so!

The Easter school holiday is always a busy time for the family. We take on extra ballet activities and begin the equestrian season, we carefully divide the holidays into fair amounts of time for The Twins to go harmoniously between mum’s house and dad’s house, and we also celebrate all of the girls birthdays in the space of 7 days. Yes, you read that right. Amongst the holiday period of Easter and Anzac day, along with numerous public holidays, each girl celebrates their birthday within a few days of the other.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, this is a logistical nightmare for Boss Mum and myself to navigate. It takes the combined efforts of our organisational skills to map out the specifics of which days The Twins will be with us and which days they’ll be at their mum’s (one of the components of having a blended family). To also foresee which days are public holidays and to schedule birthday parties around these days (whilst remembering that most school friends will have gone away for the holidays). And of course, with the birthdays colliding with the Easter long weekend and Anzac Day public holiday, it means we must also order gifts ahead of time. This is so we don’t find ourselves standing outside the Post Office at 5.05pm on thursday evening before the long weekend. Unfortunately, our organisational skills failed us and I did find myself banging on the door of the Post Office yesterday evening desperately hoping that the post office lady would take pity and allow me to collect the last of Miss6’s presents. Sadly she didn’t and with today being a public holiday and Miss6’s birthday falling on a Saturday this year, I must now squeeze in a last minute trip to the shops tomorrow morning to pick up a substitute gift. Quelle dommage!

What’s more, Miss6 (soon to be 7) still believes in the Easter bunny. I don’t know how we’ve managed to keep her sheltered from the hurtful school kids intent on ruining the magic, but I’m so happy that we have. Given that I’m all about holding on to the magic in life and living peter pan style, I’m a big supporter in going to great lengths to create a truly magical Easter experience. I’m also aware that this will most likely be the last year we get away with this. Although I am happy that we’ll get to rekindle the magic in a few years once Baby Viv is a bit older. And so in addition to organising the birthdays and surviving the school holidays with restless kids and lovely but slightly over-bearing grandparents, I’ve also been attempting to help the Easter Bunny arrange an Easter egg hunt of epic proportions. Stay tuned for the follow up post next week!