Why Hire a Nanny?
We all share the dream. After a hard day at work, we’re greeted by the smiling faces of our children and the aroma of a home-cooked meal. We kick off our shoes and cuddle up on the couch with a book and the kids to spend some well-earned family time.
The reality? We balance a briefcase and a pizza, shove a load in the washer, scribble out a grocery list, unload the dishwasher and tell the kids to go play. We pack lunches, run the dishwasher and before we know it, it’s bedtime.
Twenty percent of Canadian families are single-parent families; seventy-one percent depend on two incomes to make ends meet. It’s no surprise that families struggle with finding time and energy for parenting, the balance between work and family and the rising divorce rate.
Where are the board games and bedtime stories, we wonder, the bike rides and cuddles? Where are the candlelit dinners and movie dates, the relaxation and romance? Vanished, in the all-consuming demands of career and home dubbed “the family time famine”.
The parenting crunch has led many people to switch to the nanny solution. Most people think a live-in nanny is a high-priced luxury; it actually costs less than putting two children into daycare. As soon as parents realize that they’re paying more to wake their children at dawn, zip them into snowsuits and buckle them in car seats for the drive to the daycare centre, it doesn’t take long to make the switch.
The quality of life payoff means more to most families than the extra money in their pockets. With no rush to get the kids out the door to daycare, parents no longer breakfast on stress and a coffee. The kids, too, get a good start with a hot breakfast and a slower pace. How can you put a price on that?
Every day is a child-centred day with a warm, loving nanny to read stories and play games. She nurses children through chicken pox and kisses skinned knees. A nanny whisks away the mundane chores. She releases parents from the daily drudgery of laundry and cleaning and cooking.
Mom and Dad come home and, instead of crashing on the couch, they find time to take the kids to the park, shoot hoops in the driveway, play peek-a-boo: quality time with the ones they love.
Quality time requires more than an adult’s physical presence; it takes involvement and engagement – and energy. It means playing hide-and-seek with a four-year-old and singing lullabies while you rock a baby to sleep. Quality time gives us the golden moments of parenthood.
A nanny becomes an integral part of the team and a beloved member of the family. For single parents, she becomes a trusted advisor, a companion, a friend. She knows your children almost as well as you do and loves them like her own. After all, caring for children is the career she has chosen.
You’ll see the proof when your children wrap their chubby arms around her and slip their hands trustingly into hers. You’ll know when the nanny proudly shares your child’s accomplishments or kisses the forehead of a sleepy child.
A kind, caring nanny dedicates quality time to your children while you work and frees you to dedicate quality time to your loved ones when you arrive home. She is essentially a gift of time; time to reconnect with your spouse, time to recharge your batteries, time to cherish your children.
We all share the dream, but with a nanny in the house, some of us live it.
*Family demographics statistics from Child and Family Canada www.cfc-efc.ca
© Copyright protected by Caring Nanny Agency International Inc.
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