In many families today, both parents work, and grandparents are often absent or unable to care for their grandchildren. For this reason, there is an increasing need for reliable and competent people to whom one can entrust one’s children. Therefore, the work of babysitters or nannies is increasing, and despite the competition, with the right training you can find a job.
It is wrongly assumed that it is an easy job to earn a few dollars while you look for something else or study. It is not. To work as a nanny, you need at least two basic requirements:
- a personal disposition. This means not only that you enjoy dealing with children (which is the first and most important requirement), but also that you have a patient and calm, but at the same time determined character.
- adequate preparation with knowledge of first aid for children, nutrition, recreational activities, etc.
Nanny, duties
Nannies have the basic task of taking the place of parents when they are not around. This means that they have to perform a series of tasks, mainly consisting in constantly monitoring the children’s safety, accompanying them to school/nursery, preparing their meals and helping them eat, helping them get dressed, supervising their activities (time for homework, to rest, to play, etc.), according to the instructions received.
It is also important that the babysitter always works in full compliance with the parenting guidelines established by the parents. If you do not cooperate with the parent’s educational choices, you run the risk of taking away their authority and creating confusion for the child.
The babysitter is a family person, but not a family member. Therefore, you should never disrupt family harmony by, for example, teaming up with one child against the other, with the children against their parents, or with one parent against the other (in the case of couples in crisis).
How to become a babysitter
There is no recognized qualification for babysitters or nannies, and therefore virtually anyone can do this work. However, families increasingly need qualified people to whom they can entrust their children. Therefore, students or graduates of pedagogical fields, kindergarten teachers, nursery school teachers, etc. have an advantage.
On the other hand, if you are not interested in working in this field in the future and you just want to do babysitting temporarily to earn some money, I advise you to take a short nanny course and a first aid course for children to have more employment opportunities.
Nanny, wages
Many factors must be considered to determine income:
- Place of work, surely the cost of a babysitter will be different between Switzerland and Greece
- Previous experience, a nanny with 10 years of experience and excellent references will surely cost more than one who is a beginner
- Training and professional qualification, whoever is in possession of a title/diploma of specialist in childcare will certainly earn more
- Knowledge of English, those who have an excellent knowledge of english and can talk to child will earn more
- Responsibility, working with a newborn has a higher cost
- Additional tasks, such as cleaning, ironing, etc.
In Europe, babysitters earn about €5 – €10 – €15 per hour, depending on the country. In the United States, a naany earns between $15 and $20 per hour.
Search for babysitting job
There are many ways to search for a nanny job:
- The old and always effective word-of-mouth advertising
- You can also advertise yourself by making flyers or business cards that can be distributed in kindergartens, schools, etc.
- Advertisements in the local press
- Search on websites and post your ad on classified ad websites
- Use specialized websites for babysitting jobs
- Create your own professional blog
Finding nanny jobs abroad
Australia
- Australian Nannies, a meeting point place families and nannies in Australia
Spain
- International Nanny, agency for bilingual nannies in Spain
- Sitly, free community of parents
- Yoopies, community of Madrid
Germany
- Betreut, agencies in Germany
- Hello Baby Sitter, job offers al lover Germany
- Elite-Personal, agency from Munich
- eBay, job offers
France
- Yoopala, job offers
United Kingdom
- Nanny Job, very popular website in UK
- Childcare, another very popular website
- Little One, agency with job offers in London
- Worldwide Nanny, agency withjob offers in Great Britain and around the world
Remember that you will not be able to look for a nanny job from your country. But you will look for them when you are in the country. I’ll add that when you arrive, you will hardly have language skills that will allow you to do this job, since you will be constantly dealing with parents and children.
However, you should know that in countries where there are many compatriots, it will be easy to find a job as a nanny with compatriots. In this case, it will be enough to join a Facebook group or a community of compatriots. Join a Facebook group in the city or country where you are and look for nanny jobs or offer your services.
One final curiosity: some airlines now offer in-flight babysitting services. One of them is Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, one of the most luxurious and popular airlines in the world. However, before you can become an on-board nanny, you must become a stewardess.
