The Benefits of Employing a Nanny For Children
Part 2: For Your Children
For part 2 of this special blog series, the benefits of employing a nanny for your children, we have a special guest ready to bring her child development expertise to the table.
In part 1, we shared the benefits of employing a nanny for working parents but are you aware of the advantages hiring a nanny can have on your little ones too?
Child Development Specialist and Parenting Advisor, Fi Star-Stone (aka The Regular Parent) is here to talk about the benefits of employing a nanny for your child’s all-round development.
5 Benefits of Employing a Nanny for Your Child’s All-Round Development:
1. Personalised Care
Personalised care means daily routines, preferred activities, favourite meals and more importantly — one-to-one care which provides emotional security and stability.
From fun sensory play to outdoor exploring, nannies can provide tailored care and activities that stimulate your child’s all-round development.
Unlike many other childcare settings that offer activity sessions planned in advance, a nanny will be able to tailor-make activities that your child prefers or adapt planned ideas to cater to their interests or learning stage.
With the freedom to plan last minute, weather-dependent days out, your child will benefit from a whole host of adventures with your nanny, all while building a trusting relationship that leaves them feeling secure both outside and inside their home.
2. Child Development Awareness
Nannies have valuable knowledge of child development and can carefully observe your child’s learning and progress at each stage.
Due to their wealth of skills and experience, nannies will often have an awareness of any development issues right away and the ability to chat with you privately about any concerns they may have.
If your child becomes poorly, or develops medical health needs, they will have the continued care they are used to, while you can still work safely in the knowledge they are being cared for by a trained professional you both trust.
They’ll also be on hand to accompany you to any appointments to the Health Visitor for reassurance and support.
3. Routine is the Magic Key
Routines give children a sense of security and stability and help them feel safe and secure in their environment. This includes consistency in night time routines helping sleep which is extremely important for growth and development.
With a nanny in place, the routines you have carefully established are followed as you’d like. Alternatively if you’ve yet to start one, a nanny can help you form the best routine plan for your child and your family. Your nanny will be on hand to guide you through adapting the routine as your little one grows and their needs change.
Sleep is incredibly important for growth and development, and having a nanny means daytime naps will be consistent and bedtime routines kept in place, something many paediatric sleep experts feel is important for gaining a good night’s sleep for the whole family.
Having their regular naps in their own home, greatly benefits their evening sleep too, as they become familiar with their bedroom, cot or bed, as their place of sleep. This greatly reduces night-time interruptions and issues as when they go through the light sleep phases, they are stirring in a familiar environment and can settle back to sleep.
For very young children, the bedtime routine can be started before, or as you arrive home from work, avoiding that parent nightmare of little ones falling asleep in the car on the way home from childcare, disrupting the routine! A bedtime routine started at home means your child is settled, calm and ready for cuddles and stories with you — a perfect end-of-day bonding time for you all.
4. Continuity of Care
Continuity of care is a strongly recommended practice for infant and toddler care, whatever the childcare setting, as these relationships are important for their all-round development.
‘The environments infants and toddlers encounter, the relationships they form, and the activities they engage in before age 3 (both inside the home and out) are key to healthy and positive growth, development, and learning outcomes that can last a lifetime’ (Shonkoff & Phillips 2000).
A nanny who becomes part of your little one’s life, not only offers personalised qualified childcare, but also offers support, love and friendship. They become an extended family member who can offer continued support not to just your little one, but to you as a parent too.
These experiences of consistency and continuity, give your child the opportunity to develop secure attachments with people who know and care about them, and in the future — the ability to build and maintain strong and long-term relationships with their nursery teachers and peers.
5. Nanny Share Benefits
A nanny share offers the added benefit of your little one socialising with other children while in the security of their own home (or a home that is familiar to them).
A nanny share is an arrangement where two or more families employ the same nanny, this can be on the same days, or splitting the week together if you work part-time.
As well as lowering your costs, nanny shares offer the same social benefits as a child minding or nursery setting.
Social interaction helps young children to start to develop their sense of self as well as learn what others expect from them. It’s an important key to social development, and a nanny share environment is an ideal way of encouraging this in a comforting, secure, environment. Sharing their toys (and their nanny) is a valuable lesson to learn and teaches little ones about compromise and fairness and getting along with others.
Families in a nanny share will need to work out costs, schedules and where the majority of care takes place (who’s home) but with careful planning — it is an ideal set-up that provides a stable, consistent childcare environment that benefits everyone.
Everything you need as a Nanny Employer
Our award-winning nanny payroll service includes weekly/ monthly payslips, a free contract of employment and unlimited HR support. You’ll also have an online Employer Members Area to make accessing payslips and logging records such as holiday, convenient and hassle free. To support your nanny, they’ll have their own Nanny Members Area where they can download payslips and much more.
Our optional service add-ons include Nannytax Plus (if you want us to make the monthly salary/ HMRC payments for you), Nanny Employers Liability Insurance and our fully managed Nanny Pensions service.
