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Multiples
Nanny for twins
Hi Ladies --
My DH and I think we'll likely end up having to get a nanny to help with child care once I go back to work. If any of you are considering or are using a nanny to help care for your twins, besides the basic questions you ask and experience you expect for a nanny for a singleton, what do I need to be concerned about for twins? Does it matter if they have experience caring for twins, or can experience simply caring for two or more children at once be sufficient? Was it hard to find a nanny who would care for twins?
Maybe I'll be better prepared to think this through once the twins are here and I have my own experience to draw from in terms of what the care is actually like...so I apologize if this is way too early to be asking.
Thanks!!
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Re: Nanny for twins
I hired a nanny as soon as I found out I was having twins (I already had a 1.5 year old).
Other than the typical questions, I did make sure that she had twin infant experience. Having experience with just multiple children wasn't enough: having to care for two children at the same stage is rather difficult...both will need the same type of care at the same time. Honestly, I have experience watching a newborn, and the thought of watching two at the same time unnerves me. Very different.
And, I had to be sure she was comfortable watching them AND a toddler.
In the end, I found someone with experience being a nanny AND had day care experience (used to lots of kids). She knows twins, knows potty training toddlers, and is a teacher as well. Worked out perfectly. It wasn't that hard: I used www.care.com and put out an ad. I ended up interviewing about eight candidates and three of them were good matches.
Good luck. I would start the interview process in the next few months...you may end up with complications, they may come early, etc. And, you may want to consider having her start before you go back to work to help you out a little bit.
Ditto pp- start early and before the twins are here & you'll be consumed w/ them b/c finding someone, interviewing, etc takes some time.
I always thought I'd use a nanny but did not look for one until they were already here & we were in a bind b/c my father was sick & I was traveling back & forth to see him a couple times...it was a lot harder than I thought it would to find someone that I felt comfortable with watching 2 babies- there are a lot of nannies with toddler experience, some with infant and very few with multiples. You will probably have better luck using a nanny service but it is $$$. I tried to find referrals through my local MoM groups and other local online groups but very little success & once we interviewed a few people- I either wasn't crazy about them or they had minimal infant experience. (again, we were on kind of a tight timeline b/c of my family situation). We finally found someone through a neighbor who did have twin experience & have been using her as a p/t sitter for a couple of months but it did not work out (for either of us for a few different reasons) for her to go full time with us so we decided to go the day care route instead of going through the whole interview/search process again.
I realized there are some strong pros for day care vs nanny and neither is really 'perfect' although if I had found a nanny who I really loved & felt comfortable with I definitely would have done that over day care.
GL!
We have only had nannies and we have had such great experiences with both. The first one we had one year and we got her off of enannycourse.com
The current one we've had for over 3 months and we got her off of nannies4hire.com
We have been really happy with our nanny experiences. Both of our nannies worked in daycares and the current one also worked for a family with twins.
Twin experience for the nanny is probably my biggest suggestion for you.
I'm a nanny for triplets and prior to them quadruplets... The biggest thing i can suggest from my experience from the nanny's view is to make sure she is patient. Check references and ask her, "have you ever felt out of control or frustrated with the babies you have taken care of in the past? If so, how did you handle it?" Be really cautious of any pausing or avoiding your eyes or something. multiples require a lot of patient (as all of y'all know i'm sure) and it's hard for even a patient nanny to take care of them when you don't have the same maternal feelings. Screen her references really well and ask lots of questions...
The quads were my first nanny job and I was not prepared (i was also only 19). It ended up not lasting long b/c i was overwhelmed and didn't feel like i was providing the best care. Now, after 2 yrs with the triplets, i could probably handle quads....
good luck!!!! and hope y'all don't mind my post