You’re on nanny-time

Being a nanny means that you are responsible for someone’s little, and not so little, bundles of joy. With this responsibility it means that you have to be at work before the normal work day begins because the parents depend on you to be there to be briefed on the little and big things that have occurred between the time you left the night before and the time you arrived in the morning, to feed their littles breakfast and get them ready for the day, and do this all in a way that does not disrupt the parents getting ready and out the door so they can make it to their jobs on time. This means that my day starts early. Then my day continues from there with feedings, diaper changes, and altered nap schedules, driving to story time and other activities keeping constantly moving and on schedule. I do have a set time for my work day, however I am on nanny-time. I arrive at work in a time frame allowing myself extra time each morning for an extra chatty mom and/or dad to fill me in on every last detail and question me on every move we plan to make that day, I try to keep the morning extra time down to 10 or so minutes. Then when I am supposed to end my work day well that’s where nanny-time really kicks in. You see, I only get to go home when the parents arrive home, it’s not like your average 9-5 job where when 5 o’clock hits you can leave or maybe sneak out a few minutes early. When my cutoff time comes, and most time goes, I have to wait for the parents to get home and take over. You would think it would be easy and seamless transition since it happens everyday and there’s only two or three hours maximum that they get to spend with their littles but it never is. If your lucky like me and are encouraged to send pictures of every second of every day and keep the parents updated with everything you do and keep a journal or what they ate and their bowel movements, then you would think the transition would be even easier. It’s not. The parent wants you to tell them about every moment of the day in excruciating detail and I smile and oblige them because that’s my job, however recounting the day to them and answering questions as they leisurely sit back and start to unwind and relax from their long day at work usually takes anywhere from 20-30 minutes. Oh and did I mention that the parents are usually late? Now I love my job, I absolutely love what I do. I am just forever on Nanny-Time. My time belongs to the family I work for. It’s not unusual for the families to ask me to come in “early” or leave “late”, that’s just nanny-time for you, so you just smile tell them no problem. Everyday is a new adventure and for me nanny-time is just a part of that adventure.