Hi my name is Kathy Dupuy and I am the president and founder of Mom's Best Friend. We are a Texas based nanny referral agency. When you think of the tools a professional nanny uses I always think of Mary Poppins and her carpet bag full of tricks but for a real nanny some of her tools of the trade might include recipe ideas, craft ideas, calendars from different local children's publications that detail different activities available in the community, developmental milestones that she might be seeking to meet or achieve with the children, ongoing education opportunities where she can learn how to be better in her profession and just publications and articles that can help her better understand what even parents are seeking to understand as they raise their children. A professional nanny's greatest tool is the agency that supports her. An agency is invaluable in helping her on the front end to prepare for her interview with the family, to ask the right questions, to make sure that she adequately markets and represents herself in a way that show cases her talent and her experience, everything that she brings to the table. It is also an asset as she accepts the position, she determines it is best for her and she seeks to negotiate the terms of that relationship. An agency typically will provide an employment agreement for her to use that clearly spells out expectations on the front end so that that relationship is more consistent over time and there aren't various questions over who agreed to what and was that really what they agreed to. So that's really critical. Also in helping to continue to advise her in different ways to help their relationship to be successful over time. If she runs into a crisis or feels that there is a question that comes up that she doesn't know how to handle, an agency is her best resource in gaining valuable wisdom before going into an experience to make sure that she conducts herself in a way that is going to have the maximum impact and to help get her point across without upsetting, frustrating or disrespecting the family in any way. So this is very important. On the back end when a nanny does leave a job and she is seeking to find her next employment, that agency is going to help support her through the job search by giving her temporary work so that she can earn a paycheck while she is looking. They are also going to help her if something falls apart that is not her fault and support her and so a lot of nannies live paycheck to paycheck and so it is difficult for them sometimes when they are let go unexpectedly. A family has additional resources that they can draw from to help fill in the gaps but a nanny may not have a way to meet her next bill if she is let go unexpectedly so she is really going to depend upon the agency to provide her with resources to help her when she is in that transition time. A good agency will be her best friend as she goes through those struggles during and after employment.
money section
