Today I want to talk to you about figuring out who people are, using simple tools like search engines online. Always a good first step to start building the image of the person you are trying to figure out.
First I want to tell you that all the things you find are clues to build the image of the person you are trying to figure out. Try to see it from an as objective place as you can, it will help you get a better idea.
Many years ago I got divorced. When I was looking for an attorney to represent me I did some digging on them before making my choice. When I googled the lawyer I ended up working with I found a hate blog dedicated to spewing anger and hateful rhetoric about him. I went further down the rabbit hole and found that the person writing the blog was a guy whose ex wife had been represented by the lawyer in their divorce. In this case, negative publicity helped me make the decision to hire this guy. Negative information isn’t always bad, it helps paint the picture.
So when you google someone, look at all the information. When I look at review sites to find a hotel or a restaurant I always read the bad reviews, because I want to know if what people don’t like matter to me. Slow service is not something that bothers me, but a dirty kitchen is. It might be the same for you, or it might be different. It’s the same with people.
So if you are looking into someone, a nanny or a family that you are looking to work with you want to figure out what your priorities are, what is important to you, and when you start looking into the information there is to find, weigh them there.
Look at the sources, who are they? What are they saying about the person.
When my daughter was in preschool in California there was a teacher there who had a criminal record for years and years ago being in possession of pot. We were all informed about it when we applied, to make our own choice. If she had a violent record, it would have been an entirely different choice to make.
It might be helpful to make a visual, either a graph or a visual representation you relate to with the information about a person, about the gist and gesture you get from different sources. How are they presenting themselves on social media? What do their non fans say? What do their fans say? Their records?
Add it all, objectively, to make a clear picture that you can use as a base for your evaluation whether you want to collaborate with them.
I think with intention and some sleuthing skills, google is your friend. You might want to reverse engineer this and look into yourself to see what other people see and tweak accordingly. Your online presence is a part of your image, take charge of making it work in your favor, whatever that is.

Today we are going to talk about governesses.
Sometimes there is a bit of confusion to what a governess is. We recently had a client say they needed a housekeeper or a governess. That’s kind of like saying you need bananas or batteries. Completely different things :)
So let’s talk about what a governess is and isn’t.
A governess is a teacher. It is a quite old fashioned position in a household that is much less common now than it was in Victorian England.
A governess is responsible for a child’s education and usually looks after older kids than a nanny does, but a governess can work with children as young as three. Often there is a nanny working in parallel with a governess because their duties are quite different.
A governess is traditionally responsible for the children’s education, whether it is a well rounded knowledge in English, Maths, Music and the Arts or social things like etiquette and manners. A great governess would teach life and social skills as well as basic academia.
The governesses that we have in our database are highly educated, often teachers with further education and their own specialties that stand out. They often speak several languages and know how to carry themselves in all kinds of situations. The families that hire governesses nowadays are not your average families.
Governesses don’t do nursery duties, but form a child’s all around educational experience, with a deep knowledge of child development.
As you can imagine a governess makes quite a bit more money than the average nanny, figures showing about four to five times more depending on the job, it’s a highly qualified and specialized job that is in many ways quite different from nannying.
If you are listening and thinking, wow, what an inspiring job, I want that to be my career, depending on what your qualifications look like now you might be closer or further away from that possibly being true for you. If you would like help making out your road map, we offer that service for you and you can email me to find out more at hello@rivieranannies.fr

​Welcome to season 2 of the Nanny Podcast, I am so happy you are here.


Today we are going to ask ourselves the question “are you looking for the wrong things?”


It goes for both nannies and families, I think often nannies are looking for the wrong things in families to work with, and as often, families are looking for things in nannies that is not what is going to work for them.


Let me explain what I mean.


I get a lot of nannies contacting us, looking for work, and when they tell us what kind of work they want, to goal and the path to get there are often not compatible.


For example, we might have a nanny who wants to work in the villas in the cote d’azur, but she doesn’t drive, doesn’t have own transportation and is not interested in getting it. Fair enough, whatever the reason is for that, but looking for jobs in the villas is not going to work out in their favor, because often there is not public transportation that supports it, and the client might is probably not going to want to schedule their childcare around the bus schedule, so they will hire someone else.


Another example is high stress, high demand and high paid jobs. Are they right for everyone? No, they are not. Going into this kind of job requires a certain kind of skill and mind set. Know why you are doing it, the reasons are different for different nannies, and then set yourself up to thrive in that position, depending on what that is for you it can be everything from a social support network, sufficient self care that can be as simple as a good pair of running shoes or enough books to read on your downtime if you are in a remote place.


I see a lot of nannies who just want a job, if they just get the job they will figure it out after and make it work. If you are a quiet person who does not like physical activities you are not going to fit with a family that love the outdoors. If you are a sociable person who needs to feel connected to others, a remote rota position in Russia might not be right for you, no matter how much it pays. Knowing who you are, what your strengths are and where you do best is going to guide you to choose jobs where you shine, remember that there is a place for you to shine, and it might not be where you think it is.


The same things are true for families.


When you look for your nanny you might have a few things that you want, and then there might be things that are like shiny objects of desire on a CV that seem like things you really really want.


Families, I’m going to tell you something you might not like to hear, that shiny thing, that celebrity job or impressive training, it might not be what you need, or what is even compatible with your family.


I will give you an example. Imagine you are looking for a nanny for your six months old baby and you run into a nanny who speaks several languages and have an impressive list of education in early childhood development and has been a nanny to the stars. But she does not have experience with infants, she doesn’t drive and you live outside of the center of town and you need her to be able to drive. Then you run into another candidate who has a long experience working with infants, has been with each of her families for years and, she drives. She has not been a nanny to the stars (I talk about this a lot because it does not necessarily mean that a nanny is good), her formal education is less, but she seems like a great fit for your baby and your family. You click with her, but the CV is less impressive at first glance. And the first nanny is so shiny and has things on her CV that you desire, even though deep down you know that the second one is going to work out better.


Why? She has done what you want her to do, she is experienced. Her requirements match yours. And she has worked with families for a long time on each job, which is a huge piece of information for you about how she will be to work with. Excellent nannies who do short term jobs usually stick to short term jobs and jump around. Excellent nannies who do longer term jobs, and apply for longer terms jobs tend to have stayed with families longer. Which one would you pick? I see all the time that families jump for the shiny one, they interview a few of them, sometimes they even hire them, and then it doesn’t work out. The nanny sees another opportunity that fits her CV profile better and leaves, or you realize that all the certificates in the world do not give you experience with newborns, and the skills you need to figure out how yours works.


I think it’s something to think about for both nannies and families, to not just sell yourselves to get a job or a nanny, but to really look for someone who is compatible with what you are looking for. That’s what we do, and we often see both parties looking for things that are not in their interest.


Thank you for spending time with me today, I am really happy you chose to listen to our podcast.


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This episode is brought to you by Mamatoto, the online community that supports women from pregnancy, birth and into motherhood. Go to Mamatoto.info and join the tribe of supportive mothers and their babies.


See you next time when we will talk about cell phones. Bye :)