100 Tips for Nannies and Families

To encourage twins to have their own personalities and interests, parents can do the following: Give them names that are dissimilar.  Paired names such as Sandy and Cindy do not encourage individuation. Refer to the twins as two kids rather than one set of twins.  This sounds like a fine point distinction, but the subtle […]

High functioning adults make good decisions.  Everyone knows this, right?  Ok, then how can you help your toddler with decision-making skills? Speak with your toddler about the flow of logic you use when you make decisions.  For example, “I would really love to buy that sweater, but it’s really expensive, and I think I’d be […]

Being a parent is a richly rewarding but tough job.  Kids don’t come with operator’s manuals, so parenting is often mastered through the equivalent of on-the-job training.  First-time parents often feel unprepared, but, from my experience, being a pet “owner” (or, as I call it, a pet parent) can foster the development of a lot […]

Recess:  is it a waste of time, kids goofing around when they should be learning, or is it a useful break in the day that yields benefits academic and otherwise?  Both anecdotal evidence and authoritative studies have shown that there are many benefits to well-timed and well-supervised recess during the school day.  These benefits include: […]

According to the Random House dictionary, emotional intelligence is defined as the “skill in perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions and feelings.”  People who understand what they feel, why they feel as they do, and can shape their feelings and how they manifest in behaviors are thought to possess emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is at the heart of healthy self-knowledge.  Emotional intelligence is […]

Resume mistakes are made by even the best of us, no matter what the education and proficiency of the job seeker may be.  Listed below are some of the most common resume mistakes made by caregivers (nannies, babysitters, senior caregivers, etc.). Inattention to detail.  This includes typographical errors, punctuation problems, grammatical errors, etc.  It is […]

You are a caregiver (nanny, babysitter, or senior caregiver), and you are job-seeking.  You need to be prepared for interviews so that you can ensure that the job you accept is a good fit for you.  Here are five topics you need to think about and prepare informed questions on in advance of interviewing. What […]

Being a caregiver can be a 24/7 responsibility.  When a caregiver knows his/her job is ending (the youngest child is old enough not to need a nanny anymore or the elderly employer is being placed in a skilled care facility, for example), or when the caregiver otherwise decides it’s time to seek a new job, […]

Math is omnipresent in our world:  at grocery stores (i.e., price per ounce, pound, item, etc.; tax calculation; total bill calculation; etc.), with our banks (i.e., running a balance in our check registers, reconciling our monthly account statements, etc.), with our childcare providers (hourly pay rate times hours worked equals gross compensation), in our kitchens […]

In the United States, many new fathers do not take paternity leave upon the births of their children.  The federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows fathers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid paternity leave, subject to certain qualifications, but how many fathers can afford 12 weeks of unpaid leave?  In much of […]