Sarah Lynch, Nanny
DEBBIE: So, how did you get into this kind of work?
SARA: When I was in high school, I always babysat over the summers. I've always loved kids and working with kids ever since I was old enough to take care of little ones. And I don't know, I guess once I moved to the city I heard that it pays really well and a lot of people would prefer a nanny rather than daycare. So this is my second real nanny position, otherwise it was babysitting before that. And I'll do this for a couple of years to get me through school. So it's not necessarily something I'm going to do for the rest of my life, but possibly if I have kids of my own I might nanny and take care of other kids and do it that way. But it's definitely not something that just anybody can do. You have to have high qualifications.
DEBBIE: What do you mean when you say 'it's not something anybody can do?'
SARA: It's not like babysitting, because there is a difference between giving the child some dinner, a bath and putting them to bed and then sitting around…that's babysitting. I do that too, but somebody who doesn't have very very, very, very good patience is not going to be able to do this job. You know, babysitting is usually a couple hours long, but for nannies, it's usually all day, every day. Not just anybody could do it because you have to come up with somewhat of a curriculum, activities, entertainment. Anybody can babysit, but there's more to this job than that.
DEBBIE: Can you tell us what your work day looks like?
SARA: My job is eight to five, Monday through Friday, but they're not all like that. So I commute eleven miles which, coming from Lynwood, traffic is bad, so I have to get up pretty early. I get up at 6:45am and then leave the house by 7:30 to be here by 8 o'clock. Campbell's on a really good schedule. Her routine is really important for her, so she's eating breakfast when I get here, and I kind of take over from doing that and then she reads books or does her independent play while I clean up the kitchen, put all the stuff away, get things ready for the day. Then anywhere from between 8:30 to 11:00 we have our outside activities, so during the summertime it's a lot of outdoor activities, a moving activity, going to the park, going to the zoo, going swimming. We try to walk as much as possible, which was difficult during the winter because it rained all the time. That was probably the most challenging thing was finding things to do so we weren't stuck in the house. My mind is like a kid's—I can't be in the house all day long. I have to get out at least a little bit.
Then from 11am to 12:30pm is lunch. So she eats her lunch, which, we go by the food pyramid, so she has one kind of food from each part of the pyramid, and I get that ready for her. Of course, her parents are good at keeping everything stocked. I don't really have to do very much grocery shopping…every once and a while we'll go to the store and get something, but they're really good at keeping everything stocked. So I prepare lunch for both of us and then we eat together. And then, Campbell kind of takes of takes her time doing everything, so we start the nap process right after she eats. So I change her diaper and get her ready and we read her books, sing some songs. It takes her a while to fall asleep but then finally she's down and she usually sleeps for between two hours and 15 minutes to three hours. At first, when I first started working here, she was doing two naps a day when she was little. Now the more active she is, the more she eats and the more she sleeps, which is totally understandable for her.
After she goes to sleep I clean up the kitchen and her toys are usually everywhere, so that's the real time to clean up. Just keeping things organized, doing her laundry, emptying the trash, playing with the kitties (because I'm their nanny, too, they seem to think). And then once all that stuff is done, I relax. Sometimes I watch TV but I feel like because I'm working I don't like to watch more than an hour or every once in a while I'll watch a movie. But usually I like to read, especially the toddler books on discipline and all that stuff. I like to do that…it's my quiet time of day. She has her quiet time and I have my quiet time. It's kind of considered my break because I don't get breaks during the day. If you had a normal job you'd get a 15-minute break here or a 10-minute break there or a lunch break, and I don't really get that. Because even when I'm eating lunch I have to be sitting there, I can't go anywhere unless I bring her. So that's considered my break time and of course it's paid, they don't take it out. But once I'm done cleaning and everything is to my liking the rest of the time is mine to do whatever it is that I need to do.
She'll get up anywhere between 2:30pm and 3pm. When she wakes up she has her snack, sometimes we'll just leave right into a walk or I'll give her a snack in her stroller because she likes to be outside. Even on her grumpiest day, as long as she's in her stroller in her own little world, she's fine. She likes to be outside. And again, the afternoon plan varies day to day. Wednesdays she has her gymnastics class, Fridays she has a music class, so we do have scheduled things. But most of the time it's just whatever we decide to do. So that's from three to five that we go on another adventure. On rainy days that would be our time for a lot of the hands-on stuff like reading and bubbles and music and dancing. She has a lot of energy when she wakes up…she wants to go. We might also work on her vocabulary and her colors, or practice her Spanish and all of her verbal skills. It's kind of like her "class time."
Then about a quarter-to-five, I write in her journal—what she ate, how she ate, what her mood was like, what she did. And then I write a small paragraph in her voice…in her point of view I guess you would say. And Campbell's parents seem to really like that because it's really important to work as a team and if we didn't have that communication we wouldn't know what was going on. Tia is here but we don't see her almost the whole day except for every once in a while she has a five-minute break or whatever, she'll come up and see us or we'll see her if we go out the back. So every once in a while we'll see her, but it's really good to have everything written down.
And I go home, go to the gym, just kind of relax because I'm exhausted. I'm usually in bed by ten because I get up so early and if I don't have a full night's sleep, it's not a job where you can function with four hours of sleep. It's really important. So I usually try to make sure that I get my full night's sleep for the next day. I guess that would be just about it.
DEBBIE: Wow…it seems like it's such a big responsibility taking care of someone's child. Does it feel that way to you?
SARA: It's ridiculously big. If something happened, she's in my hands and she's my responsibility if something happens. And not necessarily that I would be blamed for it or anything, but it's definitely my responsibility and it's somebody else's kids.
DEBBIE: And what is the relationships between you and Campbell's parents like?
SARA: I don't know how it just worked out. I mean nothing is perfect, but it worked out really nicely because they were offering the same hours that I wanted, and when I started I wanted to work with babies and Campbell happened to be a baby. It just seemed like everything kind of fell into place. I don't know if it's because timing is everything or what, but things just started out really, really well and now after being here almost a year and a half, this is like my second family. And Campbell…I was gone for a week and I was like 'Oh, I miss Campbell!' I don't know…it just kind of fell into place. And I think that's really important because if you can't work together as a team and you can't get along that's not good for the family and it's not good for anybody.
DEBBIE: What do you love about your job?
SARA: Campbell. When I started, I was just like, this is almost perfect for me at the time because my previous job was working at a portrait studio. I had long hours, didn't get paid very well, had to work two jobs, the company wasn't very good to work for. And it was just because of the way everything fell into place it was where I'm supposed to be right. Who knows if I'll do it two years from now, I don't know but I know that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. It will pay my way through college. Sometimes I feel like it's not a job and that I'm just playing with my best friend…she's my little best friend. And Campbell's parents, Tia and Doug, are just sweet, I mean, it's just amazing how everything just seemed to fall into its own place. It's definitely rewarding when Campbell does something that I teach her—it's very rewarding. That's one of my favorite things, other than the family and not being stressed out like I was before. I used to work in a daycare and I loved it, but by the end of the day I was just passed out and didn't get paid enough for that. And it seems like now I'm making more than I ever was at both of those jobs and it's a lot less stressful, and that's obviously really important now.
DEBBIE: And what are the toughest parts of the job?
SARA: I would say keeping up with the expectations of Campbell's progress. I mean, I can't say it's not hard, but there aren't too many negatives, especially because we all get along so well and we all work as a team and I've been here a while. When I first started it was kind of like, 'Am I doing everything right, am I doing it the way they want me to do it?' And normally I wouldn't work for a family where the parents were at home just because I've done that before. It's not that I wouldn't want them listening it's more just because the children know that the parents are home and some kids have a really hard time with that. Campbell does fine and I don't feel like I'm being listened to or whatever. But I think everyday has its challenges, but it's nothing really extreme. I think there are more rewards than there are challenges. But definitely the biggest one would be to make sure that she's progressing well from day to day and that I'm adapting to where she is.
DEBBIE: How would you answer this question from Julia, Age 14? "Have other people ever not taken your career dreams seriously and how did you handle it?"
SARA: Well, when it comes to being a nanny or even just a babysitter, I've heard a lot of people saying 'You don't do very much' or 'Can't you just watch TV or something?' And it almost makes me upset when people say that because they don't know what it takes. Depending on who said that, I would just explain to them, 'Well look, this is what I do. It's not just babysitting.' It's just one of those things—it shouldn't matter because it's not their dreams or their careers or their goals or whatever. It's yours and if you think you can't do it, it's really mind over matter. If you think you can't do it, you won't and if you think you can, you will. That's just plain and simple.
DEBBIE: Any advice for girls who are interested in being a nanny?
SARA: Take it very seriously because people are hiring you and they're placing a lot of trust in you. Tia and Doug didn't know me, so they were taking a lot of risk letting somebody they don't know into their house to take care of their kids. So definitely take it very seriously. It's kind of a long hiring process. Make sure that it's something you're interested in because a lot of time people want a long-term commitment, because you are working with children and most people want somebody consistent. Definitely be straightforward from the very beginning about how long you want to do the job.
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© 2003-2007 Deborah Reber
