A burgeoning city of expats, Dubai is teeming with a multitude of new mothers, often of diverse nationalities, age, linguistic and professional profiles. The demand to get back to normal (by which, we refer to the outside professional life) is pressing after six months of childbirth. Since most expat women are independent and work equally to support their families and raise their children, most of them can’t afford to take a longer sabbatical from work.
For some, there may be some helping hand and holistic support in the form of their parents, in-laws or elders staying together. But even they might need some care and assistance to ease them through their daily chores. And in families with more than one child, there might also be a necessity for hiring professional help.
Who is a Part-time Nanny?
In comes a nanny in Dubai. A professional caregiver, trained to assist with day-to-day childcare. However, recent working mothers’ blogs in Dubai show that with some experience in raising their elder child and with the presence of family elders, they look forward to hiring part-time nannies or weekend nannies in case they are freelancers whose volume of work increases on weekends. So, for freelance or weekend-working mothers, as well as mothers with some helping hand present in their family or mothers with some prior experience in childcare, the answer lies in hiring a part-time nanny for in-home infant care. This also helps them cut down on the fees of a full-time nanny and invest the money in quality childcare.
However, one can’t easily find a part-time nanny agency in Dubai. One has to ask for part-time nanny recommendations in their neighbourhood and/or at regular nanny agencies. One can look at sharing part-time nannies in their known circle of friends and neighbours. This solves the problem of reliability and also helps in cost-cutting.
Checklist for Hiring Part-time Nannies
Hiring a nanny or babysitter at home is no child’s play, one needs to check a few vital parameters before that. At Nightingale Dubai, we make sure that our professionally trained nannies are well-versed with the demands of modern-day holistic newborn care at home. Most importantly, at Nightingale Dubai, we work with nannies who are willing to work on a part-time basis and on weekend shifts or late-night shifts.
Here’s a look at the necessary qualifications and traits that a professional nanny must be equipped with:
- Friendly, positive, and caring attitude
- Basic child teaching tools
- Preliminary medical care
1. Friendly, positive, and caring attitude: A friendly and trustworthy nanny is the biggest lookout for a family. A homecare nanny must have balanced temperament to tackle the moods of a newborn, be non-judgemental towards the child, and positive so that the child imbibes a cheerful personality. All these are important factors for any parent to consider, as in the absence of a family member, the nanny is going to be the most important psychologically influential person in the child’s life. This is very important factor for a part-time nanny as they get to spend lesser time with the child than a regular nanny and developing that bond with the child might be more difficult.
2. Basic child teaching tools: This involves age-appropriate language-learning and educational activities with the help of learners’ books and games. A well-trained nanny must be able to engage the child’s potential and mind through a series of story telling techniques, learning games, and playful activities. When the child is big enough to go out to take classes in sports or arts, the job of a part-time nanny is also to ferry the child to her classes and back home safely and cover up for the time the parents are not available.
3. Preliminary medical care: This includes day-to-day caring for the child and administering medical care whenever the need be in terms of medicines of first-aid for the duration for which they have been hired.
Here is a list of daily duties that part-time nannies working in Dubai need to fulfill:
- Nursery duties
- Fulfilling the emotional void
- Keeping the home environment stimulating
- Monitoring the child’s daily nutrition needs
Nursery duties: Often part-time nannies are hired for assisting with children’s daily nursery duties including preparing children’s meals, feeding and cleaning, washing and ironing clothes, making beds on weekends or during late-night shifts. So, they need to devise their daily routine in a manner which covers the needful applicable for that time.
Fulfilling the emotional void: A major problem that a parent faces is that their child misses them when they are not present at home. It is within the professional premises of a qualified baby sitter’s role to fill that gap in the most loving, caring, and engaging manner possible. A part-time also needs to emotionally invest in the child such as to develop both a fruitful, productive as well as a mutually enjoyable time together. Devising learning and enriching activities that the child and enjoys doing could be one of the more fruitful ways of doing this.
Keeping the home environment stimulating: It is the role and duty of a professional, part-time nanny to keep the home environment stimulating enough for the child. Cooking delicious meals, hosting interactive story telling and play acting sessions, and engaging the child in games and activities like building blocks keep the home environment creatively charged, no matter for what duration of time the part-time nanny fills in.
Monitoring the child’s daily nutrition needs: Another cause of concern for parents is whether the child is getting their daily dose of nutrition or not. The part-time nanny must adhere to a well-balanced diet in consultation with the parents, and if need be the child’s physician, to ensure that all the vital nutrients are maintained and there is enough variety of healthy and nourishing food for good growth. They must also be mindful or dietary restrictions and allergies if so prescribed and keep medical contacts on speed dial in case of an emergency.
At Nightingale Dubai, we understand that a part-time nanny’s engagement level has to be optimal in order to provide holistic care. And our registered part-time nannies are flexible, caring and objective enough to smoothly operating within their unorthodox shifts.
