The Nanny Manual: How to Choose and Nurture the Perfect Childcare Partner

As Desrosiers admits in the introduction to her valuable and user-friendly guidebook, when a friend asked her to help find childcare in 1996, she was “clueless” about how to do this. However, she was determined to locate the best nanny in what she found to be an unregulated and unlicensed market. Afterward, she founded a childcare agency and now provides insights from her 20 years in the business. Desrosiers often finds the process of finding childcare an emotionally fraught one for parents, identifying five “heartfelt worries” that mothers in particular often face, namely trust, being replaced, inadequacy, guilt, and envy or jealousy. While observing that parents often have a gut feeling about a particular hire, she encourages them to use objective facts as well, and to take enough time (commonly four to six weeks) to find the right person, along with a trial period to ensure that the nanny is a good fit. A useful appendix with sample contracts, checklists, interview questions, and other important forms rounds out the book. With chapters specifically focused on dads and on LGBTQ parents, this primer contains a great deal of practical information for parents seeking help with an often challenging process. [em](BookLife) [/em]