Why is childcare so overwhelming?
Childcare can be so hard! When I started looking for a nanny after my second son was born, I didn’t know how to begin thinking about the search. I reached out to a friend—who is also an amazing business mama—and asked for help with the process of hiring a nanny. Enter Anna Frandsen! Anna is a business coach and a mentor, and she’s the founder and CEO of The Heart Centered Entrepreneur. She works with people on building great systems, getting visibility for their work, and attracting clients. She is a systems pro and today we talk all about the workflows, strategies, and processes of how to hire a nanny.
How to hire a nanny
First, know that the process doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and we’re here to talk you through it. This podcast episode is a one-hour blueprint for how to do the search, what to think about when you hire a nanny, and the steps we took to onboard and enroll our nannies in payment portals, tax systems, and more. We share how we set up the contracts, established the routines and expectations, and figured out payroll taxes.
When you hire a nanny, it’s just like hiring an employee—you need to think about how you communicate best, what your work environment is like, how you’ll deliver feedback, when they’ll get paid, how you talk about your goals for your family, and more.
In this episode, Anna and I talk through our exact workflow strategies, including how we decided to go with a nanny, what steps we took to do a streamlined, easy search process, and even my “pink nanny binder,” which has my family philosophy, rules and guidelines, and the contract itself.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
- How to decide and ask for the childcare you need.
- Why it can be really hard as a working mom to figure out your “working” and your “mom” identities, and how to think about it.
- Why it’s okay to ask for help, and to ask for the help you need.
- Why getting clear on what you need is as important as the next steps.
- The exact hiring process Anna uses to research, find, and interview candidates to find the right nanny for her family.
- The on-boarding workflow we put together to help bring someone onto your team, and why it matters.
- How to think about having conversations and giving feedback with someone who is in your home, and also an employee.
- Why the nanny payroll taxes seem so complicated at first, and how to break it down so it’s easier to understand.
The Startup Pregnant Podcast Episode #103
SOME QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE
Anna Frandsen:
- We have had so many childcare arrangements in the past two years, because kids change, nap schedules change, preschool starts, and even my own mental hangups! I’ve looked at childcare a million different ways.
- I wish I had this conversation two years ago.
- I knew I didn’t want to work full-time anymore, so I created a job and a life with hours that were more flexible.
- I was still struggling with mom guilt, even though I was a working mom. I think I somewhat brainwashed myself to think I needed to be home all the time with my kids. Hiring a nanny for me was fully owning that I’m working mom and I’m still a good mom.
- When we take time on our own as women to get clear on what we want, other people can follow suit. It’s so powerful.
- If you don’t get clear on what you truly want, you’re going to self-sabotage.
Sarah Peck:
- Every six months, i feel like I have to figure childcare out again. It’s not a one-and-done. It’s nonstop!
- With one kid, it’s like “Oh, I’m going to have some time to be able to work when they nap.” With two kids? Not going to happen.
- I love daycare. I love having the time to myself. I love my family AND the amount of time I get to spend on my work is really, really pleasurable.
- I don’t think a woman or a parent should be alone with a child for more than four to six hours at a time, ever.
- There’s this impossible scenario that we put women into, which is in order to be a good working mom, you have to be a 100% mom and a 100% working. I don’t think that’s possible.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE GUIDE
Want to use the worksheet we’ve built to go along with this episode? Go to www.startuppregnant.com/nannychecklist to get the checklist and get on your way to hiring a nanny. It includes best-of quotes from this episode and things to consider while you’re hiring a nanny of your own.
LEARN MORE ABOUT ANNA FRANDSEN
Anna Frandsen is a business coach and mentor, a radical optimist, a green tea drinker + mama to two. She left a career in higher education to build an online business from scratch and live her messy, imperfect, version of success. To her, the life of her dreams looks like being an ultra-present mama, serving incredible clients world-wide with her God-given gifts and giving women the freedom to build a business that changes lives.
EPISODE SPONSOR & SPECIAL OFFER
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[…] be getting a move on with it. I really loved Startup Pregnant’s podcast episode on ‘How to Hire A Nanny,’ an option we’re considering. There are so many aspects of employing a nanny that […]