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Best Nanny Cam and 10 Reasons Why

All Around Best Nanny Cam and 10 Reasons Why
by Paul Smith-Goodson

 

Nanny cams come hidden in all sorts of household objects and appliances: tissue boxes, humidifiers, teddy bears, plants, clocks, books, clock radios, and more. Out of all the choices, my favorite is the wireless 2.4 GHz clock radio nanny cam, which just happens to be the best seller at our store.

Here's the reason I like the clock radio so much:1.) This Nanny Cam has three great uses -- It's a nanny cam, its a clock, and it's also a fully functioning radio! 2.) When the clock radio nanny cam is plugged in, the camera is always on, even if you turn the radio off. 3.) The clock radio has natural "Domestic Camouflage" - in other words, it blends into a room without being noticed, even by people familiar with the room. If you put up a new wall clock or put a new teddy bear on a bedroom shelf, people will immediately realize that something new has been added.

On the other hand, a clock radio nanny cam will go unnoticed 9 out of 10 times. 4.) The wireless clock radio nanny cam is "Location Neutral" -- This is just a fancy way of saying that you can put this camera anywhere! How about on a kitchen countertop, or in the family room, or on a bedside stand in the bedroom? See what I mean? There are very few places where a clock radio looks out of place. 5.) A clock radio that has a Sony CCD camera gives you a crystal clear image. I prefer a CCD to a CMOS camera because of its superior performance. 6.) The clock radio, providing it has quality components, has enough range to transmit video through walls to the far end of your house without compromising image quality.

7.) A clock radio with a lux rating of 0.05 or lower performs well under low light conditions. A nanny cam with a lux rating of 1.0 or higher produces a poor and grainy image in dim lighting. Let's face it; a nanny cam that won't allow you to see what's going on in a room with low light is almost worthless. 8.) A good clock radio nanny cam is usually equipped with a 3.7 mm lens which provides a great wide angle view of the room. 9.) A clock radio can be placed almost anywhere in the room which allows you to position it for the best view.

A teddy bear, book, humidifier, or any of the other nanny cams have natural restrictions on where you can place them. 10.) This Nanny Cam uses a.c. power and looks natural plugged into the wall. No need to disguise power cords or worry about batteries. In most instances you'll be using the nanny cam for extended periods of time.

Batteries usually only last about 2-3 hours. To use a teddy bear cam or a book cam for this length of time you have to use the a.c. power adapter. Don't you think an "Electric Teddy Bear" might look suspicious?.

International Nanny Assoc. Conference

NANNY CONFERENCE

The International Nanny Association will have its conference in Las Vegas on May 12-15.

"Anyone can attend our conference who would like to," said association president Pat Cascio. One side of the workshop is for nannies, she said, and will include negotiating contracts and working with employers as well as child care. The other side, she said, will be for people who own or work for nanny agencies.

For more information, visit the association's Web site at http://www.nanny.org or call (888) 878-1477.

Demand for nannies in American homes has sharply increased

MINDING THE CHILDREN: Like One of the Family

By HEIDI KNAPP RINELLA
REVIEW-JOURNAL

As it turns out, America's reality shows with nanny themes are based about as much on reality as ... well ... America's reality shows with other themes.

"Would you let someone come into your home and challenge your parenting style?" asked Pat Cascio, president of the International Nanny Association and owner of Morningside Nannies in Houston.

"I can't see very many of my clients being comfortable with the person giving them that much direction," Cascio said of "Supernanny" and "Nanny 911," in which veteran nannies try to tame the households' wild beasts masquerading as children. "I think the American way of doing it is `This is my home, I write the paycheck, you are the employee, so that puts you one or two steps below me, not on par with me or above me.' "

Which is not to say there isn't a place for a nanny in the American household. In fact, there are places for nannies in increasing numbers of American households -- currently an estimated 1 million, Cascio said.

"We know the industry is growing rapidly," she said. "More and more people are understanding what the nanny does and the role she has in the household, and the convenience there is for the family."

Carol Hale, owner of Nanny's & Granny's in Las Vegas, says that in 18 years in the business, she has seen the demand for nannies grow dramatically.

"I would say in the last probably seven or eight years, nannies have become far more popular," Hale said. "I think that we, No. 1, just have a more mobile society. People are really more likely to not live around family and friends. In our town, especially -- we've had such an influx of people. They come to town and they know no one."

Both Cascio and Hale said people who hire nannies are no longer confined to the very wealthy.

"Typically, they're young professionals," Hale said. "In our clientele we have a lot of attorneys, doctors, business people, business owners. Young professionals with a career who really don't want their children in day care. They want a little more individualized care and learning for their children. And so they hire someone to come into the home."

"If you have two children, you're probably paying as much in day care as you would to have a private employee in your home," Cascio said.

So just what role doesthe nanny hold in the household?

"I would like to believe that the majority of nannies of children under the age of 3 are providing 100 percent care for the children and the children's belongings, and the rooms in which the children and the nanny live in, work in, stay in and play in," Cascio said. "I would like to believe that parents do not assign household duties to child-care professionals when the children are that young."

The reason, Cascio said, is "a safety issue. I just think it's kind of a risky situation. If you were told that today, `I would like these four tasks done -- and by the way, watch my child, too' -- you know your employer can judge if you get the tasks done, but she'll never know if her child got the attention."

And the key to a successful nanny-employer relationship is to a large part based on trust. Most families, Hale said, want a nanny who will become a part of their lives.

"That's usually the ideal situation," she said. "In fact, the most frequent request we have is they want a nanny that will stay with them.

"I've had placements last incredibly long times -- 10 or 12 years," she said.

"It comes down to a chemistry thing," said Lexy Capp, owner of Nannies and Housekeepers USA. "Does that person really want that nanny in their home, caring for their children?"

Capp remembers one client who knew immediately that a nanny candidate was right for her family.

"She knew in her heart this was the one," she said. "It's sort of the feeling of connection you get."

At the same time, a successful nanny-employer relationship often depends on both sides remembering and honoring the nature of the arrangement.

"Generally what we suggest to our families is that they renew their nanny contracts on a yearly basis," Hale said. "We do the initial contract for them in the office, then we suggest that the nannies and the families put it on their calendars 60 days before the contracts expire -- that they sit down and discuss whether or not they're going to want to continue the relationship. Are there any changes? Have their been other children? Have the hours changed? And then to negotiate a raise for the nanny."

Most nannies get raises on an annual basis, Hale said, and they can expect to be paid between $400 and $700 a week, depending on the situation.

"Seven hundred dollars is maybe twins or triplets, the number of children and housekeeping and extended hours -- that type of thing," she said.

Capp said the minimum her nannies earn is $10 an hour, though pay can be as much as $750 a week. She said she's placed some nannies for $45,000 a year, plus benefits.

Nanny agencies generally don't employ nannies, but charge a fee for referrals and background checks. Hale charges a one-time placement fee of $1,700. Capp offers three plans, priced according to the length of guarantee and number of replacement referrals, should they be needed. The fees range from one month of the nanny's gross salary to 12 percent of gross annual salary.

Capp's agency also has a division that she said employs several hundred nannies who work under the agency's insurance umbrella to provide child care at major Strip resorts.

The average nanny, Hale said, tends to be in one of two primary age groups, "although we do have nannies in all age ranges."

"Many of them are students that are still in school that are in their early to mid-20s," she said, "and then we see a lot of women whose children are now grown and that's what they've done their whole life -- taking care of children. And so they're coming back to the work force.

"There's a core of professional nannies that do this for a living and have maybe been through nanny training and been certified. They tend to be in their 20s and 30s. It's really not very common."

Hale said there's a shortage of nannies in Las Vegas, but she rejects most candidates.

"We generally will interview from 25 to 40 people to get like three people," she said. "Most people that walk through that door, I'd no more place with your children than I'd rise up and fly."

Those applicants, she said, come in "because somebody needs a job and they woke up that morning and they say, `anybody can raise kids.' They can't pass the background check, they can't get the health card. We look for criminal misdemeanors as well as felony convictions." Additionally, she said, they do a credit check and a driver's license check, and nannies must know CPR.

"We make a substantial investment in anyone we choose to process," Capp said. "We turn down about 50 percent of our applicants. We have one division that all they do is background checks. We also do one-on-one interviews with placement counselors."

"A lot of people will give you their work history, and they'll conveniently slip the fact that they lived in Ohio for two years, because they had a problem in Ohio," Hale said. "But then when you do a credit check, there's all these loans for stores in Ohio. An agency that knows what they're doing will then do a criminal check in Ohio.

"That's what you're paying an agency for -- that kind of thing. We do it every day. We know what to look for. The average family doesn't."

For aspiring nannies, Hale advises, "get some experience or take a professional training program. If they come in with no experience, we put them on our sitter service so they can get some experience.

"And I would say don't do it because you need money. Do the job because you truly love kids. Being a nanny is not an easy job."

Find this article at: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-15-Tue-2005/living/26027958.html

Tasks define caregivers

• Au pair: A person, usually foreign-born, who lives with a family and receives a small stipend in exchange for baby-sitting and help with housework.

• Baby sitter: Someone who provides supervisory, custodial care of children on an irregular full-time or part-time basis.

• Governess: Traditionally an educationally qualified person employed by families for the full-time or part-time, at-home education of school-age children. Governesses function as teachers and do not usually perform domestic tasks or take care of infants or toddlers.

• Nanny: Someone who is employed by a family, sometimes on a live-in basis, to take care of children and perform other domestic tasks 40 to 60 hours a week. Nannies do not necessarily have formal training, but often they have past work experience.

Source: International Nanny Association

            

Nannies are super stress-relievers

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Caregivers for kids often handle several duties, make home run more smoothly.

It's a weeknight at Lisa and Dave Dennerll's home, and dinner is simmering on the stove. Bobby, 6, and Angelina, almost 2, scamper through the family room and kitchen. Lisa and Dave have just returned from work, and waiting for them on the kitchen island is a small spiral notebook detailing the day's events, meticulously recorded in blue pen by their nanny, Michelle Wullkotte.

"You pout? I've never seen you pout before," says Dave, after reading that Bobby lost a game of checkers to Wullkotte earlier that day.

Being a reporter is just one of Wullkotte's daily duties. She also is a caregiver, a playmate, a reader, a sometimes cook and chauffeur and a teacher of everything from checkers to manners to how to gracefully admit defeat.

What Wullkotte and other nannies are not are fairy godmothers who swoop into homes and magically transform devilish children into angels.

TV shows including ABC's British import "Supernanny" and Fox's "Nanny 911" and a plot line on ABC's "Desperate Housewives" might lead some parents to believe they can.

Unlike the TV shows, most American nannies do not dictate how to discipline children. Most also do not work in a home for just a week or two, and they definitely don't land in homes Mary Poppins-style, whisking children away on adventures against their parents' wishes.

Rather, nannies have become like family members, staying on the job for several years and sometimes even visiting their past charges after they've moved on to other jobs.

Personal attention important

The Dennerlls of Cincinnati hired Wullkotte, 50, in January, after Lisa returned to work full time after taking a year and a half off when Angelina was born.

They had a nanny for Bobby when he was a toddler, and then moved him into day care. But they say he frequently became sick, and they wanted him to receive the personal attention that a nanny could provide. They also didn't want the stress of transporting Bobby to kindergarten in one part of town and Angelina to day care in another.

"Getting a kid out the door in the morning is a big deal," Dave says. "Just getting to work is a major accomplishment."

So the Dennerlls contacted a nanny placement agency and thought Wullkotte -- a nanny for the past four years who has teaching experience and two grown sons -- was a good fit. Wullkotte works three 10-hour days and two five-hour days at the Dennerlls' home.

Wullkotte talks to the parents about discipline first, so both are on the same page, she says. She and the Dennerlls favor time-outs, though not to the point of making the children sit on a "naughty stool" as "Supernanny" Jo Frost does.

However, Frost's methods seem to have struck a chord: Her book, "Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your Children" (Hyperion; $14.95) is on the New York Times' list of best-selling paperback advice books.

More than half of employers don't report nannies on their tax returns, says Pat Cascio, president of the Houston-based International Nanny Association.

But the TV shows are sparking an interest in nannies. Cascio says revenue from nanny placement fees at her agency, Morningside Nannies, doubled from about mid-December to mid-January.

Male nannies -- sometimes referred to as "mannies" -- do exist, but they likely make up less than 1 percent of working nannies, says Cascio.

Indy Star Tips for hiring a nanny

from The Indianapolis Star

Wages, health, legal status and social skills are all factors to consider when hiring a nanny. Following are tips for parents considering taking the leap:

Determine what kind of help you need. Do you want a nanny who lives with you? Do you need full-time or part-time help because of your schedule or budget? Do you want someone who will take care of your children and do housework? Remember that a nanny's primary responsibility is child care, and not all are willing to do housekeeping. Also think about your ideal nanny's past experience, age, personality and other qualifications, such as first-aid training.

Decide what you can afford. Salaries for beginning live-in nannies usually range from $250 to $400 weekly, while trained nannies earn about $350 to $1,000 weekly. Nannies who do not live with families earn anywhere from $7 to $20 hourly. Nannies usually receive paid holidays and vacation days, sometimes health insurance and the use of a car if they don't have one.

Find potential nannies through referrals from friends, help-wanted ads or nanny placement agencies, which match nannies with families for a fee. Keep in mind that U.S. immigration laws make it virtually impossible for non-American nannies to work legally. One exception: au pairs, child-care workers who visit the United States for one year through cultural exchange programs.

Interview candidates thoroughly. Ask open-ended questions and don't be judgmental when candidates respond. Ask candidates about their previous positions, what they liked and disliked about past employers, and give them hypothetical questions to answer including: "What would you do if my 2-year-old is exhausted but refuses to go down for his nap?" Spend time observing the nanny with your children.

Check the nanny's health. Make sure he or she has received a TB test, and also consider requesting a doctor's statement that the nanny is in good health.

Check the nanny's references. Require at least three previous work references and one or two personal references, even if a nanny placement agency already has checked them. Hire a security firm to check the nanny's driving history and criminal background.

Put it in writing. Require each nanny candidate to fill out an application. When a nanny is hired, he or she and the parents should sign a work agreement outlining the expectations and responsibilities of each. Include hiring date, work schedule, rate of pay, benefits and review schedule.

Maintain a good relationship. Talk to the nanny every day and consider asking him or her to keep a journal of each day's events.

Sources: International Nanny Association (www.nanny.org) and www.nannynetwork.com.

Help Us Beta Test 2 New Google Nanny Groups

Did you know Google has started a new mailing list and newsgroup section? Most people don't know about it but we like to keep our readers on the cutting edge of news that impacts the nanny industry. Google Groups 2 has a few new nanny groups. We'd appreciate your help Beta testing two of them. They are described below. Sign up and help them make history!

Nanny Employer Support
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/nanny-employer

Learn about top nanny or governess candidates first. Get support from other nanny employers. Rely on our nanny expert to make sure you hire and keep the best nanny or governess for your family. To tell us about an experienced nanny seeking employment, email the moderator at nanny-employer@googlegroups.com.

Nanny Jobs
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Nanny-Jobs
Professional networking group exclusively for the currently employed nanny or governess. If you are not employed as a nanny or a governess but expect to be employed as one in the next 3 months, you can join, too. To tell the group about a great nanny job, email the moderator at Nanny-Jobs@googlegroups.com.

NEW - 3 Great Nanny Groups at Google!!

Nanny Club
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/nanny-club

This is the group to join if you are a nanny, nanny employer, nanny service provider or nanny agency! This is where you'll hear about top nanny jobs, top nannies, the best nanny services and must-know nanny news!

Approximately 2,000 subscribers make it THE nanny newsgroup to join! Don't miss out, join today!

Tell the group about a top nanny job, a top nanny, a nanny service or share your nanny news by emailing the moderator at nanny-club@googlegroups.com.

Nanny Employer Support
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/nanny-employer

Learn about top nanny or governess candidates first. Get support from other nanny employers. Rely on our nanny expert to make sure you hire and keep the best nanny or governess for your family. To tell us about an experienced nanny seeking employment, email the moderator at nanny-employer@googlegroups.com.

Nanny Jobs
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Nanny-Jobs
Professional networking group exclusively for the currently employed nanny or governess. If you are not employed as a nanny or a governess but expect to be employed as one in the next 3 months, you can join, too. To tell the group about a great nanny job, email the moderator at Nanny-Jobs@googlegroups.com.