What is a Nanager? 3 Wonderful Things This Brand of Nanny Can Be
A blog by Amanda Ferguson (@nannyofoz) – Nanager’s Recruitment Manager.
What is a Nanager?
Fair question! The simple answer is that Nanager™ (trademarked by our founder, Lauren Brown) stands for Nanny/Household Manager. But a Nanager role is each as unique as every family, so can be many different things. What all of our roles have in common, is that we want people working in them to have a helpful and flexible attitude to be able to go beyond basic childcare duties at times. The ‘extras’ provided will depend on a family’s needs, the amount of time the children require, and a Nanager’s preferences.
Nanny/Household Manager or Nanny/Family Assistant
This is typically a role that requires some of the Nanager’s work hours to be spent on household tasks (not cleaning). Tasks to be expected could include cooking and laundry for the children or the whole family, shopping/errands, maintaining tidy children’s rooms and common areas, organising children’s belongings and/or household items, organising the children’s schedules, booking family travel, or managing tradespeople or other staff.
Children with a Nanny/Home Manager are usually in school or childcare for part of the time, or have enough nap time or independent play time to make tasks like these easy to achieve in a typical week. We work with parents to ensure the requests are reasonable. The priority for a Nanager is always the children’s needs. If something doesn’t go according to plan, the full list of tasks might not get done. No one should feel badly about that!
*Tip – We try to put the role with the heaviest focus in front, so a Nanny/Home Manager will usually prioritise the care of the children, but a Household Manager/Nanny will usually have more time without the children and more focus on the household tasks. Both aspects are important though, and it’s about finding the candidate match with the right balance!
Nanny
Often specified as a ‘child-focused’ role, these roles usually involve young children who are in the Nanager’s care throughout the day. Whether it’s a role with 3 under 3 to juggle or a role with one child, some families want their Nanager to focus mostly on child-related tasks. This of course involves supervision, play, and safety… but there’s more to it than that.
A Nanager working in these roles will typically have knowledge of child development, allowing them to plan and facilitate developmentally-appropriate activities tailored to the children’s needs. The nanny role allows a Nanager to focus on building a strong connection with the children, encouraging their social and emotional intelligence, communication skills, and confidence. A nanny role also usually includes some or all child-related household tasks – children’s meals, tidying, and laundry.
Beyond that, what we want a Nanager to be able to do is to see when something needs doing in the home and help out when possible. Check that dishwasher and run it/empty it when you can. If there’s a wet load of laundry in the machine, hang it on the line or throw appropriate things in the dryer then fold it – even if it includes items belonging to the parents. Sometimes the light household tasks can be done during naptime (after a Nanager has had their appropriate break) but often it’s a chance to involve the children, either by having them ‘help’ or by giving them a chance for independent play nearby.
*Tip – Sometimes this will be advertised as a Nanny/Educator role. This is when parents have requested childcare qualifications or place a lot of value on knowledge of child-development. We’re always open to people without those formal qualifications though – there are some wonderful career nannies who have a great understanding of everything a Certificate III teaches and more!
Housekeeper/Nanny
Housekeeper can be a confusing title, especially as it means different things in different areas. Locally, it is still typically not deep cleaning (though might be more likely to involve light cleaning tasks). A role like this usually has less focus on the children, who might be older or in childcare for most of the time. Or, the family might have another person working in the home as a nanny.
A Nanager working in a housekeeper role might cook, meal plan, and shop for the family, take care of household laundry/linens/ironing, maintain tidiness and a basic level of cleanliness throughout the house, manage the pantry and other household items. Depending on the family’s needs and a Nanager’s preferences their duties might extend to other cleaning… It’s not common in our roles but hey, some people genuinely love to clean!
*Tip – When you apply for a Nanager role like this, it is so important to show us why you could be the right fit. It’s wonderful to see a resume with years of experience in childcare centres and formal qualifications, but that’s only part of what this role entails. A cover letter detailing your experience with household tasks and your passion for such a role is pretty important.
Are you searching?
Hopefully this helps to clear up a few things people wonder about Nanager jobs. Each Nanager is looking for something different, just like each family has different needs. At the centre of all of our roles is ensuring the children’s needs are met, and the focus of every match we make is ensuring that each Nanager and family have their needs communicated and met as best as possible. Don’t be afraid to ask us questions to see if we can make something work for you!
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