About Deborah

Reviewed on 4/25/2024

Debbie has looked after our kids for about 4 years, and we have loved having her as our nanny! I believe she is the 'gold standard' for a nanny: she is someone with talent, training, and experience that you can trust completely. Debbie began working for us when our first child was about 8 months, and looked after our child together with a second child in a nanny share arrangement, until our second child was born. Now, she looks after our two children, currently ages 1.5 and 4. She has been reliable, conscientious, and wonderful with the kids. Debbie has great ideas for fun age-appropriate activities with the kids, including reading, water play, play dough, various arts and crafts, puzzles, story-writing, simple cooking, science experiments, and gym-class-style physical games. She frequently takes them to the playground, library, Hands-On Museum, and to other activities. She has a beautiful singing voice and is often singing to the kids. Her training as an elementary school teacher shows! She seems very well-informed about their physical and intellectual developmental goals at different stages. She is great at explaining challenging concepts to them in age-appropriate ways, including concepts related to consent/body autonomy, body safety, hygiene, sharing, speaking politely, etc. Debbie has been very careful to ask us about our preferences for parenting---household rules, safety standards, hygiene standards, daily schedules and routines, guidelines for what food to serve, disciplinary strategies, potty training strategies, etc---and I believe she has always honoured our requests. She is impressively capable of keeping track of complicated instructions. (For example, when we began the nanny share, both kids had their own bottles, formula type, parent-requested feeding regime, and child feeding preferences. With the bottles alone, this involved 3 different types of bottles, each of which had 4-5 similar but non-interchangeable parts. Debbie somehow managed to keep this all straight, and uphold our families' respective preferences.) I've learned a lot about how to manage my kids' behavior from watching Debbie. She seems mostly able to avoid the need for discipline --- she explains her expectations clearly and in age-appropriate terms. She gives them warning before she asks them to go somewhere or do something. She motivates my older child to cooperate by setting timers or challenging her to races. She gives them lots of attention, and praises good behaviour. She uses singing and silliness to distract them or redirect unwanted behaviour. If the kids do misbehave, she intervenes quickly and speaks to them firmly, but I have never heard her become angry or lose her temper. She is affectionate toward the kids in a teacherly way. Debbie is very safety-conscious. I see her (when she arrives in the morning, or enters a new room) immediately start moving hazardous objects out of reach, picking up slipping hazards, locking cupboards, adjusting furniture the toddler could climb on, etc. She is thoughtful about safety with the food she serves them (no choking hazards, no allergens) the clothes she dresses them in (no long strings, no loose buttons), and the toys she lets them play with (nothing pointy, no choking-hazard-sized pieces or magnets that could break off, etc). Our toddler is a climber and she monitors him closely. In the almost-4-years she has worked with us, we haven't had any preventable safety incidents. On our request, she is diligent about putting the kids in sunscreen and bugspray to go outside, and she always carries our toddler's epipen. I completely trust Debbie with the kids; I trust her judgment and her honesty. She tells us about any mishaps and mistakes---for example, if the toddler falls and bumps his head, or once when she accidentally broke a glass in the kitchen. Even though she works 8 hour days, she always appears to be engaged with the kids---playing, reading, conversing, or doing other activities. I have never seen her playing with her phone or otherwise distracted. She is able to sustain the energy to be present with the kids all day, and to stay alert to safety concerns. Debbie is somehow able to keep our house relatively in order. She often recruits the kids to help her clean up their books and toys. She makes them lunch and cleans up our kitchen. She frequently washes and puts away the kids' laundry for us. Our house is much tidier at the end of the day with Debbie than it is at the end of a Saturday that I've watched the kids! She has helped us organize their books and toys in a practical way. On our request, she has occasionally taken the kids to shop for groceries for us, or for new shoes or clothes for them. Debbie has rarely missed days of work for illness or anything else. She goes out of her way to accommodate our schedules when she books medical appointments or chooses her vacation dates. She comes in even when one of our kids is sick, and cares for them. She has been flexible about being willing to work overtime for us (for overtime pay) when we have extra work obligations, or for an occasional date night. Debbie has been wonderful to work with. She has been pleasant, direct, and constructive about voicing any concerns she has to us about the kids or about her job. We have had a wonderful experience with Debbie, and can't say enough good things about her!