Winter is here and the nights are long - a time when nannying at night sounds rather cosy (see this month's feature on specialising in just that). But as we draw indoors our thinking and feelings turn inward too. Are you perhaps too cosy and settled in your relationship within someone else's family? Or do you confess to yourself that you don't like a child it's your job to care for? Our features on p6 and p8 address the emotional entanglements that often occur in such a personal sort of job. And it's not just the children - the trickiest web to negotiate may be your relationship with your adult employer. How do you prove your competence? How do you establish a sense of trust? It may seem it's all down to you, as long as there's no official regulation of nannying to back you up - as two more features consider (p14 and p16).
Winter is here and the nights are long - a time when nannying at night sounds rather cosy (see this month's feature on specialising in just that). But as we draw indoors our thinking and feelings turn inward too. Are you perhaps too cosy and settled in your relationship within someone else's family? Or do you confess to yourself that you don't like a child it's your job to care for? Our features on p6 and p8 address the emotional entanglements that often occur in such a personal sort of job.
And it's not just the children - the trickiest web to negotiate may be your relationship with your adult employer. How do you prove your competence? How do you establish a sense of trust? It may seem it's all down to you, as long as there's no official regulation of nannying to back you up - as two more features consider (p14 and p16).
Brightening up this otherwise dark season are the busy preparations for Christmas. Our cookery activities (p12) also carry an essential tip. When the going gets tough - reach for the chocolate!
See you again in January with the annual nannies' pay survey.
