Uniforms

I normally wear polo shirts and beige or navy trousers when I am working.

When I was a nanny in the U.S.A. My friend was asked to wear a uniform by her employers, they thought her own clothes were too skimpy.lol She was probably the most conservative among us.

when nanning back in the mid 80's i wore i uniform when i worked for family in chelsea.I had two grey dresses and flat navy shoes , paid for by my employer, certainly save don my own clothes , my charge when to school with prince william and most of the nanny's at the school worn a uniform . Sign of the times i think.

several people have assumed my bosses are my parents (when we hav been in the same car going for holidays etc)

My boss was REALLY insulted cause she thought it meant that she looked old

(she was certainly a very beautiful young looking youngeish mum )

nannyL I'm in exactly the same position as you! I'm only 5ft 1 and have blonde hair and blue eyes and even though I'm 25 I always get asked for ID.

When out and about with charges / family I always get odd looks! Sometimes because it looks like I have heaps of children by different dads and other times it's because I look so "young". I was out with a 6 M/O yesterday who has the same colouring as me and a lady stopped me in the street to tell me I was too young to be a mum. How rude is that! She was quite elderly and I bet she was married with children at 19 back in "her" day - I didn't comment though the baby screamed when she approached us so she said enough for both of us

I'm thinking nick is on to a winner with his logo tops - time to get a needle out & start the embroidery me thinks.

One of my ex charges looked more like me than either of the parents (even by their own admission) lol. Scarily enough, a todler picture of her and an old black and white one of myself at a similar age were almost identical in size/build/facial expressions etc.
Very strange.

I too used to have people look down on me for being a young 'mum'.... being 19 with my newborn charge

I have alwsy looked very young and even though im 28 I am always IDed so would have looked very very younge when 19.

have also been told by strangers at some point or another that all my charges look just like me.... i normally respnd with "i dont know why cause he's not mine, im the nanny "... last time i got that comment was Thursday so just 3 days ago

to be fair im blonde hair with blue eyes as have been most if my charges, but thats where the similarity ends

I think on the whole people see what they expect to see. Both our nannies were told that our children looked like them - even though our first nanny had ginger hair (as did her son who she brought with her) and our kids have brown/blonde hair. In some ways nanny uniforms would probably be more risky re the kidnapping aspect, as people often don't look past the uniform (try putting on a white coat in a hospital, you'll get into all sorts of places). My friend (who decided against Norland) said that sometimes she wished she did wear a uniform as she was very young looking and often got tuts when she took her charges out and about.

interesting you say that, nick. you may remember i had a male after-school nanny. dd used to play him up quite a lot on the walk between her nursery and ds's school. as he is black and we are white it was quite obvious he wasn't her father. he Got Looks aplenty.

he dealt with it all brilliantly though, he was great

Simplyme... I wear it so people know who I am. I don't want people thinking that I am kidnapping a child.

For women it is probably easier, as someone would assume you are mum... but what about me? What do they assume I am? Some may think I'm dad, but some may think differently.

i dont wear a uniform and i wouldnt either

i wear my own clothes and anything that is new / special stays at home away from the children

i find most "stains" actually come out after a few washes anyway

Simplyme

That was exactly the attitude of one of my former employers who took on a Norlander probationer, when filling out assesment form for the college the family wrote that the nanny never wore her uniform as they felt it was too much of a risk to the child (not a high profile family either).

I think even Norlanders can wear casual trousers and loose fitting tops now, all be it, in the Norland colours. Much more practical for every day.

oh yes the NNEB uniform-have to say I thought it was pointless chnaging into it for our practical of washing babies (plastic ones) etc

but did enjoy wearing it with pride when did my mat placements in hospital

I had a uniform while training hated it we were supposed to wear it on all placements plus any formal stuff in college.Only wore it while i was on the maternity ward. In all of my other placments wore normal clothes with full consent of the placement. . Now wear every day clothes far more practial i several sets of work wear looks smart yet is practial it gets covered in the usual kiddie stuff.

havent a clue harriet - the uniform looked about my size

Since uniforms can be percieved as a status symbol I also think they could be a bit of a security issue too.

I mean it might sound ott but some children are kidnapped for ransoms etc. If a child is out with a nanny in everyday clothes you dont know wether it is a child with mum or not.

If the nanny is in uniform then you see a nannied child and think mega bucks mum and dad!!! Maybe I have too much of an imagination but I certainly think it makes them more obvious in that sense anyway.

I discovered the other day that two of the children in dd's class have Norland nannies (they recognised each other at pick-up time). Neither of them were wearing uniform.

I had a friend that was accepted into Norland (she actually went somewhere else) and she told us that the always were uniform. This was 10 years ago, so maybe things have changed, but that was definitely a status thing.

imananny
It's interesting that they already had a uniform there, ready to go. I wonder what happened to the previous occupant????

And: Red?! Boy, did they want you noticed!

Don't think a nurses uniform would suit me
I wear cheap Primark trousers, reasonable quality polo shirt/sweatshirt (with embroidered logo/website url).

Harriet - I nearly wet myself - they brought it out and was on hanger - it was roughly like a nurses unifrom in style but was red

I was allowed to have 2,but if I wanted anymore i would have had to pay for them myself

sure hubby would have liked it dressed up with red stockings and suspenders

T- shirt would be ideal but in : the good old days : family's with nannies wanted people to see they had them, especially doing the daily walk round Hyde Park. Nowdays i wear jeans and tops much more child friendly.

Exactly AOOT.

I wouldn't go for huge logo tho.

When i first nannied over 30 yrs ago i HAD to wear a uniform. I was given a brown mid calf skirt with a white blouse !!! It was definately a status thing. I also had to wash and polish the wheels and each spoke of the large silver cross pram every night. How times have changed.