Kiwi / Oz nannies... opinions please?

[Eleusis]

Any experience or opinions?

I am going down the nanny hunt trail soon (job begins in July) because my current nanny's visa is running out. I've had a few people tell me that Kiwi's especially make great nannies. I have no experience and was just wondering if anyone had any views.

I know, I know, I am stereotyping in a big way. If you have nice things to say about other nationalities feel free to chime in. But, I do want someone who speaks English well so that potentially cancels a lot of the options.

No one?

Hi there

I think they are perceived as easy going, open, hard-worrking and with a can-do attitude. I am sure that for a lot of them this is the case. In fact a friend of mine has had a NZ nanny for 3 years and has only good things to say about her.

My personal experience is only from interviewing two Australian girls. One was already working for another family. She came accross as cold and showed no interest in my baby at all during the interview. She also told be that she would not accept anything below £9ph net (she was already being paid £8.50ph).

The second girl had just arrived in London the day before I interviewed her. She was young, friendly, happy person. She told me that she would accept market rate, she reckoned that was c£15ph net. When I put her straight she said £7-8ph was ok too. She also shared that she was interviewing that afternooon for a position as a tenis coach.

Oh, and I had a disastorous experiense with a SA nanny who phoned me the day before she was due to start to tell me she was stuck in SA without a visa!

I now employ a lovely Polish girl - she is absolutely fantastic! And she is so different to the stereotype.

So... I think I would interview lots of oz/NZ girls if I were you but do not rule out the others. Btw I do reckon foreigners are more likely to work hard and have a better attitude in general. However this is a wild generalisation and I have found that keeping an open mind is best.

Disclaimer: there are a lot of wonderful, hard-working british nannies out there who have a great attitude and are a credit to their profession.

Hi Uwila. I am on to my second nanny so i don't have much experience to go by, but when i interviewed nannies second time around, the ones that appealed to me most were English nannies who were currently working in the country, looking to move into London. Maybe it was coincidental, but they seemed unpretentious, willing to muck in, and the one i actually hired just had a really good rapport with the kids. I used peekaboo childcare and whilst they didn't really stand out in terms of service, where it did stand out was the number of CVs they gave me which all seemed suitable after all the other agencies were just giving me the same names. There is another agency called Little Ones nanny agency (?) which has a very helpful website showing all available candidates, nationality, skills, qualifications (if any) etc.
Anyway, good luck with the search

Our last nanny was a Kiwi, and we were very happy with her. We wanted energetic, smart and native English speaking. Certainly there was far more "can do" about her than anyone else we saw in that set of interviews.
There are schemes that allow them to work 2 years or more, and of course many have enough British/European ancestry to work here longer.

We were keen on a fir person, and Kiwis tend that way, and also they come from a wider spread of backgrounds than from other countries since many women use it as a basis for travelling.

Oh thanks for the responses. I'll be doing the search without agencies.

DC, what is a fir person?

I think the traits I'm looking for are:

Sporty/athletic (someone who will encourage DD to ride her bike, or run around the block rather than than plant themselves down in fron of the telly for hours on end)
can-do attitude and willing to muck in
Oranisation (self-motivated to tidy up)
Speaks english well (knows when to say "me" and when to say "I" and when to say "myself", etc.
Energetic (job involves having a 2 and 4 year old for 12+ hours per day)

Sorry, should have typed "fit".
A scary % of the nannies we saw were simply too unfit to cope with our kids.

Oh, maybe I should a fitness test at the interview. Get DD and DS to run in opposite directionds, give them a 30 second head start and see how long it take her to round them up?

Seriously one of the girls whose ad I have taken not of runs triathalons. And I though, oh that's impressive. The down side is I'll look like a fat coe standing next to her.

So, when does your new nanny job begin?

I was a nanny - you'd call me the average British sort I think.

I get what you mean about stereotyping, but I have to say the perceived image of Kiwi and Aussie nannies is realistic - they get mostly good press and deservedly so, ime.

Big advantage, I would have thought, is that English is their first language. Another advantage is that there is a general familiarity with the culture and sense of humour. And I reckon yer average antipodean has a few mates in London already, so if she's live in she'll be out and about when she's off duty, and maybe have nanny friends locally too.

Word of mouth any good to you - does your current nanny know anyone? (where's she from?)

I would second not knocking Poles (so to speak!)

It sounds like your requirement is "English mother tongue". I tried recruiting without an agency once and the mother tongue specification was a great way of sorting out some of the more random applicants.

I'd had a can't-do attitude from an Oz nanny and a can-do attitude from an English nanny - where she's from is irrelevant.

And if it were me, I'd be looking for someone already in this country.

Why the requirement to be already in this country?

Yes, I think English as a mother tongue is probably the requirement. Sadly, Americans are off the list due to visa complications. So, I guess I am focussing on English speaking countries which qualify for the holiday maker visa (Canada, New Zealand, Oz... Am I missing any?)

Current nanny is Canadian. And that has worked out fine. But, it might also be nice just to have diffrent culture come into the house -- which makes it more interesting for us as well as for her. God only know what messed up kind of accent my kids will have. DD currently speaks with a Canadian/American/English accent. Poor kid.

Kiwi/Oz Nannies get very good press though that doesn't mean they are all easy going/ hard working individuals!

When I worked in Milan all my Bosses friends wanted Scottish Nannies because they loved me, we're not all the same!

Don't rule people out because of where they come from...It's very important you get along with your Nanny above all else!

Hmmm... Scottish... does that count as English speaking?

Just kidding. After all, I speak "American".

eleusis;

Sporty/athletic (someone who will encourage DD to ride her bike, or run around the block rather than than plant themselves down in fron of the telly for hours on end)
can-do attitude and willing to muck in
Organisation (self-motivated to tidy up)
Speaks english well (knows when to say "me" and when to say "I" and when to say "myself", etc.
Energetic (job involves having a 2 and 4 year old for 12+ hours per day)

this sounds like what we want from an au pair too - if you find that kiwis'/aussies do tend to fit that bill I'd be really interested in hearing about it.

So on that topic, does anyone know of any good sites/ agencies/ bulletin boards to advertise for au pairs from that area? (i'm happy with canadians too - they're a bunch of mad bastards)

If the requirement is English speaking, there's also Ireland. I'd consider Malta too. Met some lovely young girls there. Don't know if many Maltese girls are looking for nanny jobs in the UK though. Someone from the Philippines?

Eulesis, I won't take offence!

Sunnyjim, try gumtree, nannyjob, greataupair.co.uk

Sorry Eleusis!

Oi, Sunnyjim, are we competing now... on the same sites.

Actuially, you'll find lots of Canadian on greataupair, and I would recomend them, especially those who come from the west...

5yo DS took up interviewing the nannies as well. We interesting to see how some couldn't cope with his questions, on their favourite colour etc.
Although we were entirely neutral on which form of English they were native to, we did want someone who we could see how they interacted with the kids. Can't do that by phone.

Has anyone any advice on Australian nannies? A friend told me of a real nightmare her friend had with an Australian nannie. Dishonest, having a boyfriend in the house pretending to go to clubs with the child and pocketing the money and, having obtained the mothers password from their child, reading all their emails. Does this happen often? The agency then became very abusive defensive and threatening. Help

Will people stop asking about "Philipina nannies" "Kiwi nannies" " Australian Nannies" "whateverfreakingcountry nannies".

What do you want us to tell you " Hey Helens, it is a well know fact that Australian nannies are a binch of stealing douchebags, stay away from them"

1. It's your friend's problem, not yours.

2. How naive (trying to stay polite here) are you to even think that anyone can tell you how every nanny from a country will behave (in a good or bad way). It's different in every case, with every nanny