Customer Reviews

The ABCs of Hiring a Nanny, Expanded Version

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A new novel about nannies says all the wrong things about nannies and the families they work for. This hiring handbook will help you make the right choice. Check your nanny's background and use the needs assessment questionaire. Working as a nanny is a full time commitment and you need to make sure the nanny working for you isn't more committed to her education and social life than she is to your children The online appendix abcnanny allows you to down load all the forms you need. Downloads are a way of life today, but this site links to the forms you need as well as the irs site.The direct links save you a lot of search time, every form you need is designated in the book. The forms in the book and on the CD proivde a lot of information about the hiring process.

Develop a compensation package as suggested by the author before you start the search process. Stick to your guns, if using an agency, make them understand they are not doing YOU a favor. Don't get hooked into an agency by paying an application fee. The consumer information in this book is great! The abcnanny website is very helpful, the one shortcoming is the limited directory of nanny training schools. That however is not the fault of the webdesigner and author. The forms in the book give you a lot of information about the many aspects of the search and it is important you develop a packet of documents to use during each process. We found the interview techniques and questions very helpful. The author even has developed a language of her own, I like the term "child care trio" , and having a had a nanny snatched away from us, "Nanny Napper" is a very appropriate term! This book is great, don't be concerned about the page count, every time you run off the forms from the included CD, the page count increases. You can also download the forms you need immediately from the website.

We purchased the book primarily for the forms disk (PDF read-only files). The disk we received with the book had the W32.Pinfi virus. This waisted precious time, as we need to solidify a lead we received for our open nanny position.

We contacted the author, Frances Anne Hernan, and she promptly replaced the infected disk. My wife and I appreciated her kind e-mail messages. We understand that Frances contacted amazon.com immediately and the book was taken off the 24 hour availability until she had notified them that she had corrected the problem.

Check out Nolo's website. They have a contract you may download.

I found this book extremely informative. The examples given of the job description and how to explain your scheduling needs are very detailed. They make it easy to figure out exactly what you need and expect from a nanny. Also once you have it on paper the prospective nanny will know what you are looking for and whether she is able to provide these services. This book is a must for anyone hiring a nanny and the information would be useful for parents just needing an occasional sitter. It will also make a great gift for first time parents.

The page count is very misleading. It seems like the book has a lot of forms, but the text on the forms is very useful. The child care reference form is very good, I wish I would have asked those questions when I hired my last nanny. Downloading forms from IRS saves time. The section on job descriptions and schedules is very helpful. The CD-Rom makes the book good for several uses because you don't have to fill in the forms in the book. The only thing missing is simple recipes for the nanny. The best thing about the book is the author sticks to the presenting straight information. She created terms like parent employer and childcare trio, she does not offer her opinions nor does she tell stories. The ABCs of Hiring a Nanny is really a step by step program. This is a great gift for a co worker at the office shower.

There are no national standards for live in childcare. There should be. There are many federal and state regulations. This book not only provides information about the fiscal responsibilities of the process, the needs assessment helps you determine just what you need and how to interview the candidate according to your needs and determine her abilities. One standard that should be introduced is no one should come into your home with out a tb test. The application form(s) and the childcare reference form give you very important information. The web site is really an appendix to the book and connects to IRS forms,provides a directory of placment agencies and nanny training schools. One sad part of the site is there many more placment agencies than training schools. The cd-rom allows parents to print out the forms each time they look for a provider. The page count is very misleading because of the links to forms and the cd.

This book is an outline with a bunch of forms. It would have been useful for the forms on cd, except the cd was unusable. The cd is in an envelope glued which is glued in to the back cover. Unfortunately too much glue was used and it soaked through the envelope to the CD. I didn't try the cd until I needed forms, I ended up paying for a different set of forms online and I am stuck with the book because it's been too long to return it!

Don't make my mistake, you can get better forms online and a more useful book is "The Nanny Book: The Smart Parent's Guide to Hiring, Firing, and Every Sticky Situation in Between"

Bought this book hoping for a comprehensive resource of information on hiring a nanny. Boy were we disappointed. As was mentioned in another post - the book is nothing more than a glorified outline, and half of the book is copies of the forms that are on the disk, which forms by the way are in .pdf form and are not even fillable.

This "book" seems more like an outline for a book. Quick, terse and not very complete or thoughtful. While I'm all for informational books being "to the point" and not fluffy, this book really seems like it was never actually completed, and so has not proved very useful to me.

This book is a wonderful resource for new parents considering a nanny as well as parents who have hired nannies in the past. The days are gone where a friend of a friend knew an 18 year old in Utah who would be a good nanny because she "loves kids". The stakes are higher & parents know and expect more today. We want a real nanny caring for our children & not anything less. Fran's book provides the kind of information parents find incredibly useful at a time when they are making one of the most important hiring decisions they will ever make.