Overcoming Homesickness
An Interview with Live-In Nanny Donna Moore
This we week we will speak with four young women that moved across the country to work as a live-in childcare providers.
Donna Moore is an 18-year-old high school graduate originally from Birmingham, Alabama that moved to Fairfield, Connecticut for a year to work as a live-in nanny. She has found that working for a family with three children has been a great opportunity.
The live-in nanny explains, "The family welcomed me with open arms and have been very generous providing me with a beautiful apartment above their garage, a car to drive on my free time, all my meals, and travel expenses."
But Moore says that it wasn't easy adjusting to the new home and job. She explains, "The hardest part of becoming a nanny was that I became very homesick. During the long hours without the parents in the house I felt lonely only caring for children."
The job was not as easy as she had expected either. She says, "The job is not glamorous. I did not realize what a physically exhausting job caring for kids in a huge home would be."
But, the family included her in all weekend outings and socializing opportunities and encouraged her to invite other nannies over for sleep-overs which eventually helped her from feeling homesick. Now, she loves the job.
Moore says, "My favorite part of being a nanny has been being able to travel to New York City on my time-off. I would not have been able to afford to travel to New York City had I not worked and lived close by to Manhattan this year."
She says to those considering becoming a live-in nanny, "The best advice for nanny candidates about to move across the country to become a live-in nanny for the first time is to remember that first and foremost you are moving for a job."
But, Moore explains, "If you don't mind working hard, long hours then the benefits of moving across country for a year can be a great learning experience."
Are you a live-in nanny that has felt homesick? How did you cope moving to a new town?
5 comments:
I'ts true I did get very homesick my first live in nanny job. But eventually I learned to love the town and now I choose to live here and am a live out nanny. So even the most homesick nanny can adjust it just takes some time. Be sure to keep in contact with everyone at home using facebook and emails.
I think all au pairs feel homesickness but if they can overcome the culture shock and missing family it's a good experience. Good comments Donna!
It is important to recognize homesickness as it can be stressful and a struggle with a form of depression. Due to the at times isolated nature of our careers and loneliness; it is easy to splurge our paychecks instead of spending wisely, saving, and investing wisely.
I have relocated several times in my career as a nanny to places where I didn’t know anyone at all. If one is placed with a brick and mortar type agencies chances are they will have nanny events where one can meet others. Or else in one’s area there may be nanny associations or meet up groups.
However, there have also been times in my life where there aren’t many nannies. Or I was placed through a national online agency that doesn’t have those networks too. This is where I have relied on my hobbies and interests to get me past my homesickness.
Go to the local museums and history sites, check out farmers markets, and weekend art shows.
Join playgroups, get your charge(s) involved in story times, and community rec classes. Go to the library and parks. Sooner or later you will bump into people over and over again and develop friendships not just for the kids but between you and other parents/caregivers.
I’ve always gotten involved with different things at my church, and this has allowed me to meet many others. Whether it was teaching, doing drama ministry or choir, or even participating in the book club there. (Plus bookstores and libraries have book clubs too.)
I sometimes took community rec classes myself on evenings and weekends. Or got involved with nature/hiking groups.
You can’t just think of your relocation as being about having a job, but rather it is one element of your life. So don’t live for your job, enjoy the opportunity to have a life.
BTW – if you click on homesickness in the tag subject lines here you will see another great article written about this all about a year ago. :)
The first family I worked for was hard. They wouldn't let me call or email family and friends back home on work hours. But I switched familys and it's better. I know you can't spend too much time emailing and calling friends and parents during work but it is really important to treat your nanny as anyone else. When homesick I needed to talk to my parents and friends to encourage me to stick it out.
The hardest part of being a live in nanny for me was homesickness. The job is also long hours and very lonely and isolating. If I were working in an office I would more likely have other employees to get to know but it's limited when working in a private home with kids. You only meet the other nannies and moms and I was lonely. I worked my year than went home.
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