Parents are Doing the Best They Can Parents are Doing the Best They Can

Nanny Confessions

One of the best lessons I have learned working as a nanny is that I have never met a parent that doesn't love their children and that all parents are doing the best they can.

I confess that over the years I have disagreed with a lot of the choices parents who have hired me have made in raising their kids. I admit I have been critical and opinionated of some of my employer’s parenting choices. But, now I see that whether the parents I have worked for were gentle or strict when potty training, in their sleep training techniques, or discipline – each and every child I have ever cared for turned out just fine.

After working as a nanny for two decades I finally realize that I am hired to support the parents I work for, even when I don’t agree with all of their child-rearing decisions. It is unfair to scrutinize parents under a microscope. Instead I must make great efforts to support my employees as well as I can.

Each child is an individual and no child-rearing technique works the same way every day for every child. It takes a lot of work and creativity to raise children, with new challenges popping up daily. Raising kids is never easy. But, no matter hard it gets, parents and nannies must work hard, be creative, communicate openly, and support one another so that children in their care develop to their best potential.

So, whenever I start to feel judgmental of a parent’s child-rearing decision, I simply remind myself that the parents love their kids and are doing the best they can.