Raise your hand if you’ve ever needed a babysitter.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever needed a babysitter and didn’t know a single person you could call or trust.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever canceled your plans and avoided doing anything outside the house without your kids because you were overwhelmed about finding a responsible and trustworthy person.
I know I cannot be alone in this.
Especially as a military spouse with no family nearby, it’s incredibly hard to find reliable childcare. I’ve found a lot of wonderful nannies who want full-time, consistent work and I have a super-great high school girl who is around some nights and weekends, but what about for the moms who need an occasional sitter during the day for appointments or even just for fun?
Where we live there are Facebook groups for babysitters and families looking for babysitters. But how am I supposed to trust a total stranger with my precious babies? Who is there to vouch for the integrity and abilities of this person coming into my house to care for my small children?
Enter Nanno.
Yes, there are other childcare websites, but they do not have the same high standards that I do, or the vetting process I wished I had, too. But Nanno does. According to Nanno,
“Parents will never sacrifice the safety of their children for the sake of their own convenience – nor should you ever have to. That’s why ALL sitters on [Nanno] must pass our rigorous 5-step screening process.”
And this is not just a commercial background check. We’re talking an in-depth background check from 5 databases (spanning county to global), plus Nanno checks financial and personal history, and requires an exemplary score on both a behavioral profiling test and a caregiver’s test. Only then are sitters invited to join Nanno.
You can read about their extensive screening process here.
When I joined Nanno as a mom looking for childcare, I was confident anyone on the platform in my area was trustworthy and also competent. Joining was really easy, too. After making my account, I put out an “ad” about when and where I needed care and had the choice of who I wanted to send it to. Since I didn’t have any trusted sitters in my network yet, I just put it out to all sitters in my area.
Raise your hand if you hate navigating automated menus and dealing with customer service robots…
It was about 10 p.m. in my time zone when I put my “ad” out on Nanno for a sitter. Within minutes I got a text from a real-live person asking if she could hold my post until the morning since it was so late. I asked why, and she replied (which proved her humanity) that since my childcare need was a few weeks in the future, officially posting it during waking hours would make it more fair to the sitters in my area and ensure my job got answered quickly.
And sure enough, I got a text the next morning saying, “Nanno Match Found! Mary will contact you shortly!” And within 5 minutes, I got a text from my sitter introducing herself and confirming the details of what I needed. She was so great and sweet and it was nice to be able to talk with her, and I asked about she and her family and she was so kind to oblige and send me pictures of her kids and more details about her life.
As a first-time Nanno user, I was hesitant, and she understood this and went out of her way to reassure me not only about herself and her abilities, but about the Nanno platform. She encouraged me to go online and take the caregiver’s test that all Nanno caregivers have to take and pass with more than a 90% grade. I did, and let’s just say that some essential childcare knowledge has given way to maternal instinct about my own kids, and not based in general safety. Oops!
Want to test your knowledge? Take the Caregiver’s Test here.
I had a great experience with my Nanno sitter, and my kids asked if she could come play every day! I only had to pay for the time she was present (no fees!), and when I had some issues come up on my end, the customer service was unparalleled (and by a real-life human too!). I do have to admit that I had initial sticker shock with the hourly care prices. But that’s mainly because it is a flat rate, and I live in a very low-cost-of-living area. But when I got into the Nanno platform and interacted with my exceptionally well-vetted Nanno sitter and Nanno’s incredible customer service, it was beyond worth the cost for me. There are also membership options that lower the hourly cost. Plus the cost difference between 1 and 4 kids is only $5/hour. So as a mom of a small gaggle, that was a HUGE deal!
I can’t say enough how much I loved my experience with Nanno. It has solved so many childcare issues for me, and being able to easily find a trustworthy sitter in a moment’s notice to watch my kids at my house or on the go (or on vacation!) is priceless!
Yes, there are other childcare services online, but there are truly none like Nanno.
Nanno is the perfect solution for military families with the absence of family nearby and the added stress of deployments and PCS. There’s no more need to stress about finding a new sitter no matter where you move!
Raise your hand if you’ll now be a Nanno family! ?♀️
You can join today for free and see an instant list of Nanno caregivers in your area here.
