Nanny: trust is not declared, it is evidenced

A parent looking for a nanny is not comparing prices. They are trying to assess, in an hour's conversation, someone to whom they will entrust their child and the keys to their home. The whole trade consists in making that assessment possible instead of asking to be taken on impression.

What the family is actually buying

They are buying time, but not only that. Above all they are buying the certainty that someone reliable is there while they work, and the ability to know what happened.

This activity belongs to something larger. The International Labour Organization, in its 2018 report Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work, analyses paid and unpaid care work using data collected in more than ninety countries, and addresses the quality of jobs in the sector explicitly. Looking after a child at home is therefore not a nameless private arrangement: it is work, with working conditions that can be discussed.

What that changes in practice: a nanny who presents herself as a professional describes a service, hours and limits — she does not present herself as "someone who is good with children".

The first meeting: what has to be established

It is not there to charm but to frame. What is settled then prevents most later difficulties.

From the family: the age and number of children, the real hours and how they vary, the place, the habits that matter — meals, naps, screens, outings —, the authorised people, the emergency contacts, what the responsible adults want recorded in the daily note, and the health information they choose to share.

From the nanny: what she does, what she does not do, her availability, how she communicates, and what she asks for when the unexpected happens.

A trial period, agreed and paid, protects both sides: it lets the family decide knowingly, and the nanny find out whether the post suits her. Its length, its terms and how it can be ended belong to the contract and the applicable law — no rule is universal.

Identity and references: what you give before being asked

This is what most clearly marks out a professional, and it rests on an inversion: not waiting to be asked for guarantees, but bringing them.

In practice: identity papers, an address, the contact details of a relative, and above all references who can actually be reached — previous families who have agreed to take a call. A reference you cannot call is not a reference.

That approach has a useful side effect: it places the relationship on verifiable ground rather than on likeability from the outset. It also protects the nanny, whose work becomes documented.

What is never asked for, by contrast: an access code that would not normally be handed over, a password, or access to documents unrelated to the childcare.

Authorised people, and everyone else

This is the trade's most concrete safety point, and the simplest to handle.

The list of people authorised to collect the child is drawn up by the responsible adults, in writing, and is not amended verbally at the last minute by a third party. When a change occurs, it is confirmed by the person who decides, through a channel agreed in advance.

The same principle covers outings, visits, journeys and people admitted to the home. A nanny does not have to arbitrate alone: she applies what was agreed and calls when in doubt. Refusing to hand a child to someone she has no confirmation for is not rigidity, it is the service.

What belongs to the parent, the doctor, the school

A nanny occupies a precise place, and holding it is what makes her reliable.

She does not replace the parents. Decisions on upbringing, food, outings or screens belong to the responsible adults; the nanny applies them and reports what is not working.

She does not replace a health professional. She does not assess a symptom, makes no diagnosis and decides on no treatment. On medicines the rule is simple: what is given, by whom and under what conditions must be defined in advance with the responsible adults, according to the person's qualification, the written instructions received and the locally applicable framework. In case of doubt, you call the responsible adults and, if necessary, a health professional.

She does not replace the school. Helping a child with homework is not teaching a curriculum; offering early-learning activities is not delivering schooling.

On that last point, the Nurturing care for early childhood development framework, published in 2018 by WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank Group, sets out the components a young child needs in order to develop — among them responsive caregiving, safety and security, and opportunities for early learning. A nanny genuinely contributes to several of those dimensions, within her role and without overstepping it.

When something happens

No professional eliminates risk. What is prepared is what to do.

A nanny must be able to recognise that a situation exceeds her role, put the child reasonably out of harm's way without exposing herself, alert the responsible adults immediately, contact the emergency services or the designated contact where necessary, pass on the useful information — what happened, when, what was done — and record it.

The numbers to call, the services available and the steps to follow vary from country to country and city to city: they are asked of the responsible adults and written somewhere visible on day one. An article cannot supply them.

The evening handover

A parent coming home should not have to reconstruct their child's day from fragments.

A written note each evening — meals, sleep, mood, activities, homework, any incidents — turns childcare into something that can be followed. Paper or message, it hardly matters: what counts is regularity and honesty, including when the day was difficult.

That document serves three purposes. It reassures without ten questions being needed. It makes a trend visible — a child eating less for three days. And it protects the nanny, by leaving a record of what she did and reported.

It calls for one precaution: that note contains information about a child. It goes to the responsible adults and to nobody else. It is not published, not illustrated with circulated photographs, and has no business travelling through group chats.

In the African context

Conditions vary sharply between countries, cities and families: there is no single African model of childcare, and the same service does not sell the same way from one neighbourhood to the next.

The first reality is the place of relatives. In many families part of the childcare is provided by relatives, and hiring a professional complements that arrangement rather than replacing it. But nothing about this is universal: depending on the city, professional mobility, families living further apart and longer daily commutes mean that support is not available. Both situations coexist, sometimes in the same building, and a nanny who assumes either one is wrong half the time.

The second is the structure of demand. Depending on the market, regular clients are households where both parents work, single-parent families, expatriate staff, or households whose hours do not match those of childcare facilities. Each wants something different: wide hours for some, a school pickup for others, occasional cover for others still.

The third is the form of employment. The international reference here is the Domestic Workers Convention No. 189, adopted in 2011 alongside Recommendation No. 201: it recognises the special conditions under which domestic work is carried out and sets out provisions on decent work. It is an international reference framework, not a law automatically applicable everywhere: what actually applies depends on each country's legislation and on the nature of the relationship — someone employed directly by a household, a self-employed worker, or an employee of a business. Many arrangements remain verbal; putting them in writing is not suspicion, it is the trade.

The fourth is how work is found. A recommendation from a previous family remains, in many cities, the main channel — which gives considerable value to references that can genuinely be called. Instant messaging then serves day to day: confirming an hour, warning of a delay, sending the evening note. The International Telecommunication Union puts the share of the world's population using the Internet at 74 per cent in 2025, with 36 per cent for Africa, the lowest of the regions it measures: that channel matters where it exists, without replacing a meeting or a written agreement. Mobile payment, widespread in some countries, also allows regular, traceable settlement, which beats a sum handed over without a receipt.

Finally, the opportunity is real for those who professionalise. Someone who presents verifiable identity, reachable references, a written scope, hours that are kept and a daily handover stands out immediately in a market where many offers rest on declared trust alone. It is also what opens the door to families who would not otherwise hire.

What a nanny does not promise

She does not promise that no incident will occur, nor that a child will progress at a given rate, nor to correct a behavioural difficulty, nor to provide medical follow-up, nor to deliver a school curriculum. She stands in neither for the parents, nor a teacher, nor a health professional, nor an emergency service.

What she does commit to can be checked: a framing meeting, identity and references that can be verified, written instructions, a list of authorised people, hours that are kept, a defined course of action for incidents, a regular handover, and an invoice or receipt.

Digital helps without imposing anything: a reliable means of contact, a calendar, reminders, a receipt. It calls for constant restraint — the home's exact address, a family's schedule, a child's health information and photographs are not published, and are not shared without the responsible adults' explicit agreement.

Artificial intelligence can help prepare a schedule, a checklist, a handover template or a description of services. It watches no child, never confirms that a situation is safe, assesses no symptom and does not replace the judgement of the person who is there. Information about a child — health, habits, address, photographs — has no business being handed to it.