Nanny's Helping Hand

Welcome to my official Blog Space for Nanny About Town.

Let me introduce myself.....14 years ago this nanny started out as Nanny about a farm, then came Nanny about a village and apart from brief stints being Nanny in a ski resort barely speaking French and trying not to ski, this nanny has now been a ‘Nanny about town’ for ten years.

So feels its about time she shared her experiences in the hope that other nannies will read it and understand, take comfort from and agree with what is written and possible even gasp ‘You did what?’ as quite often she does. So with enough chocolate (for this nanny substitute rice cakes) fellow fantastic nannies and a sense of humour this ‘nanny about town’ is happy to carry on with the lessons.

Nanny about town would like to wish you all a happy back to the fab NHH magazine, here we are again heading into Autumn which is nanny about towns favourite time of year, it is also a time of loosing and finding . . .she . .well. . finds.

School once more has begun and we FIND ourselves back into a routine after a wonderful summer. It is also time for this nanny to hit the rice cakes with abandon as far to many ice creams FOUND they’re way to her over the sometimes hot summer. So she needs to LOOSE their present and obvious influence.

The tots are enjoying seeing friends who have been away and the freedom of having the older siblings occupied by school so they get their toys back to themselves.

Though it always amazes nanny about town after a summer of being part referee and part judge jury and well. Time out giver, that the tots now have time away from each other they are all miserable. Asking from the moment we leave the school gate at 9.05 am when will it be time to pick up their siblings.

So extra activities and a little leniency on behaviour is aloud till they stop feeling so LOST with out their older playmates.

The nights are also now drawing in as we LOOSE day light and it seems to be darker so much earlier which is a concern when travelling home as bike lights must be FOUND and checked, along with fluesant jackets and glow in the dark wellys. Which can actually be more of a hazard than help if you keep them in the hallway and forget to turn on the light in the middle of the night. .quite a shock to think u are having a close encounter with a luminous shoe rack!!!

Nanny about town has also suffered the endless joys of sewing on name tags to every thing that moved . . .(to prevent LOSS and aid FINDing  ) but she would be intrigued to know how is it possible to sew on a name label to 40 denier tights for a 5 year old without creating a ladder . . .she gave up and will be enforcing socks on gym days for the foreseeable future even in winter.

Nanny about town has FOUND that so many new things have been brought that it takes military precision to keep track of new school shoes and coats and PE kits. Even if they have been individually named by a very patient nanny . . . .so imagine nanny about towns surprise when chatting to a fellow fab nanny (who is now a mum) who purely threw good luck discovered her kiddies had carefully placed their new and still boxed school shoes in the Wendy house in the garden a day or so b4 school started back. Such a place that a harassed mum may go to hide, eat chocolate, count to ten but would never think to check in a room 101 way (were things are LOST) while playing hunt the new school shoes 10 minutes before its time to leave on the first day of school.

So you can see why nanny about town sees autumn as the LOST and FOUND season . . . .also why she is thinking of labelling the tots themselves as sometimes FINDing them is the trickiest part of being a nanny . . .that and the total LOSS of will power when so many angelic faces ask for just one more ice cream.

 As you will know by now nanny about towns columns are generally influenced by the month or season but this one if you will allow will be a little different. Nanny about town would like to tell you about an incident that occurred recently when out and about with the kiddies.

Beatrix potter could possibly tell this tale better as she often used her beloved bunnies Benjamin and peter to illustrate right from wrong and indeed ownership (of vegetables)

So if u will indulge her Nanny about town will tell the tale of the lily of the valley thieves,

and ownership ‘tot style’.

It all began on a sunny morning some time ago while walking the familiar route to school with the kiddies.

Every morning, half way or so, a house with a beautiful garden is passed. It has a small 2-foot fence around the property. This particular morning much to Nanny about towns delight the entire flower border was filled with lily of the valley plants.

(Google . . . as you know this nanny does and you will see it is a highly scented and attractive small white bell like flowers that blooms in April and may)

Pointing them out to the tots nanny about town explained they were indeed her most favourite of flowers. As any keen gardener will know the lily of the valley is hard to grow and not often seen, it is also rarely if ever available to buy in flower shops.

The following day the older tots seemed very pleased with themselves and whispered and planned in such away to put nanny about town on alert but alas she was unprepared and indeed unable to prevent the running ahead (on the pavement and in sight at all times) of the older kiddies who even though were called back, they opened the little gate to the house with the lovely garden and picked handfuls of the beautiful flowers. Running up (less chocolate more rice cakes) with buggy and tiny tot in tow nanny about town arrived at the same moment as the bemused house owner.

Tears followed, along with a stern yet calm reprimand from nanny about town. Luckily a full explanation from eldest teary tot that it was meant as a gift for nanny melted the heart of the kind home owner who forgave but added her own thoughts on why it was wrong and how ownership was important and should be respected and how they could make it right.

Then it was home to make sorry cards and to raid piggy banks for the trip to the garden centre for bulbs to replace the flowers they had unfortunately heavy handedly picked and trampled underfoot in their excitement

That night at tea nanny about town once again explained, even if their intentions had been kind and thoughtful. They must realise that they could not help themselves to what belonged to others and the purpose of the fence was indeed to keep people off the flower borders.  This lead to a big discussion on how you could tell what belonged to people be it property or personal items.

So imagine her smile the next day when after a spirited walk to school with a quick stop off to post sorry cards (one of which unfortunately had a lily of the valley flower stuck on the front with prick stick . . .noticed to late by nanny about town to be removed) it was pointed out to her that the back of her coat was covered with name and address stickers taken from the tots parents stationary. . . .Querying this nanny about town was informed by a solemn faced row of kiddies that they were just making sure everyone new she was theirs. . . oh dear!