Do it yourself

The aim of supporting a happy and healthy childhood is that children emerge able to face the teenage years and become confident and competent adults.

As a nanny you make a vital contribution to raising the next generation, in partnership with children's parents. If you stay with a family through many years you will see significant changes as very young children become appropriately independent. But nannies who stay for only a short time still have an important role in guiding young children towards self-reliance in their daily life.

Competent children

Child development books can be a helpful guide to the ages at which young children will probably be able to feed and dress themselves or manage with little or no help in the bathroom. Certainly, many three- and four-year-olds can be very competent in handling their own basic physical needs. They can be active helpers within the regular routines of their day with you, or in their nursery. They may have developed habits of hygiene, to which they later add an understanding of why it is important to wash their hands. Young children are capable of making their own choices and decisions, in their home, out in the garden and in places that you, of course, first check for safety.