For example, we are considering a nanny that doesn't speak fluent English-- she speaks Spanish and some English. We don't speak very much Spanish.
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Option 3!
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Would you have trouble communicating your issues/concerns/parenting choices with the nanny? How good is there english? If you could not communicate with them I would definitely pass.
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I would be worried about an emergency situation where a language barrier could be a problem.
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No, not even consider it. Communication is HUGE and if they don't speak English fluently, how can they help your LO learn English? It's a fantastic idea to have someone who is bilingual, but they should be fluent in both, if not, then moreso in the language you speak
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Nope. Not unless I spoke their language. I mean how is LO going to understand her.
I have friends that hired a nanny, who speaks Spanish, but knows English. My friend speaks Spanish, so it is working for them.
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I voted other. It would depend on how well she spoke English. I don't think I would have a problem if she wasn't fluent so long as there aren't any difficulties in communication. If she has a good grasp of English, I would consider her, despite the fact that she wasn't fluent.
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I totally would! I know enough Spanish to communicate, and would LOVE my kids to get such extensive exposure to another language while they're still young.
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I think It is REALLY important for at least one parent to be able to communicate effectively.
My nanny speaks Spanish and a little bit of English. I speak Spanish well enough to have a conversation, but I miss the nuances. The only reason it works for us is because my husband is a fluent Spanish speaker (our child care is his aunt), so he takes care of conversations where there are details that are important.
For what it's worth, I actually love that she speaks to him primarily in Spanish. I speak to him in English, so hopefully he'll grow up learning two languages! We have a great set-up and I feel very lucky to have her help...but it would make it really hard if I couldn't talk to her at all.
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Nope, wouldn't even consider it. Communication is basically the number one issue in having a nanny. A language barrier would be a deal breaker.
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@swurlygurl: same. As long as I could communicate with her, I'd be so happy knowing my child was being exposed to another language.
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No, I would not consider it. This is a deal breaker for me because there could be an emergency situation where the language barrier would be a problem. It doesn't matter if I know the language or not. What if the nanny needed to call 911 and they couldn't understand her, which resulted in a delayed response. I would keep looking.
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While I would like my child to get the influence of another language, not being able to communicate with the person who is with my child 9+ hours a day would wear on me.
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I think it's really important for at least one parent to be able to communicate effectively.
I actually just had this conversation with a friend who hired a nanny a few years ago that spoke very little English. She said she kept coming home to find her youngest absolutely miserable and to find he hadn't napped all day. She had explained his nap routine multiple times to the new nanny, but it turns out, the nanny thought she was telling her to to the opposite of her instructions. Luckily it only happened for a few days before she got her husband (who speaks fluent Spanish) to talk to her and figure out what was going on. It worked out well after that, as long as her husband was doing most of the communicating.
But the bonus was that her boys always had a good grasp on Spanish early on. They're 9 and 6 now and still can speak it fairly well.
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Accent yes, broken English maybe. If the nanny spoke Spanish I would be more open to her/ him because so many people speaak Spanish where I live. I would be more concerned if the language was more uncommon. We have plenty of Spanish speaking emergency personnel, but Swahili or Mandarin maybe not.
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Both of the nannies I had as a baby and into elementary school did not speak English as their first language, although they did speak it fairly well. They were both WONDERFUL. My sister and I loved them, my parents loved them. We even went to one of their daughter's quinceanera and another's wedding. So it can still work out very well! It would probably depend on how much of a language barrier there is, though.
ETA: as far as I remember, they spoke to us primarily in English. I actually wish my parents had asked them to speak to us in Spanish as well, because I really wish I could speak it now, and learning as a small child is the best way.
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I would consider it because I love the idea of baby learning a new language, studies show if they learn a second at a young age and even lose the skills the neural pathways are basically prewired and it makes it easier to learn a language later in life.
But... My house cleaner's English is shaky and I hate not being able to convey things clearly. She does some things differently than I want because she jest doesn't get it. It's just little things though so I try not to worry about it but with a baby it might be a different story.
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Absolutely-- we would be the ones teaching LO English, and the nanny would be teaching her Spanish. This seems like a non-issue where I live (southern CA), because most nannies speak little English (enough to communicate to the parents about the day), but speak only to the child in Spanish. Seems like a win-win to me.
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no, because i am not fluent in another language. if one of us was fluent in the language they spoke & they were gong to teach LOs the language, that would be great, but neither of us is bilingual and a communication barrier would be a deal breaker for me.
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I've had this scenario with a babysitter, she spoke very little English, but she was fluent in the language of the country where we lived.
i was okay with this scenario because if she took my son out, or needed to call emergency services, she would be able to communicate no problem. I knew enough where we could communicate the daily stuff, but big things had to be left up to my husband.
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No way. I want to be able to communicate things to the nnany. After all, she works for us. If we can't communicate well....that's not okay.
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I would. Their temperament, patience, kindness, values, experience, and demeanor mean most to me.
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i wouldn't consider it personally because it's so easy to have miscommunications with someone that speaks english, and i'd be worried in case of emergency.
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Actually I would prefer that in some ways because I would love to have LO learn Spanish... but, to me a lot of it depends on your gut instinct of whether or not this person "clicks" with your little one and you trust them.
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@mrsgreengrass had to fire her 1st nanny because of language barrier issues.
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I did hire a nanny that wasn't fluent, she spoke Portuguese and it did not work. She could speak conversational English fairly well, but not well enough to understand my instructions and it was extremely frustrating. Eventually we had to fire her and switch.
She was absolutely capable of taking good care of my son, but she was not able to take an active role as a caregiver. Mixing formula in the correct ratio was too complicated, etc. She wasn't very comfortable driving in an area that she was unfamiliar with. I didn't feel like I could have a real conversation about what D was doing during the day beyond basics.
I would have loved to have D learn a second language and I know that tons of nannies do not speak English fluently so I thought it was no big deal, but it definitely became a huge issue and did not meet our needs for a nanny.
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@dagret: haha. I just saw your comment after I posted.
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@Mrs Green Grass: haha.
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LO would be partially learning English from her so that wouldn't be my first choice especially since I don't speak another language. However, if the nanny could speak to LO in a language we want LO to learn (as MIL does) that could be a benefit even I it's not to make LO fluent.
Eta and their English would have to be good enough for us to communicate well.
And this is all hypothetical to me...I doubt I'll ever be hiring a nanny!!
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No never. I would LOVE if the nanny spoke a 2nd language/another language as a first language, but she would have to be fluent in English as well. I can't imagine not being able to communicate easily with my child's caregiver.
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I think it all depends on how good her English is, even if Spanish is her first language. Our LO goes to a home daycare run by a lady that speaks Spanish, but also speaks some English and we have had no problems communicating about LO's day, her naps, food, etc- and neither me or DH know how to speak Spanish! LO is also learning Spanish over there, so I think that is pretty cool! We say some Spanish words like leche at home, and DD knows its her milk
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