New career, what do you think?

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Hello! :tiphat: I do not post on here very often but I want to share my new career direction that I’m thinking of going in. I’m really excited but not yet completely sure and I would appreciate thoughts.

I’m finishing a degree in modern languages over the next year and although I’ve enjoyed that, I kind of did it because I was good at it and did not know quite what else to do. But I’m not passionate about pursuing a career in languages such as translating and I’ve recently had the idea that I might train as a professional nanny at a college.

It’s strange because I have always been academically able but I’m not moved by the idea of a really academic career. I enjoy doing ‘ordinary’ things to a very high standard, such as cooking and generally looking after people, domestic pursuits etc. So my mum suggested this to me and I was very taken with the idea! I would love to be a mum but that is not possible for me at the moment and I just thought, what a great training this would be!

Am I crazy here? :confused:

I should clarify that in Britain this is seen as a respected profession and the pay can be good, about £21000 starting salary if I go to this particular college (which is quite prestigious):

www.norland.co.uk

Has anyone heard of Norland nannies? In England at least they’re quite famous!

I just wondered what people thought… this is quite a tangent for me but it just feels right:) , and there is still a good chance my languages would come in handy.

I’m not sure though if I would get in here! Any advice on building up a portfolio? So far I haven’t done all that much with children other than babysitting, looking after my young cousin and also helping out with a group of Belarusian children in my summers. I feel I need to build up more things and I would love some suggestions. Thanks so much! 👍
 
If this is the direction you wish to take, then certainly go ahead.

You say…I enjoy doing ‘ordinary’ things to a very high standard, such as cooking and generally looking after people, domestic pursuits etc. You add…*babysitting, looking after my young cousin and also helping out with a group of Belarusian children in my summers. *
that sounds like a very good platform for this career!

Do you also find you have a sense of the psychology of a child (or when he or she is trying tp put something over you or not being authentic, because if one does one can guide a child’s development for the good), and also do you find it easy to perceive the unspoken needs that a particular child has? I’m sure you must have a facility to discern individual children’s needs or you probably wouldn’t be drawn to being a nanny. Basically what I mean is that you are so obviously qualified in the areas you mention, the only other thing I can think of is studying childhood development and psychology, if not formally, maybe through reading?

The best for your future! I ask God’s guidance and protection over your life, happiness, and career.
Blessyou, Trishie
 
Thank you so much for the reply Trishie, I will take up your suggestion and find some books on child psychology and development, that would definitely be a good place to start! Also, I’m thinking of volunteering with the Guide movement over the next year (do they have it in the US too?) and helping out with kids of probably 8 or so 🙂

I definitely do feel that I ‘get’ children the way you describe and I find it easy to establish a connection, I’m quite intuitive in a way. So hopefully this is the job for me!👍
 
You might want to call a nanny agency and ask if you can “Shadow” a nanny for a day or a week (in my opinion, a week would be better). That might give you a really good sense of how working as a nanny is like. You could also call the college you are looking at attending, their career office might be able to set you up with someone.

In the US you would not be paid to shadow someone in their field. I know when I worked in Criminal Justice we would have college students shadow us all the time. I think it is a great way to really see the day to day of a career field.

Personally I would look into child development. My minor in college was Early Childhood Education. In my opinion, unless you plan on working with physically or mentally handicapped children, you would benefit more from Early Childhood Education than Child Psychology. You should get some Child Psychology in ECEd also. I was also a social worker and the ECEd came in more handy than the Child Psycology.
 
Thank you JustAnotherThou, that is such a great idea about shadowing a nanny! I’m already thinking about volunteering for a week in my local nursery but the nanny shadowing would give me an even better idea:) . Hopefully I will manage to do both (but it’s just finding the time to do that…!)

By the way the diploma I would do would be Early Childhood Education, with some psychology etc as part of the course. Plus practical things like nutrition and menu planning, and looking after babies etc. I’m so excited about it! 😃
 
Also JustAnotherThou, could you possibly recommend me any books that I might read to do with Eearly Childhood Development? Thank you!
 
I would love to, although you see I graduated from college 14 years ago :eek: I ended up going into the Criminal Justice field after college with just 1 year in social work. I am sure all of the books I read are outdated!! Hopefully a teacher or parent will reply on your thread.

One thing I used to do in college, some schools don’t allow you to do this, I would look up the book a class was using if I thought I wanted to take the class the following semester. I would then check out the book from the campus library (not sure about in the UK, although anyone can check out books from a state university in the states). I would look through the book, read it, then decide if I wanted or needed to take the course. Yes a very geeky think to do, although I ended up not taking half the classes I thought I wanted to take and the ones I did I went in with some knowledge.

A good librarian should also be able to point you to some good books.
 
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