National Nanny Recognition Week: The Bare Minimum You Can (and Should) Do

Mark your calendars! National Nanny Recognition Week runs September 20-26 this year. Since 1998, the whole country (joined recently by the rest of the world!) has been coming together to say loud and clear what our team has been saying all along: Thank you, nannies. 

If you employ a nanny, this is your nudge. Don’t let the week pass by without letting the nannies in your life know that you see and appreciate them.

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It doesn’t take much.

Grand gestures are great if you can swing it and your nanny is the type of person who appreciates that, but the size of the gift doesn’t matter nearly as much as giving your nanny a tangible expression of your gratitude. Even if you think your nanny knows, this is the time to make it unmistakably clear. 

A handwritten note, a gift made by the kids, a gift card, or a quick bouquet from a local florist are all lovely ways to celebrate. While you’re at it, this is a great opportunity to support a small business! Making your nanny feel loved and making a local entrepreneur’s day? We call that a win-win.

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The goal is to make your nanny feel seen.

One of the things that sets a great nanny apart from a good one is an eye for the little things. She knows all of the usual hiding places when your keys go missing. She folds the extra load of laundry that wasn't technically hers to fold. She remembers the kid hates the crust cut a certain way, that the neighbor kid’s birthday is coming up, that you had a rough week even though you didn't say so.

NNRW is the one week a year designed specifically for you to notice her back. Don’t get us wrong – your nanny doesn’t support you, your kids, and your family to get a bigger NNRW gift out of it. No one is keeping score here, but being seen and appreciated is critical for those in a field of pretty thankless work. It’s not often that you see someone win a Grammy and thank the nanny who cheered them on in daily pretend concerts, or an athlete get inducted into their Hall of Fame and remember the nanny who drove them to and from every practice for years. We have conversations all the time where we have to teach people that nannying isn’t a waystation between jobs. It’s a career that caregivers dedicate their lives to so they can make a difference in the lives of other people’s children. You know that you couldn’t get by without your nanny’s support, so she should know it too.

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The more specific you can get, the better.

A gift card to a coffee shop is great if your nanny likes coffee; a gift certificate to her favorite coffee shop is even better. A pastry is made all the sweeter if it’s something you’ve heard her talk about enjoying. This is not the time for generic guesses or stereotypes. A gift that moved your friend’s nanny to tears of joy might not have the same impact on yours. Some people would rather have an Aldi gift card than a bouquet, and that's completely valid. After all of the tiny tidbits about your family that have embedded themselves in your nanny’s brain, this is when you show her that you’ve gotten to know her, too. 

A few questions you may find it helpful to ask yourself: Has she ever mentioned an allergy? Does she have fond memories of any gifts she’s gotten before? When she wants a drink, is she reaching for water? Or tea? Or coffee? Has she ever told me about an activity she has headed to after work? Does she get especially excited when talking about any one thing?

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Things like this make all the difference.

Expressing your thankfulness for your nanny adds up in the long run. One quick “thank you” is a drop in the bucket. Over time, those drops add up. When she takes inventory of her time with your family, what do you want her to find?

The bar here is not very high. Clear it anyway. Your nanny is noticing.