Olivia nannied for us for over 3 years (October 2013 to December 2016), first as part of two nanny shares and then solely for our family. When she joined us our first son was 6 months old and when she left our sons were 3 ½ and 1 year old.

Olivia is extremely loving and is a natural with all children. She is caring and nurturing and the boys loved being around her. She lights up when she sees children and is particularly good with babies/ young children. It is no surprise to us that she was approached in Brockwell Park (whilst looking after our boys) by a lady whose friend was looking for a nanny because this lady was so impressed by her manner with our children. Olivia went on to work for this lady’s friend on a short term basis (about 10 Mondays we think) looking after two children.

Olivia is very knowledgeable about nutrition and was invaluable when weaning our first son. She is a very good cook and cooks a lot from scratch. Our boys loved her food and she stocked up the freezer with meals which as working parents was really useful. She was also good at baking with our toddler (which he loved).

Olivia is first aid trained. Both our boys had severe reflux when they were little and Olivia was responsible for administering their medication three times a day. She was also very pro-active at making sure they are ok and administering first aid when needed.

Olivia was flexible and often came in early or stayed late when we needed her to and occasionally stayed overnight with the boys. We were extremely confident about leaving our boys with her. Olivia integrated into the community very well often meeting other nannies and parents for play dates or arranging play dates at our house. We loved our sons to be social so this was very important to us.

Olivia was brilliant at arranging trips for our boys and taking them to a wide variety of interesting and stimulating places including city farms, museums, galleries, Hampton Court, Kew gardens and the South Bank. She also took them to various parks, soft play centres, swimming, the library and classes such as Gymboree and Tiny Tunes music. She helped arrange things such as present buying, card making, doctor’s appointments and when we have needed it has picked up things such as milk, formula, food and dry cleaning. We were always able to rely on Olivia for all the extra things that come with being working parents.

Olivia was excellent at teaching our oldest son good manners including saying please and thank you and asking to leave the table after meals. She introduced a “thinking step” for when his behaviour was difficult or challenging and she was excellent at calmly getting down to his level to explain why he has been put on the step.

We liked Olivia from the moment we met her and knew she was somebody we would look forward to seeing in the morning. Having someone in your house everyday it needs to be someone you like and respect and we have a good friendship with her.

The boys missed Olivia when she moved on (as did we). We are still in touch. We are proud to have had her as our nanny and any family will be lucky to have her.

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• Communication