An African proverb states that ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. This is one of the simplest and vital mindsets families and childminders should have when it comes to looking after children. Ensuring that your childcare provider follows your family rules, routines and is aware of pertinent information ensures that everyone is in sync, and minimizes confusion, strife, and frustrations on each end of the triangle, the parents, the childcare provider and most importantly, the child. Often you find mishaps between parents, childminders, and children themselves stems from miscommunication. Co ..read more

Listen to your baby cry like you are listening to a language you are learning. You may not understand the whole conversation, but pick out the words you know. Is their cry loud and urgent? Are there tears? Does he or she sound sad? Any of these cries, pick them up and settle him or her for no longer than ten seconds. Or is their cry more like a call? Is he/she sounding frustrated? Are they rubbing their eyes, pulling at their hair, kicking their legs around? If your baby is doing any or all of these things, it is frustration at not being asleep and they don’t need to be picked up. In thi ..read more

The summer months in the UAE are like no other! In previous years families took the opportunity to escape the extreme heat by travelling. Since Covid-19, however, travelling has become more difficult, so this year, many families have opted to stay at home for the summer holidays. This means parents must figure out how to keep their children busy indoors as the temperature outside can go from pleasant to scorching very quickly! With only a couple of weeks left until back to school, our team have put together some home-centred activities for your, or your childcare provider to use on those days ..read more

There are lots of agency options in the UAE that can assist with the recruitment and hiring process of a new nanny. Some specialise in direct hiring from the nanny’s country of origin and some source nannies that are already in the country. Prices range across agencies depending on the package whether it includes company visa or not, flight to the UAE, if the nanny lives in or out, nationality and experience/qualifications. Most of these agencies are focused on all round domestic labour and often classify nannies as maids or babysitters. This often means that the quality and standard of care y ..read more

Introducing our Summer Camp for Nannies this July and August 2018! With many families traveling this summer without their Nanny, we decided to put together a *discounted* 4-day training package, so your Nanny will have something productive to do in your absence. Nannies are required to have competent English language as the course is taught in English and a basic/intermediate level of childcare experience. The course costs 1,200AED + VAT and includes a Back2Basics Paediatric First Aid & CPR certificate valid for 2-year, a Completion Certificate, Competency Assessment and more! To book, pl ..read more

Thinking about hiring a nanny for the first time or wondering if you’re compensating your nanny appropriately? Angelica Robinson, founder of CloudNine Kids, the professional baby & childcare company in Dubai gives an insight into salaries, increments and visa costs to help you plan your budget more accurately: So, how much should it actually cost to hire your OWN nanny without a third-party/agency? If you’re fortunate to find an amazing nanny locally through a Facebook group, recommendation or friend’s departure, then your hiring costs will be kept to the ‘minimum’. This means t ..read more

I have two young school-aged children, both myself and my husband work full-time and we have changed our nanny, on average, every other month this past year. We have tried everything – different nationalities, maid agencies, posting in Facebook groups, yet we have still not managed to find the right nanny. I can’t help but think; maybe it’s not her, it’s me! Each unsuccessful nanny has cost us about 5,000AED – 10,000AED on visa and agency fees alone, that’s around 60,000AED in a year not to mention salaries and other expenses on top. It’s not only a huge drain on our finances but a disappointm ..read more

Firstly, who is rise? rise, the organization that brings you the UAE’s Best Nanny Awards is a start-up with a conscious. rise is the world’s first migrant wealth management platform – which brings financial inclusion and affordable learning to migrants in the GCC, starting with the UAE. We believe wealth is not just money, but knowledge as well as hunger to innovate and grow are integral part of wealth management and we want the migrants to have access to same opportunities as the rest of society.   Interview with Beth Seno, Top 20 finalist of the UAE Nanny Awards 2017  Tell me ab ..read more

No two families are the same, no matter which nationality, religion or parenting style they belong to. Their needs can be different from one family to the next depending on the size of their home, how many children and the amount of responsibility they need taking on. Working closely with a family in their own home, means that not one job is the same as another and there always needs to be a degree of flexibility from both parties. Here are 10 things your maid/nanny might like you to know: 1). It’s hard to take care of the kids and clean the whole house from top to bottom in the same day – If ..read more

44 degrees today in Dubai! Summer is well and truly on us, meaning that many of you with babies and young children will be travelling in the near future – off to cooler climates in an effort to avoid the worst of this insane Dubai heat! Over the past week our consultants have been inundated with questions about coping with the upheaval travelling can have on your baby’s sleep routine so we thought we would write a tip list for surviving the worst of it. #1: KEEP IT SIMPLE The key to stress free travel is to have as little to carry as possible. There is absolutely no need to bring anything and ..read more