Posted: July 24, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Big Cat, Boss lady, children, Doc, empathy, intelligence, Mr.Man, nanny, needs, playing dumb, relationship |
As a lifelong (and thus far natural) blonde, I have worked hard to dispel the stereotype that all blondes are dumb. And despite the rare (ok full disclosure, occasional) “Duh” moment, I believe that I do my part in elevating the perceived intelligence of my hair color. However, as a lady might with any job, I pick my moment to cash in my dumb card. How and when I choose to play dumb depends on the charge at hand. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: July 2, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: anxious, Doc, nanny, parents, separation, separation anxiety, stress |
Being a Supernanny affords me relationships with the kiddos that result in less tears when parents leave than the average caregiver, but by no means wipes them out completely. Even charges I have had for years, who love me, and feel comfortable being left with me for days at a time will have moments when they just don’t want parent/s to go. Sometimes it’s separation anxiety, other times it’s that combined with other factors that make it particularly rough on a child.
When I first started nannying Doc, his Aunt Aspen clued me in that he had been very sensitive to separation from his Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 28, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales | Tags: Big Cat, Doc, kite mishaps, kites, mini cooper, Mr.Man, outing, Rebel |
As a Supernanny, Fun is my middle name. (Actually it’s Annemarie, but for my purposes as a caregiver, we’ll go with the former.) When the kiddos have some activity in mind that they are excited about, no one is more excited than me- one less adventure for me to invent, and takes the guesswork out of the day’s activities- plus I love seeing them pumped and primed for an outing! However, just as the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so is the road to some escapades paved with catastrophe! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 21, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips, Tunes | Tags: Boss lady, brave, Doc, falls, nanny, Rebel, trips |
One may not think of Jay-Z lyrics when it comes to child-rearing, but what can I say? The “Best rapper alive!” knows his stuff! Another of my nannying goals is to help children become self-reliant in any situation, even injury.
Now, it’s very easy for me to tell the children to buck up, now that I’m full-grown, with an increased threshold for pain, but back in the day I was anything but brave when it came to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 7, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Big Cat, clean house, cleaning, discipline, Doc, eating, funny, messy room, Mr.Man, nanny, nannying, Rebel, tips |
As a Supernanny, I uphold a very high standard of household upkeep for the duration of my time with a family. That being said, messes still happen. When I first started nannying for Mr. Man and Big Cat, they were 3 y/o and 8 months. At mealtimes, I was always trying to stay on top of things—cleaning up every spill, scooping every morsel off the floor as it fell, wiping Big Cat’s lips after every bite. But as our days together continued, I learned a valuable piece of mealtime know-how: During meals, let their freak flags fly. Let the proverbial chips fall where they may, and do a clean sweep after. Otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy and waste valuable energy better spent confronting post-meal hurdles (a.k.a. naptime, the word “no,” etc.). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 4, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: babies, Big Cat, Doc, Mr.Man, nannying, naptime, Rebel, Snuggles, tips, toddlers |
In almost every household in which I have nannied—whether long-term, short-term, or just sporadically—naptime is inevitably an issue. Every child is different, and so the siesta spectrum is a broad one. Some children are getting to an age when they can refuse naptime as a matter of principle, some are seemingly psychotic in their sluggish behavior leading up to naptime then sudden burst of energy once in crib—the individual issues are infinite!
As to the aforementioned blatant nap-refusers, I have seen my fair share. In my experience, the just-saying-no-to-naps (JSNTN) demographic seems to be 2.5 to 4-year-olds. Doc, pint-sized Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 31, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Big Cat, Doc, funny, Mr.Man, nannying, Rebel, vocabulary |
For every SAT vocab word absorbed by Mr. Man and Big Cat that makes me swell with pride, there are ten other Miss Cheryl-isms they and the other kiddos adopt that I don’t count among my most intellectual. Among them are:
“This isn’t ’Nam—there are rules!”(from The Big Lebowski) | Invoked when the kiddos “go nuts” on me (a.k.a. try to jump out of the car without their backpacks, kick off their shoes and leave them in middle of walkway, pull out a snack post-lizard-petting without washing their hands, enter an occupied bathroom without knocking, etc.) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 23, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Aspen, discipline, Dixie, Doc, funny, infants, Mr.Man, nannying, naps, tips |
I was hanging out with my pal Aspen and her 3 y/o nephew, Doc. He loves my fat cat Dixie “soooooo much”, and always wants to see her when he visits our apartment. On this particular day, Dixie was fast asleep (as she is wont to do sixteen hours out of every day) in her kitty bed, on my queen bed. Doc ran into my room, saw Dixie, and immediately started the slow and (as he is tiny) arduous process of climbing up the side of my bed. I immediately started smiling, stifling a giggle. Aspen looked at her nephew then back at me, laughing. “What’s so funny?” she asked, smiling and inquisitive. I replied, “He must really want to see her and pet her! That’s a lot of work for him to get up there!” See, when I saw him climbing up the side of my bed, I pictured myself with a mountain to climb, of that relative scale. What would I put out that effort and physical exertion for? A glass of red wine after a long day, that’s what!
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Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Big Cat, discipline, Doc, funny, goat maw, Mr.Man, nannying, Rebel |
Regarding discipline, I am not of the corporal inclination. If you have good discipline, physical force is a last resort, and for my purposes as a nanny I would never feel comfortable using it. No, when it comes to deterring delinquency in my young charges, I rely on their respect and affection to serve me well. In my long-term charges, some of whom I have been with for over six years, I find that seeking my approval is a very powerful incentive for them to behave. Mr. Man and Big Cat are constantly asking my opinion on all matters, not only the behavioral. Throughout most of our years together, my last line of disciplinary defense has been to say, “I’m not going to say it again.” I think they are terrified of what will happen if I have to say it again. And frankly, their active imaginations can come up with far worse potential punishments than I would ever implement, so I just let them wonder. My mama, an elementary school teacher, used a similar line with her students, my siblings, and me: “If you do that again, I just don’t know what I’m going to do.” Now as harmless a statement as it was for her to make, I know I always imagined her pulling out her hair, burning my toys, etc. so I would hop to when that phrase was uttered!
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Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Amelia bedelia, Big Cat, chores, cleanliness, Doc, funny, helping children clean up, helping children get organizing, magic, Mary Poppins, Mr.Man, nanny, nannying, Rebel, Tidying, trick |
We all recall the scene in Mary Poppins in which Julie Andrews helps the children tidy up the nursery. With a crisp snap of her fingers, the children’s clothes fly into the closet, their toys onto shelves. It’s AWESOME. But even though I will lay claim to such magical abilities as potty-training a child over the weekend (while his parents are out of town), getting veggies into the bellies of the most adamant verde-haters, and making nappers out of naysayers, I do not profess to have Mary’s mystical abilities. Instead I employ my own version of “Spoonful of Sugar” (better suited to those of us without lightning bolt scars on our foreheads) that transforms otherwise mundane tasks into flights of fancy.
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Y'all Behave! 