Hiring Our Yuesao Nanny
Yesterday we hired a live in nanny to look after our baby for the first two months after he is born in May.
It may be serendipitous or I may just have my Shanghai expat baby story radar turned on these days, because we came across a story that City Weekend ran at the end of last week about the process of yuezi involving a yuesao nanny. According to the custom of yuezi new mothers spend a month of bed rest while the nanny takes care of mum and baby to make sure both of them are healthy in the future.
Jenny will be following yuezi to the extent that the nanny will help her look after our baby Jake, prepare healthy food and keep all the baby things as clean and sterile as possible. Jenny has planned to breast feed Jake, but she intends to work with the nanny to get him into a settled night time routine as soon as possible so we are able to get some rest. We’re hoping that Jake takes to drinking his mother’s expressed milk through a bottle so Jenny is able to sleep at night.
Specialised yuesaos can be hired through agencies who are able to verify their references and qualifications. Jenny has taken care of recruiting the nanny after getting in touch with a few different agencies, which we found near Red House Hospital in Fangxie Lu. They nanny agencies only operate in Chinese so I couldn’t begin to tell you their name or the address.
The City Weekend article claimed that yuesao nannies cost between 3000 and 5000 RMB each month and we are paying within this range. We do not want the full cost or the loss of privacy associated with a full time live in nanny after the first two months. We want to be hands on parents who are fully involved with every part of Jake’s life from eating, bathing, playing and learning.
We are lucky that we are currently in a position to hire a longer term daytime nanny (ayi) to help us look after Jake until he is ready to come with me to pre nursery at the age of 18 months. This would not be possible if I was working as a teacher in the UK. We’ll look for an ayi in the summer and get the Yuesao nanny to teach her and me how to take good care of Jake.
I am aware that a lot of local families rely on grandparents to take an active role in parenting. Jenny’s parents have been really supportive, but they live an hour away although we know we can always count on them to give us plenty of advice! Jake can also look forward to seeing his English grandparents every week on Skype.
Jake’s expected birthday is 3 weeks today. We’re excited and slightly nervous. Let the countdown begin.