How to be a volunteer nanny

[flim]

Hi everyone,


I have this idea of being a nanny as a volunteer, ie. unpaid. Prob to help a single-mum or a family in need.

Is there such a thing? Do you guys know of any social service centre or government agency I should talk to about it?

thanks a lot!

[kiasimom]

Wow, great aspiration!

I believe many mummies will appreciate your service.
may be you can write a bit more about yourself.
Like your experience in caring for children and your place of residence. :celebrate:

[flim]

hi kiasimom,


thanks for your reply

i'm not sure if you are suggesting that i look for a mum through this forum...

i was hoping i could find someone through an agency, like a family service centre, so that it's more transparent and fair for both parties. i understand taking care of someone else's child can be a very sensitive matter and if you don't know each other well enough, having an intermediary may be better...

i dunno... what do you think?

[kiasimom]

Hi flim,


We do have FTWM who might need help.
If you go to the " All about full time maids" thread, you will realise that there are mummies who are faced with the challenge of finding someone to care for their child.
I personally do not know of any agency that is willing to be your agent when you are actually volunteering your service.
You are right, It is indeed not easy to leave your child with someone you don’t know at all.

Hmmm, fellow KSPs, what are your views?

[kiasimom]

flim:

hi kiasimom,


thanks for your reply

i'm not sure if you are suggesting that i look for a mum through this forum...

i was hoping i could find someone through an agency, like a family service centre, so that it's more transparent and fair for both parties. i understand taking care of someone else's child can be a very sensitive matter and if you don't know each other well enough, having an intermediary may be better...

i dunno... what do you think?

How about being a foster parent with MCYS? Is that the direction you are looking at as well?
I am thinking of being a foster parent. But that of course has to be supported by my DH

[autumnbronze]

kiasimom:

Hi flim,


We do have FTWM who might need help.
If you go to the \" All about full time maids\" thread, you will realise that there are mummies who are faced with the challenge of finding someone to care for their child.
I personally do not know of any agency that is willing to be your agent when you are actually volunteering your service.
You are right, It is indeed not easy to leave your child with someone you don't know at all.

Hmmm, fellow KSPs, what are your views?

Hi flim,

Yes, agree with kiasimom.

There might be a FTWM who may need help. But not sure if she is open to the idea :?

That said, I :salute: you for your 'selfless' intention

[flim]

hi autumnbronze & kiasimom,


yup yup... somewhere along the line of foster parenting... difference is, foster parenting seems like a very serious matter as foster children usually come from very complicated background and we need to be very emotionally and mentally prepared for that. i'd love to do something like that 10-20 yrs down the road, hopefully by then i'd be a much better mum than i am today :D:D

in the meantime, i thought of doing 'foster parenting' for children who have nowhere to go after school and until the parent(s) come back fr work.

thanks for your ideas. i'll check out the ftwm thread as you guys suggested.

[buds]

Foster parenting and being a volunteer nanny for the needy is two

different things. From the posts above, it seems that the target is
not for full-time working mothers per se who may be able to
employ a helper. Mebbe i can chip in a bit here... ermmm.. i will try.

There are children who are left to fend on their own while their
main caregiver goes to work. There are children who go about
doing their own stuff and it does include wondering around too,
when they are left with old and ailing grandparents. There are
also children with a parent behind bars doing time & the other
has to go out to find work for the family. And there are children
who watch their parents taking dope in their presence.. Sad as
it may seem, there are such children around, even in Singapore.

While some children and their families do get aid from MCYS, or
from their place of faith, or from Family Service Centres.. (etc),
more can definitely be done for them. But alas searching for
committed volunteers ain't that easy. By committed meaning,
can one commit to work with these families or children for say..
a period between 6mths to 1yr? And no such thing of throwing
in the towel halfway..

Children with either parent or both parents doing time in prison
may be able to get help with heavy childcare subsidies. These
children need childcare. In fact, there wouldn't be a better plc
other than childcare for them. The families may only need to
fork out a token sum like $10.00 or so and their children can
attend a centre nearby from 7am to 7pm. Come early enough,
they'll get breakfast... on top of lunch and mebbe some leftovers
for dinner. I've encountered some children who are in such a sad
plight that it was hard to turn a blind eye. I volunteered teaching
early literacy enrichment pgrm with some of them. And through
these children, me and my small team of volunteers got to see
the other side of life through these children's eyes...

What these children would have benefited from were actually,
nannies. Loving enough as if caring for their own families....
neutral enough that regardless of race or faith they will not be
biased or judgmental towards any of the children.... caring enuf
to let the children know that there will always be someone to
lean on, talk to, get support and not put them down... someone
empathetic enough to understand or try to understand what
they are going through and provide the strength that they need
to soldier on.... someone they can look up to as a role model in
their lives, as they have definitely lost theirs... Nannies were
scarce and though some may have the heart to begin, most
were not able to see through it to the end. Children from such
dysfunctional backgrounds have no choice but to be raised in
a certain manner which may not be acceptable to us. And for
the common man, the person that these children may have
grown up to be albeit still young pre-schoolers and primary
school going children, may not be something that can sink in
that easily. Simply because it isn't the norm. Well they aren't
from normal families.. so....

As we have daily commitment with our own families, we could
sadly only offer weekly programmes for FREE which included
snacks, excursions, learning materials, uniforms and start up
pack to come for lessons. We had the support of some good
people (you know who you are). :hugs:

The children started out with the program trying to size the
volunteers up. Rules needed to be set. Objectives has to
be enforced. Uncultured... some scrawny & a few shockingly
uncouth, one need only observe for a short period of time to
know and be able to tell how very street smart these children
are. They look out for one another.. siblings.. friends and what's
left of the support that they have called family. As much as they
grew with us week by week, we grew with them too. Teaching
these children was definitely more than just teaching alone.
Values & character building needed to be sowed.. Their trusts
we had to earn.. Their bonds we seek to develop.. So that their
young impressionable minds could be tuned.. to a healthy norm.

We are deeply humbled by the experience and no amount of
money would give us such a learning journey.

Where to start if one is interested to lend a hand...
1. Family Service Centres ( FSCs )
2. Places of faith ( church, temple, mosque (etc)
3. CDCs ( especially within the areas of 1-rm HDB units )
4. Other non-profit organizations ( children's homes, orphanages, (etc)
5. Word of mouth from someone you know

Before approaching any of the link-lines above, know what you
want to do and better still put down everything in print ie. proposal.
Do not be caught half-hearted in the mission. Or worse unprepared
of the main objectives of your going there. Rehearse what you wanna
say if you have to... make sure you are seen and heard as someone
who is darn serious in making it work. Nanny services, after school care
services, tutoring services, caring for the aged services, (etc)... you ponder
about it.. what you wish to achieve from that spate of time you're planning
to volunteer those service(s).

For working with children from problem families/dysfunctional families, i
can only say... like any other child, children deserve the best that
they can get. If one has a determined mindset to go for it, it
can happen. They may have no means of reaching out for
help but we sure can try to reach out to them. Good luck.

[flim]

hi buds,


thanks for your sincere comment. i’m so happy there are still people like you who are committed enough to help.

may i know what sort of programme it is that you mentioned? and if you’re still looking for anymore volunteer?

[buds]

Heyya flim! No problem darling! My pleasure as always.


I roped in my two girls as well for this volunteer stint. You may read more
about it here @ this thread... > http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1555
I shared my volunteering adventure here. Hope you would find it useful.

I WAS looking for more volunteers months before the stint was even given
the green light. Having given up on that idea; since many have left me and
my team anticipating for too long with their decisions to join us... me & my
team decided to just go ahead... & really we kept the poor children waiting
long enough.. As advised by another elder in the committee, we gave it a go
to ensure we didn't leave the children and the needy families hanging on the
hope for too long. They were ecstatic when we finally commenced.. the smiles
said it all.

However, we were unable to proceed with the programme due to the lack
of volunteer support and also since our children's schedules got more
heavy... to carry on the continuation, even if we took turns to conduct
the lessons. It was sad really.. we were planning to train the trainers &
in return... the trainers MUST rotate together with us based on the roster
for the on-going lessons. We thought that it was a win-win situation. We
get to enrich other parents with fundamentals and on the job training and
the needy children would have consistent programme upgrade. But things
didn't exactly go our way..

I sincerely hope you will be able to fare better than we did and help more
children with your sincere intention to give back to society/community. :celebrate: