Seattle Nanny

Hiring an Seattle Nanny or Babysitter

Networking in Seattle with friends, neighbors, teachers, or using a professional registered sitter agency is a good way to start. It is important to find someone that you like to watch your child. This should be a responsible, competent, trustworthy individual who actually likes being with children. Ensure that they are age-appropriate since some nannies and sitters are not comfortable with babies or very young children. Do a background check, ask for references and be sure to check them out. It would also be helpful if the sitter had some first aid or CPR training. Remember your child’s safety is your first priority.

Seattle Nanny Salary

The going rate in your Seattle neighborhood can vary depending on the sitter’s qualifications, experience, education, and the number of children to be cared for. Salaries for live-in nannies currently range from $12 to $16 an hour or $500 to $700 per week. Be fair – for sitters, pay a decent rate with a minimum number of hours arranged beforehand. There are some well-established registered babysitter and nanny agencies in Seattle, and they will provide references and detailed background checks on request.

Seattle Nanny & Babysitter Agencies

The Seattle Nanny Network (425-803-9511) has been in business since 1995 and was recognized by MSNBC.com and Seattle Magazine as well as winning a Better Business Award for Excellence in Customer Service. All candidates are personally interviewed and undergo thorough background, reference and statewide criminal background checks as well as CPR and first aid verification. They offer full and part-time nannies, on-call babysitting services, back-up and overnight childcare, and temporary child care services. A Nanny For U (206-525-1510) has been in business since 1994. All candidates undergo personal interviews, thorough criminal and child care reference checks as well as assessment of driving records. Successful candidates must be non-smokers, have their own car, have CPR training verified, along with two years experience in a childcare setting. They can also provide staff for hotel stays and out of town guests for a placement fee of $20, and then $15-$18 per hour. In addition, overnight and 24 hour care can be provided. Be sure to leave a contact number where you can be reached, as well as your child’s medical information. If you are going to be unavailable, perhaps a grandparent or good neighbor in Seattle can be notified. Be clear to the babysitter about your expectations. This should be a good experience for your child, something and someone they can look forward to coming again.

Seattle Kids Activities & Things To Do with Kids

Seattle is the largest city in Washington and the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, located between Puget Sound and Lake Washington. It was first settled by pioneers in 1851 and incorporated as a city in 1869. With the arrival of the Great Northern Railway in 1893, the city grew rapidly. Seattle was a boomtown during the Alaska gold rush in 1897 and became a major Pacific port of entry when the Panama Canal opened in 1914. Its landlocked harbor has made Seattle one of the major ports in the United States and the region’s hub for transportation. Seattle was the site of the 1962 world’s fair with its 600-foot Space Needle becoming the skyline landmark, along with the first publicly operated U.S. monorail.

Seattle has a multitude of restaurants and pubs that showcase its well-known cuisine and international eating choices as well as after-hours live music and entertainment. Seattle has something for everyone; so if you are going to visit for business or holiday, bring the whole family with you. Shoppers will delight in Seattle, known as the place to shop in the Northwest. The historic Pike Place Market, located in the city’s main tourist shopping district with hundreds of unusual shops, boutiques and restaurants is one of Seattle’s main attractions. Pacific Mall offers five levels of upscale shops and restaurants with lots of natural light and an adjacent parking garage. Seattle is well known for its Washington State wines, flying fish, and of course coffee lovers with coffee shops on every corner (including the original Starbucks).

Seattle Center is a 74-acre amusement park and cultural center at the end of the monorail line. Visit the Space Needle at the centre where you get a spectacular view of the skyline from the observation deck. The Fun Forest has a roller coaster, ferris wheel, carousel, log flume ride, arcade games and mini-golf. The International Fountain provides a place for kids to keep cool on hot days – don’t forget to bring along their bathing suits or a change of clothes because they will enjoy getting wet. Located here as well are the Children’s Museum, which provides lots of hands-on exhibits to keep kids learning and playing with a play area for toddlers, a kids-sized neighborhood and a mountain wilderness area, in addition to the Seattle Children’s Theater. The Woodland Park Zoo has a walk-through butterfly house, an elephant forest, a brown-bear enclosure that showcases a reproduction of an Alaskan stream complete with salmon swimming upstream, a farm animal area and Zoomazium, an interactive play area where kids can see what life is like for wild animals.

The Seattle Aquarium showcases the “Windows in Washington Waters” exhibit where divers feed the fish inside a gigantic glass tank. There is also a tank that generates huge waves, and a tide pool exhibit where kids will delight in reaching out and actually touching sea cucumbers, starfish and anemones. As well, there is a coral reef tank, an underwater viewing dome, river and sea otters, and a giant octopus. For aviation buffs of all ages, the Museum of Flight is a six story glass and steel building that includes a replica of the Wright Brothers first airplane as well as more than 20 planes suspended from the ceiling in the Great Hall, in addition to an Apollo command module. It even has its own air traffic control tower where you can watch planes take off and land at a nearby active airfield. For something different, you and the kids could climb aboard a retired Concorde airliner, or you could even take a biplane ride from the front of the museum. The Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center offers more than 40 hands-on exhibits especially for young landlubbers who want to learn more about Seattle’s waterfront and ties to the sea, including a kid-sized fishing boat and a live radar tracking center. Your tweens and teens won’t want to leave the Experience Music Project, a rock and roll museum designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry located at the base of the Space Needle. This museum showcases the history of American popular music, and its interactive rooms let you be the star where you can play keyboards, operate a DJ turntable, and even have an on-stage experience in front of a live audience.

As you can see, Seattle offers something for everyone, resident and tourist alike. Just remember to have the sitter and the kids wear comfy shoes when out and about in Seattle.