This article is part of our A Day in the Life series that takes a look at how nannies from around the globe spend their days. If you’re interested in being featured in this series, please email info@NannyMag.com. This Day in the Life features Ana Felline, a Portuguese nanny who works in the Swiss-German speaking city of Zurich, Switzerland.

Before You Leave for Work

I nanny for multiple families in Switzerland, with children of different ages and needs. With my long-term family of 6 years, my role as a nanny has changed over the years. In the beginning, while the children were still babies, I was teaching them their first words, guiding their first steps, and I was needed full-time. Today, since they are older and in school, I help with their homework, bring and pick them from their friends’ houses, and I’m only needed on a part-time basis.

With this family, there are days I start work early, at 8:00h. This is on days when both parents need to leave before the children go to school, school is closed, or the children are home sick from school. On these days, I just take a quick shower, get dressed, and run to work. Sometimes it is still completely dark outside when I get there.

Other days, I start shortly before lunch at 11:00h. On these days, I wake up early as well but I have time to prepare breakfast and follow my morning self-care routine which includes firing an incense stick, putting my meditation music on, and checking my social media while having a coffee. This schedule is of course my favorite, as it also allows me to organize my own home before I leave for work.

I work for other families around my long-term family’s schedule as well.

How you prepare, what your routine looks like

Having different families, with children from different ages, makes my workdays have completely different dynamics, and keeps my work interesting.

To keep organized, I use my paper agenda. My favorite has a two-year calendar. I write everything in my own hand to be sure that I won’t forget anything. This is one of my nanny secrets to keeping perfectly organized. My phone is also my great helper. For every event that I need to remember, either for work or for my private life, I set sound alarms with notes. This method is effective and prevents me from forgetting anything important.

In Switzerland, elementary education consists of 2 years of kindergarten, 6 years of primary school, and 3 years of secondary school. Parents who hire nannies for long-term relationships usually expect them to help the children with the social, physical, and emotional, development that is needed for the children to progress though their education.

When caring for younger children, ages 2-3, our daily activities typically involve crafts, show and tell, playing musical instruments, singing songs, reading stories, and playing. I also make sure the children learn to do small daily tasks related to self-care, like getting dressed, using zippers and buttons, putting on and tying shoes, and holding utensils during their meals. Safety always remains my focus. In Switzerland there is also lots of outdoor play and we regularly visit playgrounds, parks, go for walks in nature, and have playdates with friends, which are most often initiated by the parents trough local playgroups, which many toddlers from the same area attend a few times per week.

By ages 4 and 5, we continue to work on self-care skills and foster independence. During school the children are encouraged to attend to their belongings and so that they can be self-efficient for school purposes.

With the older children, ages 6-9 years old, I tend to focus on homework. The children can decide to do it after lunch, or after they come back from afternoon school and have had a snack. We also tidy their bedrooms together, which I find to be a great way to create bonds. We look through toys we played together and find new things to try out. This leave us with great memories and good ideas. At this age the children also have an extraordinary capacity to engage in conversations and plan the day. As such, I usually ask, “What do you plan to do today after school?” and they come up with lots of suggestions, like practicing playing their instruments, asking a friend to come to play, or completing their unfinished tasks.

I also make sure the children don’t forget basic hygiene habits, that they have table manners, and that they are wearing appropriate clothes for the day, as it can be very cold in the morning and very warm at lunch time here in Switzerland.

While on duty, what and how I cook for the children is probably one the most important things to my work families. In Zurich you usually have five meals. They are called Zmorge, which means breakfast, Znüni or snack before lunch, Zmittag which is lunch, Zvieri which is the afternoon snack, and Znacht, which is dinner. Usually, the parents want me to serve meals that children are used to and that are fresh, homemade, and enjoyable. I am expected to cook one thing that they really like and that they can choose. This may include potatoes, rice, pasta, beans, quinoa, bulgar, or polenta. I always serve raw or cooked vegetables or salad on the side. I usually leave notes for the parents to read that include a short description of what the children ate throughout the day.

For most of my working days, the parents are not home. They usually leave me notes with the tasks that they want me to complete, or information about a different school or after school routine that I need to know about and prepare for, like the children bringing home a friend for a meal or a different after-school pick up location. What I most appreciate in these notes are the comments the parents leave, like “thank you”,” smiles” or “kisses”. These notes make my day and help me to feel appreciated and valued.

While waiting for the children to come home from afternoon school there are always things to do that are not part of typical nanny duties but are mentioned in my contract. This includes tidying rooms, folding some clothes, and bringing out containers with paper and cardboard, according to the strict recycling schedule.

My workday is complete when one of the parents return home in the evening. When they return home I usually summarize the events of the day, mention the things that got done, and say good-bye to the children. My good-bye greeting includes saying “See you tomorrow”, shaking hands while maintaining eye-contact, or giving them a kiss on the head and a hug. It is Swiss tradition for adults to greet each other simultaneously with three kisses on the cheek, one on the left, one on the right, and one on the left. Before leaving work, the parents and I did the same, prior to COVID-19.

What You do After

When I leave my nanny families at the end of the day, I hope to leave with a good feeling that I did my best and that all went well. On those days that something didn’t go so well, and my mind isn’t able to leave it behind, I practice mental exercises to change my thoughts and focus. Usually I try to concentrate during commute home on what I’m going to cook for dinner, where can I stop if I need to buy bread or milk, or mentally prepare to answer messages I received throughout the day. I work hard to not let negative energy come home with me.

A Day in the Life with Ana Felline