Michelle Bachelor "SUPER NANNY"

Our home for 6 weeks. Lake Dunstan in the background.

Part of orchard and neighbors vineyard. Giant fruit sculpture in the background.

The fruit picking hasn’t stopped since we’ve been here. I occasionally get a random day or two off, but I’ve been putting in heaps of hours. It’s amazing how much fruit is really on the orchard, and it has become a monotonous task getting it off. I like to joke around and ask the other pickers “have we been here before?” because it all looks the same. The work may not be the greatest, but the other pickers are a really great bunch of guys. Many of the pickers are from Vanuatu, a small group of islands west of Fiji. It’s fascinating talking to them and comparing lifestyles, but deep down they are just a bunch of fun island boys here to make money to send home. 

The hours tend to move by quickly, and I don’t get hungry since I eat so much fruit. Back at home I didn’t eat too much fruit, but here I eat about a pound of fruit a day (some days more, others less). Do you know what happens when you eat heaps of fruit? If not, ask me and I'll tell ya. The weather here has been hot and sunny nearly everyday and we’ve still been making trips to the lake. Overall, the experience there was great and I’ll never forget it, but I was ready to be done and we were getting anxious to hit the road again. Things have been a little different for Michelle and it would be best for her to explain what she’s been up too.

My Experience of being a Nanny

When we accepted this job we knew that Jeremy would be picking fruit for six weeks, while I was going to have multiple jobs. I was going to pick fruit for a week or so, and then pack the fruit in the shed, followed by three weeks of childcare. I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t anxious about being a nanny for some body else’s kids, let alone three kids! (I’ve never nannied before)The boy is two years old, and the two girls are four and six.  As the picking and packing was wrapping for me, I was getting more and more nervous about the weeks to come, and wondering what in the world did I just sign up for? I have no idea how I am going to care for these kids!

I was replacing another nanny who was leaving to go back to university. I shadowed her for a couple days and learned the kids daily routines, some including getting ready in the morning, school drop offs, pick ups, after school activities, making meals, feeding the chickens and bath time. This helped to get to know the kids a little better, meet the teachers, see how the days flow for time management, and learn my way around the town. The previous nanny also gave me notes that were very helpful to remember everything to be done in the day! After the couple days of shadowing I was still very nervous because I knew that I would be on my own and responsible for three kids from 7:30am to 6:30pm.

My job in the morning is to get the grumpy kids out of bed, get them dressed and fed. I had to learn what kiwi kids’ eat for breakfast, and they all like something different (of course it couldn’t be that easy and all eat the same thing). They have to brush their teeth, which they hate doing and usually lie and say they’ve already done it, so I have to do it for them (easier said then done). I need to put heaps of sunscreen on them and I have to do this when they don’t expect it, or they’ll run and hide. You’d think they would be used to this routine by now, but they fight it every morning. I find it’s easier to focus on one kid at a time rather than having all three of them trying to do the same thing. If we can get ready to go on time, then they get to watch a little kids TV. This is the one thing that motivates them to cooperate in the morning. Some mornings are awful and we barely make it out the door, and then other mornings are great and I can have all three kids ready by 8:00.

Managing three kids and using car seats, making sure they don’t run in the road or run away to the park, and getting them sorted in the classrooms is difficult. It’s also kind of weird for me being in the school environment with all the kids being dropped off by their moms. I now know the teachers quite well, and talk to some of the moms I see everyday that know the kids I am watching. They all tell me that I sure have my hands full!

After the girls are dropped off, it’s just me and the two yr old boy. The craziness of the morning is now over, and I can relax a little knowing I just have him to care for. We usually play on the swings, in the sand box, jump on the trampoline, walk around the orchard and visit the pickers, go to the fruit store, pick strawberries, play with trains inside, or he helps me bake treats for the orchard workers. He is extremely independent and adventurous, and can get into anything he puts his mind to.  He knows how to drag chairs and stools to reach things up high any where in the house, open doors and baby gates to “escape” and wonder off. He has a history of getting past doors and gates or climbing over the fences to “escape” into the orchard and packing shed looking for fruit. He is addicted to fruit and will do ANYTHING to get his hands on some! At least I know where to look when he gets out J

I also prepare morning and afternoon smoko for the orchard workers. This is a hot cup of tea and biscuit for each worker. Then I usually hang up laundry and cleanup after breakfast (always a mess with a two yr eating!). Then I have the rest of the morning to tidy up, feed the chickens, and figure out what I’m making for dinner. The meat is set out in the morning and I just have to figure out how to make a meal out of it. At first it was stressful for me to be cooking for the family since I cook differently from what they’re used to, also the kids are super picky, and the parents are the owners of the orchard so I want tea to be nice for them. However, they always tell me how nice tea was last night and thank me for preparing it. I try to feed the kids before mom and dad get home, but getting three kids to sit down and eat without interruptions, running away or fighting, is a very stressful and challenging task.

A few days are half Kindy days for the four yr old, and some days are full days ending at 3:00. So some days I have the two and four yr old for most of the day, and others I only have the two yr old until 3:00, which are nice for me J After school activities include swimming lessons and ballet lessons for the girls.  During these lessons I have to keep the other two kids entertained and well behaved, which can be a very challenging task when they can’t participate in the siblings’ lesson. I also take the two yr to swim lessons in the morning while the girls are at school. I get in the pool with him and join five or six other parents in the class. We sing songs, practice getting in/out of the pool safely, jumping in, kicking our arms and legs, floating on our backs, and blowing bubbles under water. This is actually quite fun for me, and he gets really excited about swim lessons and putting his “togs” on (bathing suit). He is really good in the water with me, trusts me, and isn’t afraid to jump into my arms!

Overall this has been a very new and challenging experience for me. I really didn’t have much experience watching kids before this job, let alone three. This made me quite nervous and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to pull it off. The first day was by far the worst and I didn’t know if I could do it, but as each day went on I learned more methods on how to survive the crazy mornings and afternoons when I had all three kids. I also had to quickly learn creative ways of rewarding and disciplining.  The kids did get better at listening to me, we managed to share some fun times together as well as some crying and putting bandages on, but now I have lots of memories and a lot more experience with kids from being a nanny in New Zealand.

The sheep and dog were best friends, but now the sheep is in the chiller

Time has flown by. It’s already been 5 months and we still have 3 more to go. We are extremely excited to continue traveling and we have most of it planned out. We plan on spending March and April here in the South Island. We are thrilled to have more visitors coming too. Our friends Jessica and Scott are arriving March 31^st and are staying for two weeks. It’ll be real nice and cozy in the van ;-) JK, they are renting a car for their travels. After they leave we will slowly make our way back to the North Island. We will also have to sell the van before we leave on May 31^st. That’s right, we are coming home, and the date is set. We’ll arrive in Detroit on June 1^st after many hours of traveling. In the mean time, we’ll just keep enjoying the nice hot weather here waiting for things to warm up back home.