You join a ten-day charter on Saturday. You have never met the children, you have their names on a preference sheet, and by Sunday lunchtime you are expected to know that the six-year-old will not eat anything touching anything else and that the toddler bolts for the swim platform whenever a door opens. Meanwhile the family has brought their own nanny, who has done this for nine years and has not been told you are coming.
Two very different jobs
| Charter nanny | Permanent family nanny | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | Days to a few weeks | Months to years |
| Knows the children | No - you build it fast | Deeply |
| Reports to | Chief stew and captain, serving the charter guests | The principals, day to day |
| Rules | Whatever the parents set, learned in hours | Established, evolved, understood |
| Main challenge | Speed of trust and unknown risk profile | Boundaries and burnout over time |
Getting up to speed fast
- Read the preference sheet and then ask for what it does not say: allergies, medication, swimming ability, sleep patterns, fears, comforters, and the exact discipline the parents use.
- Confirm swimming ability by observation, never by parental report. A parent saying a child can swim is not a life jacket.
- Agree the safety rules you will enforce with the parents on day one, in front of the children if possible, so the child hears it from both of you.
Working alongside the family nanny
If the family brings their own nanny, she is the authority on that child. Defer to her on routine, discipline and preference. Divide the day explicitly - who has which child, who has the water watch, who is off. Ambiguity about who is watching a child is how children drown.
Boundaries with parents and whose rules apply
- Parenting choices are the parents'. Diet, screen time, bedtime, discipline style: you follow their line even when you would do it differently.
- Safety is not a parenting choice. Life jackets, supervision near water, and no-go zones are non-negotiable and they belong to the vessel.
- If a parent overrides a safety rule, be polite, be clear, and then escalate to the chief stew and the captain. The captain has absolute authority over safety on board, and using that chain is not disloyalty - it is the job.
The interior team
You sit inside the interior department. Talk to the chief stew about cabin turnarounds, laundry, meal timings and where the children may and may not be during service. Talk to the chef, early and in writing, about allergens. Talk to the bosun before any tender or watersports movement.
Onboard Notes
Write your own handover sheet on day one: names, ages, allergies, medications, swim ability, sleep, fears, and the parents' rules. Give a copy to the chief stew. If you are incapacitated, someone else has to be able to pick up those children cold.
Preparatory study only. These lessons are not a childcare qualification and are not first aid training. Caring for children at sea requires a recognised childcare qualification and a current, practically assessed paediatric first aid certificate from an approved provider.