An Interview with Malena

 

How long have you been doing what you do and how did you get to be the founder of The Nanny Factory?

Before I begin with this question, it’s probably best that I share with you my defining moment, my compelling story that brought me to where I am today, managing and operating my ideal nanny agency.

 

I didn’t quite understand the importance of the family dynamic until I began having children of my own. I grew up as the middle child and my family bond was somewhat nonexistent, meaning, I didn’t spend the summer months at my grandmother’s house, and there weren’t annual family reunions. Everyone in my family pretty much kept to themselves, and that was fine.

 

Once I started creating my own family, I quickly realized that I was lacking in the child care arena. I could find the occasional babysitter here and there, but the challenge was getting them to be there whenever I needed them.

My first child arrived while I was in the middle of earning my Master of Science degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Like every new mom, I contemplated whether I should continue on that path because this path was encouraging me to leave my newborn daughter in the arms of someone whom I barely knew just so I could get my assignments done.

Luckily, through some of my graduate school career, my parents, who lived in Birmingham, Al were able to come up for extended visits to lend a hand, and my daughter even flew back to Alabama with my parents for three weeks just so I could focus on my masters.

While I was extremely grateful to have this relief, I knew that it wasn’t sustainable. I would cry after class and often felt guilty having allowed my daughter to be more than 500 miles away just so I could accomplish something that, at the time, seemed selfish.

 

Once I finally came to grips with what was reality in my life, I decided that I would indeed continue to pursue my master degree only to discover that another baby was on the way.

 

My daughter was only four months old.

 

For a moment, I felt doomed because I knew that I did not have the proper support systems in place. I needed reliable and affordable child care to relieve me, whenever I needed it.

I graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism on May 18, 2005 and my son, the second child, was born on May 19, 2005. I sure did cut it close.

 

Balancing family and career is my life challenge. There are some good days, and then there are some not-so-good days. The challenge for me is being able to let go and know that it’s OK to allow others to help.

What I found was that GOOD HELP doesn’t come easy. I would often find someone to keep the kids while I attend an important business function, only to find that the kids didn’t get dinner before going to bed because I wasn’t clear about when they should eat. Or having to cancel an important meeting because my sitter found a second job at the mall and they called her in.

 

I also noticed that when I found good sitters, I wasn’t the only family who thought the same, and I would find myself begging and pleading for the sitter to please hold my Thursday afternoon date. Often, the highest bidder would win. That was that!

Fast forward to four kids later and child care is constantly at the top of my priority list. It is important to be with my kids to mother and nurture them, but it is also important to me that I have the freedom and flexibility to have the needed time to get work done, go to the nail salon or simply hang out at the coffee shop to recharge. I have lost count of the missed date nights with my husband simply because I didn’t put in the “work” to find someone to keep our kids.

I began to sink into unhappiness. I began having thoughts about why I didn’t consider the sacrifice of time when you have kids or maybe, just maybe, I should put off my career in business until the kids are older so that I wouldn’t have to be concerned with child care…you know, be responsible and all.

 

Then it hit me!

 

Every parent deserves a nanny. It doesn’t have to be this long, drawn out process of paying loads of money to an agency to find you someone who they barely know, but highly recommend. And it doesn’t have to be me desperately seeking “anyone” to come watch my kids while I take a client appointment or attend an event.

 

From that moment on, I pledged to create a child care service company that parents could call, whenever they needed a trusted caregiver to cover them. I didn’t want to be locked in to a certain amount of hours, per month. If I only needed someone on Tuesday afternoon, then, so be it! You really don’t care to spend hours going through resumes, interviewing and checking references. In fact, if one didn’t work out, then, it’s on to the next one that the company could send to you. Yes, yes, this would ease my child care burden.

My mission is to make child care as easy as ordering a pizza. When you call a pizza restaurant, you know what to expect and you never worry whether they will show up, or if the pizza will be exactly what you asked for.  That’s my vision for The Nanny Factory, making Good Help, easy to find, every time!