Nannies of the Rockies

Nannies of the Rockies may have saved my career. It certainly saved my sanity. In this era of
and other online childcare advertising sites, one might think that it would be unnecessary to pay someone to «matchmake» you to your perfect nanny. That is certainly what I thought. I spent weeks scouring the online nanny ads and sent at least 40 messages out to prospective nannies. Most of these messages were ignored by their recipients. The remainder led to either explanations that our time frame wouldn’t work for them, one or two confessions of illegal citizenship status, and several text threads that petered out frustratingly after a few irregular exchanges. One led to a face to face interview that just didn’t feel right to me. My work start date was looming, and after sinking literally hours into finding childcare, I still did not have any reliable leads.
In exasperation, I turned to Julie, the brains behind Nannies of the Rockies. My largest regret was not enlisting her services earlier. Once Julie learned exactly what I needed, she turned to her extensive network to get several suitable candidates for me to interview. I had three candidates to interview within a couple of days after moving my family to Boulder, and all seemed excellent. Where were these people when I was on
How come I couldn’t find them myself? The answer is that Julie works really, really hard. She screens a huge number of nannies, and knows exactly what to look for in terms of qualifications and experience. She also has a great intuition, and is able to «match» personalities of caregivers with their prospective families. Having someone be in your home and taking care of your children is a hugely intimate experience, and so having an individual who is well matched to the spirit of your household is no small benefit! Also, there is a peace of mind that comes with knowing that if my current hire did not work out for whatever reason, Nannies of the Rockies would be there to find me a reliable replacement fast, at no extra charge.
To put it bluntly, Julie is on top of her shtuff. She returns calls promptly, checks in regularly, and follows everything through. She also makes sure her nanny candidates do the same (or crosses them off her list if they don’t). She takes calls from early in the morning until 9 pm, which, as moms and dads know, is a blessing for those of us who can’t find a single minute to sit down and think about things until after the gremlins are all in bed. Her business allows for an enormous amount of flexibility on the part of the families seeking childcare. My largest criticism of the business is that the website can be confusing to navigate, though apparently Julie is working on getting a new website. Until that happens, listen carefully to Julie when she tells you which links to go to online, which will save you some confusion.
Apparently, even after all this, I did not learn my lesson. When I later had a need for additional (temporary) childcare, I went on the cheap and went online. I figured since I only needed childcare for a short time, I would skip paying Nannies of the Rockies and maybe I would find something adequate, just not perfect. This time I posted my own ad. I got a huge influx of responses, most of them from unsuitable candidates, but one of them seemed okay. I hired her. On the second day of care, my six year old son told me that the babysitter’s 21 year old son had driven him and my 18 month old home from the next town over. Without car seats. The babysitter had implied to me that they had taken the bus, effectively lying to me about this little detail. At 7 pm on a Wednesday I fired her (she said on the phone «I got your kids home safe, what else do you expect?») and called Julie. I had a great replacement arrive at my door at 9 am on Thursday.
The short version: Nannies of the Rockies is worth it.

Julie is great to work with. She is super responsive and spent a lot of time understanding our needs for a nanny.

Color me impressed. I am incredibly picky when it comes to childcare for my kids. In addition to needing a nanny so I can work, I also need one that is SO AWESOME that I have peace of mind if (gasp!) I need an hour to myself. Julie is a PRO and it shows. You get what you pay for, I really believe. I love a bargain, but my experience with online sites like
has been hit or miss, and hardly worth the trouble for the hours I have to put into culling the field of applicants myself (and then still ending up nowhere). When it comes to my kids I want the best and I want a professional taking care of me. Same reason I don’t cut my own hair :).
Oh and Julie has always responded to me within the HOUR if I needed an extra sitter or had any questions.