Stanford Park Nannies

I have very mixed reviews about Stanford Park. While I have employed three fantastic nannies through them, through the past 8 years (one of the nannies stays with our family to this day on weekends as she is visiting her terminally ill mother), our last experience has been nothing short of disappointing, awful and scary.
While the list of candidates we got sounded fantastic on paper, once we began the hiring process many things started to come up that should have been brought forth before they were presented to us. Examples: two DUI arrests, shoplifting felony charges, lying about college degrees, etc. We even had one nanny let our 5 year old son walk and use the bathroom by himself at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo during an incredibly busy time of year — this was at least a 3 – 4 minute walk from where she was waiting, siting on a bench. I had taken our other sons to get a drink. When I contacted Daryl from Stanford Park about this (this was on the nanny’s second day with our family) to let her know that we were not going to continue with this nanny, we were met with resentment and frustration. This particular nanny had also, the day before, allowed the kids to play in the front yard while she was inside our home. My husband pulled up to the driveway to our 3 young boys (5,3,1) by themselves.
Each of the above problems were with separate nannies that we had attempted to hire, and each one had to be let go. I will say, each time something came up on a background check, we were informed (like arrests or checking for degree verification). I do feel that this should have been looked at and double checked before these girls are even sent on an interview and allowed into someones home. It is scary to think what could have happened to my son allowed to go by himself to a bathroom, not even thinking to walk him there (pretty sure that is taught in Basic Nanny 101). They also kept the full amount of their fee, and did not refund or credit us on that instance. I could have cared less about the fee at that point, I wanted to feel safe leaving my child in a professionals care, and I did not. My peace of mind is worth more than any fee. I think that is something worth noting.
In 2007 when we first contacted the agency to hire a nanny, Daryl came to our home. Although it says they come out every time to visit with the family, I have not seen her since then.
Because we did not keep any of the above nannies on employment, Stanford Park has informed us that they don’t have what we are looking for. So if you want to find a nanny without felony charges, without DUI arrests, and are picky about who takes care of your children, they may get frustrated that you do not hire the first resume they send your way. Each of their nannies also uses
(they have always freely admitted such things), although having someone do the leg work is always nice.

I use the agency regularly for short term assignments (when our regular nanny is ill or on vacation or if we need additional help) and their candidates have always exceeded my expectations. Both Daryl and Maggie are an absolute pleasure to deal with, fast to respond and make the entire process stress-​free. I have also used the agency to find the most amazing baby-​sitter (a native French speaker) which is simply ideal for us (a French/​Spanish/​English speaking household). We feel our little one gets some additional french exposure and learns a lot when we go out. A win-​win. I will undoubtedly use this agency should we ever need to replace our full time nanny.

As a first time mom, the nanny search was daunting. Thankfully Daryl made the entire process incredibly easy. From figuring out payroll to background checks to actually building the employee/​employer relationship, she has been there every step of the way. For someone who has never done anything like this, I found all of SPN’s services incredibly helpful and well worth the investment.

I worked with four different nanny staffing agencies on two different occasions to identify a full-​time nanny for my 8-​month old son. I would rate Stanford Park Nannies very highly.
+Great flow of very qualified candidates
+All candidates were prepared to pay taxes (something we weren’t able to find on candidates we surfaced through our own networks and through PAMP)
+Great vetting process with thorough pre-​interviewing, Trustline, private investigation, and detailed references
+Had a good understanding of what we were seeking and did not waste our time with those that weren’t a fit. In fact, after hearing feedback on one candidate interview, Daryl canceled the following candidate because she did not think the person would be a match based on feedback we were giving her.
+Ability to quickly identify relevant interim/​temp nannies as well
As I was nearing the end of my search and trying to decide between two great candidates, I felt Daryl was a great partner in making the decision. Even though one of the candidates had come via another agency, she knew the nanny well and so was able to help me think through who would be the best personality fit with our family. I really felt like she wanted us to make the best choice for us and was not trying to sell me on her candidate in particular which would have garnered her a fee. In the end we did select the SP Nannies candidate, but she did not push us one way or the other.
At the very end, she delighted us by giving us a discount. We had misfired on our previous nanny (not referred by SP Nannies) which had cost us quite a lot of money and in order to help alleviate some of that pain, she discounted our final bill. We were amazed and grateful for the extreme generosity.

I’m really happy to be working with Stanford Park Nannies. I’m a nanny and I’ve been with their agency for a little over 6 months. I primarily work with Maggie, but all of the women who work at SPN are incredibly helpful and communicative.
The initial interviewing process was thorough, they asked important questions, and really got to know me as a childcare provider. I felt a lot more at ease, after having interviewed with them, because I better understood what an asset working with an agency could be. There’s such a warmth in every interaction and I feel very heard. They’re a great sounding board, they help you manage your expectations, and they’re really on top of things. It seems like they pay attention to both the client’s needs and the nanny’s needs and try to find a comfortable balance.
As a nanny, I’ve worked for families outside of an agency and found that things like figuring out fair pricing, creating healthy boundaries, and generally knowing how things are typically done can get a little murky. If I had any concerns or tough conversations needed to be had, I would have a hard time knowing how to start the conversation and knowing what was and wasn’t fair. SPN really provides you with a very current understanding of what should be expected of nannies and of employers and in a way they empower you by coaching you through it all.
Having someone who understands how to present you and your strong suits to families, and who has really done their homework on you beforehand is really helpful. When I started to interview with families, they gave me great feedback and it felt like I had my own personal interviewing-​cheerleaders! They reminded me to be patient and now I nanny for an awesome family and have more on-​call nannying than I sometimes know what to do with.
The relationship between nannies and the families they work with is a fairly intimate one and I think the fact that Stanford Park Nannies treats it as such is really honestly refreshing. I take my job very seriously and really care about the wellbeing of the children I work with. I love that SPN is just as invested in my position as I am.

I found SPN to be extremely professional. I had an initial meeting with Daryl. She listened to what I was looking for in a nanny. They have a nice process for letting you know about possible candidates, they arrange the visits, and they support your decision process.
I’m super picky about babysitters and Daryl very supportively sent candidate after candidate when I didn’t find what I was looking for. In fact she called me from her vacation to talk through one candidate I was considering.
I felt guilty that I was being so picky, but Daryl was right there with me every step, assuring me that we would find the right fit. The candidates they sent were experienced and highly recommended by previous employers, just not the exact personality I was looking for.
Daryl was always reachable by phone and was kind and easy to talk to. She’s a smart lady, very professional.
Eventually we found a SPN who has been with us 18 months, we’re very happy. Here’s a testament to how professional Daryl is — the nanny we found had been working for a friend (who found originally her through SPN) so we didn’t actually find her directly through the agency. So even though Daryl had been working with us for a month and we didn’t end up paying the placement fee, she was genuinely happy for us and gracious and professional. I was impressed and grateful at how she handled our relationship start to finish. I trust her a lot, she’s a class act and very smart.

Stanford Park Nannies is a powerhouse agency of incredible women who embody experience, passion, and heart for what they do. Daryl & Maggie are two of the friendliest and hardworking women I know. They take their jobs — placing nannies into the homes of their client families — very seriously. Their primary concern is and always will be making sure that both the family and the nanny feel it is a good match long term. In addition, the office staff is incredible — Sarah especially! She proved that to me by responding almost immediately to an after-​hours crisis I was having on her personal time. These women are all polite and eager to help in any way they can.
From a nanny’s perspective, I have time & time again been awed by Daryl & Maggie’s thoroughness and care. They have been there for me from beginning to end: from walking me through the interview process, to helping me compare job offers from families, and even guiding /​advising me years into my placement. Daryl & Maggie have truly been an invaluable resource to me as a nanny.
Years later, I have now entered the corporate world but still accept on-​call nanny jobs through Stanford Park Nannies during my evenings and on weekends. I have known and worked with them for 4+ years now and I hope to continue my relationship with them for years to come.
If you are a family looking for a nanny, you couldn’t have better people helping you with your search. If you are a nanny looking for a client family, I guarantee you that your experience with Stanford Park Nannies will be truly enjoyable.
I feel lucky to know these women, and am grateful to have them in my corner.

I was ready to work with this agency. When I went to fill the application I found that they required information about my previous and ongoing clients. So I called them and I asked about that. I told them a contact phone would be appropriate, but giving home addresses, occupations, and names of children of these clients was too much information. So they canceled my appointment, terminating my application. My application was worthwhile: I have more than 15 years experience in the local area, and met all other requirements in place to work with this agency, but they cut me short. If you are concerned about the privacy of the people that you work with, don’t work with this agency.

Daryl at Stanford Park Nannies was helping us to find a full time nanny in summer 2013. We had a real bad experience overall. All the candidates she recommended were below average. We tried one of her candidates for a trial period and she was disinterested and was mean to my daughter. I overheard her yelling at my daughter on the first day. My daughter is 3 years old now and still remembers her unpleasant experience with her.
This agency claims that they have the best nannies in the area. They put a good show but there is absolutely no substance in their work. Overall it was a waste of time and money to engage them. I don’t recommend this agency to anyone who cares about the quality of the nanny. I ended up finding a wonderful and caring nanny through PAMP and my toddler and my baby love her.

Stanford Park Nannies does a better job than most of the others in that they seem to really vet candidates before sending them to your house. That said, their pool of candidates is quite small, so it’s hard to find a good fit with them. If you are looking for a nanny to work a standard 9 – 5 M-​F week, then SPN could probably do a great job for you. Our needs are a little more unique, so we didn’t have much luck. But at least SPN tried!

If you’re considering using Stanford Park, I encourage you to take a quick look at the filtered reviews too. My experience with them as a parent was similar to what some others have posted: the nannies themselves were hit and miss (some were clearly better than others, but any good one was always looking for a full-​time (40+) hours /​week and, since we were looking for less than that, we had pretty high turnover). i found the owner Daryl to be very unprofessional and not very service-​oriented: she made it clear that we were a burden for her, despite us having paid them quite a lot of money.

If we could give SPN 100 stars, we would!
There is 100% value in the services that SPN provides.
Background: We originally went out on our own and through recommendations, hired a night nurse to care for our twins. The night before coming home from the hospital, the night nurse we had originally hired, flaked!
We called SPN the next morning. Daryl was extremely responsive and thorough. She found us a night nurse within a few hours and we met with the nurse the next day. Our night nurse has been perfect!
Lessons learned:
1. We didn’t have to waste more of our time to hunt for a new night nurse.
2. All of SPN’s night nurses/​nannies and pre-​screened and have undergone scrutinous background checks.
3. Daryl’s innate sense for fitting nurses/​nannies with families is a win-​win.
And yes, it is very hard to find great help, especially in the Bay Area and especially a night nurse for twins.
Some might say that we are lucky. Some might say it’s serendipitous. —I say THANK YOU to Daryl and for Stanford Park Nannies!

This company does not understand how busy and complicated parents’ lives are and how difficult it is for families to find the right nanny. I started a search with them last summer and they sent a few candidates that weren’t the right fit. I had health problems that led to bi-​lateral mastectomies and reconstruction (2 major surgeries) and couldn’t finish my search with them because I had many doctors to visit in SF, New York and Seattle. Finally after getting back to normal this year and feeling good enough to get back to my life, I need a new nanny and contacted Stanford Park Nannies again only to hear back from Maggie that they were not going to work with our family because they felt like they didn’t get enough responses from me. She didn’t ask if we had anything going in our family or our lives or even ask if they had not sent the right candidates the last time. If she truly cared about helping families with child care she would have at least had the decency to ask if we had anything going on in our family that prohibited us from continuing our search last year. She did not, she just assumed that we were flaky and judged our family for that. This is a horrible business practice and they are charging a premium to work with them. I signed up with Town and Country,
and
as well and have never felt the level of judgement and disrespect as I did with Maggie today. I would never recommend anyone pay the money to go to Stanford Park Nannies, the level of empathy and compassion for our family was non existent and I’m glad I didn’t use them or have to pay them the commission for finding us a nanny in the end. Do not go there, there are plenty of other options and you have to do most of the work anyway in interviewing and choosing the nanny — the nannies all post on
, and
as well and you won’t have to pay the fee or commission. However, the best way to find a nanny is through word of mouth from friends, mother’s clubs, pre-​schools, church, or other nannies of your friends. Stanford Park Nannies and Maggie specifically made me feel terrible and like she slapped my face and for that I am writing this review. I really try not to write negative reviews about a business, but this was a personal attack on me and my family — when she had no idea about our personal situation and circumstances last year.

I used Stanford Park Nannies several times over the course of a year. The most recent stint was for last-​minute day-​to-​day help. I was suffering from an illness and needed someone to care for my toddler. I didn’t want to sign up for months of care and then cancel as soon as I was feeling better, so I called each day before I needed someone and hired people for one or two days at a time.
In total I saw about 10 different people. I never complained about ANYTHING until one day a very dirty looking, disheveled old woman showed up reeking of perfume and talking on her cellphone as she came through the door. Her hands were bloated and scaly — she did not look well — and I didn’t want her touching my son. After she hung up the phone she started complaining about the person she was talking to — something about him wanting too much proof such as a passport, electric bill, etc. I didn’t get much more than that because she was hard to understand. I was so put off by her appearance and manner I asked her to leave (nicely, making an excuse about a change of plans). I called Stanford Park and they not only tried to force me to pay for this woman’s time (AND their fee), they then proceeded to FIRE me as a customer. Again, I had seen many people prior to this mess and had never complained about a single one — nor made them do any dishes, laundry, nothing. I am a very kind employer telling each person, «Watching my son is work enough» when they offered to do any housework. I let them do whatever they wanted for all of his naps: read, sit, TV, anything!
Rude and ridiculous — and after all the money I’ve spent with them. Unbelievable.

Stanford Park Nannies does it right. They are friendly, thorough, careful and professional. We found a great nanny through them. They had several really wonderful candidates. Definitely would use them again and recommend them to others in the area.

We used SPN to find a night nurse for our new baby. I didn’t realize how early you have to book baby nurses (4 – 6 months in advance!) so didn’t start looking until about 2 months out. Daryl presented two candidates within a week and we hired one of them.
We were thrilled with our baby nurse. She is knowledgable, confident, very gentle with our baby, and always on time. Which is exactly what her SPN references said. Our nurse also speaks highly of SPN, which is another vote of confidence for them as an agency. She says Daryl and staff are very thorough in checking references and tracking down every job she’s worked on to find out how it went.
We are going to use SPN to find a long-​term nanny for our son. Yes, there are fees, but this is a critical decision. You will lose more in worry and lost productivity by trying to economize on this decision.

We are eternally grateful to them for helping us find our nanny. We decided a week before my wife went back to work that we wanted a nanny, and they found two wonderful candidates. We’ve had Grace for almost two years, and she has been a godsend. All our neighbors spontaneously tell us how wonderful and loving she is. Thanks so much, SPN!

I am writing this review as a former Nanny. I have worked & known Maggie for almost 9 years now (she placed me with an awesome family that I worked for almost 4 years with).
From the moment you speak to her on the phone, you can tell she is a sincere person, as well as her sweet demeaner both on the phone & in person. Maggie is Delightful, Professional, & always on top of things. I just can’t say enough great things about her & the agency.
The agency still after all this time sends me news letters, chalk full of great advice, meetings for a nanny association, & all kinds of useful tips on how to improve ourselves as nannies & caregivers for the one’s we adore & take care of. They have even kept me informed of free Cpr Classes to keep up my certification.
As all the above is great, I have been able to come to Maggie with anything & she encourages nannies & families to do so, so that everyone can be satisfied with their partnership. She wants to make sure all parties are happy & successful. She is also a mother herself & would want the same treatment for her child.

I chose them based on feedback from my parents’ club, where far more people complained about the other local agency than SPN. We were happy with our experience. However, I’m also not looking to economize on childcare and am uncomfortable choosing someone random off something like craigslist (sorry, but sourcing a nanny off somewhere where people are posting naked pics is just not for me.)
Night Nannies: We used SPN to find a night nanny to help with our newborn. They sent us six candidates for interviews. One was a definite no, three were maybes, and two we thought were great. SPN gives you written references from interviews they do with past families, but I was wary of the potential spin, so I called several references for both of our top candidates myself. They were glowing.
We hired one of the candidates and she worked out beautifully. She was totally knowledgeable and flexible. She listened to how we wanted to do things, but was also willing to offer advice and guidance on things that we, as new first-​time parents, were a little wary of. She was instrumental in telling us when we needed to start increasing the amount of food our baby ate, when he needed to be swaddled, how to minimize spitting up, how to bathe him safely, etc. We use her sometimes for daytime hours still, since we liked her so much.
Full-​time day nannies: We also called SPN for a full-​time nanny when I was getting ready to go back to work. Again, we received a number of what appeared on paper to be very qualified candidates. I would say there were 8 – 10 people we were willing to interview, and that was after sorting through to find people specifically with infant experience and a child-​development background. We did not progress to interviewing, since I decided not to go back to work.
Part-​time Day Nannies: I also checked with them about part-​time nannies, and there the choices were definitely much more limited (just a few candidates over the space of several weeks) and not as qualified. You’re probably better off working through your network, though it doesn’t hurt to try the agencies.
As far as the fees, you pay an application fee to sign up. It’s somewhere around $ 150 – 250. If you don’t find a candidate that works for you, you don’t pay anything else. If you do find someone, yes, it’s expensive. It’s like executive recruiting — they get a cut, somewhere in the range of 10−20%, depending on the type of service and length of time you are engaging the nanny. However, for that, you get someone who is background checked, Trustline registered, CPR certified, and has a clean CA drivers’ license. They also state what the fees are up front, so I’m unclear why someone would be shocked when they actually find a candidate.
One other thing to be aware of is that you need to look for your nanny in advance in order to get the best candidates. If you do it last minute, your choices won’t be as good. For the night nanny, plan on 4 – 6 months in advance (they book early) — we nailed ours down by Thanksgiving for a March baby. For a daytime nanny, start about 2 months before you need someone. If you don’t do this, I could see how you’d end up with slim pickings.