About me

My name is Barbara Mendes. I have worked with childcare for over eight years. My first experiences with childcare were in my home country of Brazil. I was an intern at a clinic for kids with special needs and a daycare. I decided to work as an intern in those places because I always knew I wanted to work with childcare from a young age, as a teacher, tutor, or nanny. Even after I started college, studying English and literature, I remained engaged in childcare work for families as a part-time nanny or extra help during weekends/date nights for parents.

Looking back I can definitely say that working at a clinic for kids with special needs has been one of the greatest and most rewarding experiences in my life. I felt very happy and grateful I was able to help the children at the clinic achieve many milestones like learning to read, write, and communicate their needs better through sign or oral language.

I also loved my experience working at a daycare center. At the daycare, I was often placed in the nursery, taking care of babies as young as two-month-olds. It was a wonderful experience which taught me a lot of things. I learned how to properly feed children, prepare bottles using formula, sterilize children’s toys and bottles, sleep train babies for nap time, and give them baths. It was also great to play with the babies during tummy time.

Back in 2017, I heard about the Au pair program and applied to become an Au pair through the agency Au pair in America. I came to the United States to work with a lovely family with four children and a dog in Tribeca. The kids were four, nine, twelve, and fourteen years old. I consider that a great experience because it gave me a sense of what it was like working with pre-teens and teenagers. It helped me focus on learning new ways to interact and communicate with older children, as well as learn how to be more sensitive and understanding to their needs and the changes that they go through in life as they grow up.

I lived with them and helped the mother manage the children and household during the week as well as occasional weekends. During the summer, I traveled with the family to their house in South Hamptons. We usually stayed in the Hamptons for the entire summer and would only return to the city a day before Labor Day as the kids started school the next day. Before going to their summer house in the Hamptons, I would pack suitcases and snacks for all four children, and make sure they had all the essentials for the trip and staying at the summer house.

In the summer, I continued to do my regular tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, but I would also take the kids to practice horse riding, tennis lessons at the beach club, and many other fun activities they liked to do during the summer.

After the program came to an end, I started working for a family in the Upper East Side. I took care of two lovely boys, who were very funny, smart, and kind. It was a great privilege to take care of them. My boss at the time worked from home and we had a great relationship. I traveled with them to Puerto Rico too and it was really nice to spend some quality time with the children during their vacation, especially in such a beautiful location as Puerto Rico. We had a wonderful time at the beach and visited landmarks so rich in history.

My next nanny position was with a family who lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, taking care of an adorable and super bright baby girl. I had a wonderful experience with this family and also enjoyed working in Brooklyn a lot. It was fun to learn about a new borough since I had so far only worked in Manhattan. I loved working with this family, especially because it gave me an opportunity to practice everything I’ve learned during my internship at the daycare.

It was wonderful working with a young baby again. I loved cooking her meals knowing she would often try these things for the first time. It was great to read many different books for her and play together. We were also lucky enough to have a wonderful group of fellow nannies and kids with whom we became friends and were able to have many play dates.

I also loved taking the baby to parks, the Brooklyn Zoo, the Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Library, and museums of ice cream and Sloomoo Institute. Those were wonderful opportunities we had to bond and enjoy our time together. I took the baby to fun activities as well like music lessons, ballet and tap dance lessons, and gardening lessons. We also joined Montessori classes which focused on sensorial activities and games. Besides cooking, cleaning, and doing the baby’s laundry, I was also responsible for taking the baby to doctor’s appointments.

Once the parents decided they wanted their sweet girl to attend a bilingual school, I started to work in a language school. It was a great experience working with large groups of children, managing classes of eight to nine teenagers at the time. My students were ages 12 to 16. I would take them to see wonderful places in NYC like the Statue of Liberty, the Summit, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central, Little Island, and Industry City.

This job certainly helped me become even more familiar with the city since I was often traveling between boroughs, moving the students around to different activities. It was also a great time because I had many students of different cultures, mostly Asian and European, so I got to learn a lot about their countries, languages, and traditions.

My hobbies are reading fiction books, cooking, and learning new languages. I speak English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I've also most recently become interested in learning French and Italian, so I am studying these languages on my own. I also enjoy watching sports, especially soccer; however, recently I’ve watched many baseball games and began enjoying the sport way more.

I am a very easy-going and friendly person. I enjoy doing outside activities, especially going for walks and picnics as well as museums. I love art and literature. These are certainly two big interests I have and which I often use to connect with the kids. I would often spend some time painting and drawing with the kids I took care of and going to bookstores to buy them books. I also enjoyed just sitting down and reading books for them and helping them learn how to read.

As a caregiver, I have learned that parents’ schedules can be unpredictable many times and we, as nannies, need to be understanding and flexible. I am also aware that it is my duty as a caregiver to take care of these children as if they were my own, nurturing their minds and self-confidence. I must be an example of empathy and kindness and a friend to a child and parents as well as a caregiver.