You took three years off from nanny work to raise your own children, or to care for aging parents, or because you burned out and needed a break, or because life happened in ways that made continued childcare work impossible temporarily. Now you’re ready to return and you’re staring at your resume wondering how to explain the gap without sounding defensive. You’re questioning whether you still have what it takes after time away. You’re worried families will see the employment gap and assume you’re not serious or competent anymore.
The anxiety about returning to nanny work after breaks is real. You’re competing with nannies who have continuous employment history. You’re re-entering a field that might have changed while you were away. You’re rusty on skills you used to perform confidently. And you’re managing your own doubts about whether you can still do this work at the level you did before the break.
After twenty years placing nannies across Washington DC and nationwide, we’ve worked with many who successfully returned after career breaks ranging from months to years. Some transitions were smooth. Others were rocky. The difference usually wasn’t the length of the break or even the reason for it. It was whether nannies approached return strategically, rebuilt skills intentionally, and addressed the gap confidently rather than apologetically.
How to Explain Employment Gaps
The biggest mistake nannies make about employment gaps is either hiding them or over-explaining them. You can’t hide gaps on your resume – families will notice and wonder why you’re being evasive. But you also don’t need to provide extensive justification or apologize for time away from paid work.Brief honest explanations work best. “I took two years off to care for my newborn and toddler, and I’m now ready to return to professional childcare.” “I spent eighteen months as primary caregiver for my parent who had Alzheimer’s.” “I took a career break to address personal health issues that are now resolved.” These explanations are factual without being defensive or overly detailed. If families want more information during interviews, you can provide it, but lead with the explanation that you’re ready and able to work now. Don’t make the entire interview about your gap. Address it briefly then redirect to your qualifications and why you’re excited about this specific position.
Frame gaps positively when possible without being dishonest. Time off raising your own children gave you deeper understanding of parenting. Caring for aging relatives taught you about managing complex needs with patience. Even burnout breaks, if you frame them carefully, can demonstrate self-awareness: “I recognized I needed time to recharge to continue providing excellent care long-term.” What families actually care about is whether you can do the job now and whether you’re reliable. If you can demonstrate current competence and commitment, most families care less about gaps than you fear. The issue is usually your discomfort with the gap rather than families’ actual concerns.
Addressing Concerns About Being Rusty
Families sometimes worry that nannies returning after breaks have lost skills or will need extensive training to get back up to speed. Address this proactively rather than hoping it doesn’t come up. Update certifications before job searching. If your CPR and First Aid have lapsed, get recertified. If you were a newborn specialist and your certification expired, renew it. Current credentials signal you’re serious about returning professionally rather than just looking for temporary work. Consider taking refresher courses or workshops on topics relevant to professional childcare. Maybe there are new recommendations around sleep safety, updated allergies protocols, or current approaches to managing screen time. Even brief online courses demonstrate you’re invested in being current rather than relying entirely on practices from before your break. If you maintained any childcare work during your gap – occasional babysitting for neighbors, helping friends with childcare, volunteering with kids – include that on your resume. It shows you stayed somewhat connected to childcare work even if you weren’t working full-time professionally. During interviews, acknowledge the transition directly. “I know I’ll need a brief adjustment period getting back into full-time rhythm after my break, but my core skills and experience are solid and I’m excited to re-engage fully with professional childcare.” This is honest without being apologetic or suggesting you’re incompetent.
Rebuilding Confidence After Time Away
The internal challenge of returning after breaks is often confidence. You remember being really good at this work, but you’re questioning whether you still have what made you excellent before the break. Start with small steps rather than immediately pursuing the most demanding positions. Maybe your first job back is part-time rather than full-time intensive role. Maybe you take a position with one infant rather than three kids at different stages. Giving yourself manageable re-entry rather than jumping into high-pressure situations helps rebuild confidence without overwhelming yourself. Expect a learning curve even though you’ve done this work before. You’re adapting to new family’s systems, you’re building relationships with new kids, and you’re shaking off rust from time away. That adjustment is normal and it doesn’t mean you’ve permanently lost competence. Give yourself grace for the first few weeks being harder than they would have been when you were actively working. Connect with other nannies as you re-enter. Professional community provides both practical support and emotional validation that returning after breaks is normal and manageable. Isolation makes self-doubt worse. Seeing others successfully navigate similar transitions helps normalize your experience. Remember that breaks also brought you things. If you were home with your own kids, you gained parenting perspective that makes you better at understanding families. If you cared for elderly relatives, you developed patience and caregiving skills that translate to childcare. If you took mental health breaks, you’re returning with better self-awareness. Don’t discount what the break gave you while focusing only on what you think you lost.
What’s Changed in Childcare Since You Left
Depending on how long you were away, some aspects of professional childcare and family expectations may have evolved. Being aware of shifts helps you adapt rather than being caught off guard.Technology plays a bigger role in family communication and household management than it did even five years ago. Families expect digital communication – texts for quick updates, shared calendars for scheduling, apps for tracking sleep and meals. If you’ve been away for several years and you’re not comfortable with these tools, get comfortable before job searching. Parenting philosophy trends shift. Attachment parenting, gentle parenting, and respectful parenting approaches have become more mainstream. If you learned childcare in era when timeouts and strict behavioral management were standard, you’ll need to understand how contemporary families often prefer different approaches. Awareness of developmental trauma, sensory processing issues, and neurodiversity has increased significantly. Many families now understand their kids through lenses that weren’t common conversation five or ten years ago. Being familiar with basic concepts around these topics helps you communicate effectively with families and support kids appropriately. Compensation and benefit expectations have changed too. Professional nannies expect guaranteed hours, health insurance contributions, paid time off, and contracts more consistently than they did in the past. Understanding current employment standards prevents you from accepting positions with inadequate compensation or benefits. Stay current by reading professional nanny forums, following childcare experts on social media, and talking to working nannies about what’s standard now. You don’t need to be expert in every trend, but basic awareness prevents you from seeming outdated during interviews.
Whether to Accept Lower Rates Initially
Some nannies consider accepting below-market rates for first position back, thinking they need to prove themselves before commanding professional compensation. This is usually a mistake. If you have solid experience and current certifications, you should be paid professionally regardless of recent employment gap. Your years of experience before the break don’t disappear because you took time off. You’re not entry-level just because you haven’t worked recently. Accepting significantly lower rates sends the message that you don’t value your experience and expertise. It also makes it harder to raise rates later. Families who hire you at $20 per hour will balk at increasing to $30, even though $30 is what you should have been paid from the start based on your experience level. If your skills are genuinely rusty or if your break was extremely long, you might command slightly lower rates than you did before break. But “slightly lower” means a few dollars per hour, not accepting entry-level compensation when you have years of professional experience. The better approach is being selective about first position back. Maybe you specifically seek families who value experienced nannies and who won’t penalize you for having taken time off for legitimate life reasons. These families exist and they’re worth holding out for rather than accepting inadequate compensation from families who undervalue your experience.
Managing Imposter Syndrome
Many nannies returning after breaks struggle with imposter syndrome – feeling like they’re frauds who don’t belong back in professional childcare despite their experience and credentials. Imposter syndrome thrives on isolation. When you’re convinced you’re the only one who feels incompetent while everyone else has it together, the feelings intensify. Connecting with other nannies who’ve returned after breaks or who’ve felt similar doubts helps you realize these feelings are normal and don’t reflect actual incompetence. Document your successes as you re-establish yourself. Keep a running list of things that go well – the behavioral issue you handled smoothly, the positive feedback from parents, the milestone the child reached with your support. When imposter syndrome flares, reviewing concrete evidence of competence counteracts the feelings of fraud. Distinguish between realistic assessment of learning curves and catastrophic thinking. “I’m still getting up to speed with this family’s routines and I made a minor scheduling mistake” is realistic. “I’m terrible at this and I should never have tried to come back” is catastrophic thinking. Notice when you’re spiraling into catastrophe and reality-check your thoughts. Also recognize that some discomfort is appropriate during transitions. You should feel slightly uncertain as you rebuild professional presence. That discomfort isn’t sign you’ve made a terrible mistake. It’s sign you’re growing, which is what happens when you take on challenges rather than staying in comfortable familiar territory.
Realistic Timeline for Getting Back to Previous Level
Don’t expect to immediately function at the same level you did before your break. Even when you’re working with highly competent professionals, time away creates adjustment period. Most nannies who’ve returned after breaks report needing three to six months to feel fully back to their previous competence level. The first month is hardest – you’re shaking off rust, learning new family systems, and rebuilding confidence. Months two and three are where things start clicking and you remember why you were good at this. By six months, most nannies feel solidly back in their professional stride. That timeline varies based on length of break, reasons for break, and whether you maintained any childcare involvement during time away. Shorter breaks with continued occasional work might mean you’re back to full speed in a month. Longer breaks with zero childcare involvement might mean six months or more before you feel completely confident again. The timeline also depends on demands of position you’ve accepted. Easier roles with fewer kids and less complex responsibilities will feel manageable faster. High-pressure positions with multiple kids, complicated schedules, and demanding families will take longer to master. Give yourself that adjustment time without interpreting normal learning curve as permanent deficit. You will get back to previous competence level. It just doesn’t happen instantly, and that’s okay.
The Bottom Line
Returning to nanny work after career breaks is completely feasible and many nannies do it successfully. The key is approaching return strategically rather than apologetically. Update credentials, briefly explain gaps without over-justifying, address the transition honestly with families, give yourself reasonable adjustment period, and don’t undervalue your experience just because you took time away. Your years of professional childcare experience before the break are real and valuable. Employment gaps for legitimate life reasons don’t erase that experience or make you unsuitable for professional positions. After twenty years placing Washington DC nannies and nannies nationwide, we’ve watched many successfully return after breaks ranging from months to years. The ones who struggle are usually the ones who approach return with excessive defensiveness or who accept inadequate positions thinking they need to prove themselves all over again. The ones who succeed present themselves as experienced professionals who took time off for good reasons and who are now ready to return to work they’re genuinely good at. You were good at this work before your break. You’ll be good at it again after reasonable adjustment period. The break doesn’t erase your competence. It just created a pause that you’re now ready to end.
