For moms — and the nannies who help them show up

One less thing to plan.
One more skill they build.

The Nanny Playbook hands you ready-to-run, structured play plans — so you (or your nanny) never have to invent another activity on the spot. Real connection. Real skills. Zero guesswork.

Get Your First Play Card Free See a card first

Join the list — no spam, just play plans you can actually use.

Sample Playbook Card

Belly Breathing

  • 5 minutes, zero supplies
  • A 2-minute guided play script
  • 3 real questions to ask after
  • A notes line for your nanny to fill in
Ages 2–10 friendly
71%
of household mental load falls on moms1
44%
of parents hand over a device just to get through the afternoon2
"Rx"
Pediatricians are told to prescribe play, literally3
0.27
effect size on behavior & academics from structured social-emotional play4
You already know play matters

You just don't have three spare hours to plan it.

Between work, the house, and everyone's schedule but your own, moms carry most of the invisible workload of raising kids. A 2025 study out of the University of Bath found mothers handle 71% of the household's mental load — the constant background thinking, planning, and remembering that nobody sees.1

That includes the thing almost nobody names out loud: having to invent what your kid is actually going to do, every single day, on top of everything else.

So on the hardest afternoons, the path of least resistance wins. Nearly half of parents of preschoolers say they hand over a device just to keep things moving for a while.2 That's not a parenting failure — it's math. You only have so many good ideas left in you by 4pm.

"Did today actually build anything — or did we just get through it?"

And if a nanny is the one with your kids most days, you're hoping those hours are filled with something better than a screen — but you can't exactly plan their whole day for them from your desk.

50%

of mothers say guilt over not doing enough for their kids is one of their top parenting challenges — more than fathers report.

KPMG, 2025 Working Parents Survey — kpmg.com
2 in 3

parents feel pressure to constantly entertain their kids — and roughly a third feel guilt or anxiety about screen time more than once a day.

C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll, University of Michigan, 2025 — mottpoll.org
42%

of parents say, if they're honest, they know they could be doing better managing how their kids spend their time.

Pew Research Center, "How Parents Manage Screen Time for Kids," Oct. 2025 — pewresearch.org
Here's what's actually at stake

Play isn't the reward for finishing the real work. It is the real work.

This isn't a vibe. It's what the research on early childhood development actually says.

American Academy of Pediatrics

Official clinical guidance doesn't call play a nice-to-have — it calls it "brain-building." The lead author put it bluntly: pediatricians should be writing kids "a prescription for play."

Reaffirmed Jan. 2025 — publications.aap.org
Harvard Center on the Developing Child

Playful, back-and-forth interaction with a caring adult is what physically builds a child's brain architecture — the foundation for lifelong resilience and executive function.

developingchild.harvard.edu
CASEL / SEL Research

Meta-analyses of structured social-emotional learning found measurable gains in kids' behavior and academic outcomes — with the strongest effects when it starts young.

casel.org

Translation: the fifteen minutes of intentional play you or your nanny runs today isn't "just playing." It's the thing quietly making your kid more emotionally steady, more confident, and more capable — years before anyone's grading them on it.

So we built the thing you don't have time to build

The Nanny Playbook

A library of ready-to-run, structured play plans. Each one a complete, no-prep activity you or your nanny can pick up and start in under two minutes. No pinning fifteen tabs at 11pm. No "let's just put a show on" by default. Open a card, and go.

1

The Play

A simple, screen-free activity you can run almost anywhere, with almost nothing to gather ahead of time.

2

The Conversation

A few real questions to ask afterward, so the activity becomes an actual moment of connection — not just noise-canceling.

3

The Notice

A place to jot down what came up, so whoever's with your kid next — you, your nanny, a grandparent — can pick the thread back up.

What your kid actually builds, one play date at a time

Emotional Intelligence

They learn to notice what they're feeling and put language to it, instead of just being swept up in it — the skill every other skill gets built on.

Self-Acceptance

Structured, judgment-free play tells a kid, over and over: exactly who you are right now is worth paying attention to. That message compounds.

Fewer Meltdowns

Kids who've practiced naming and working through feelings in low-stakes play have more tools ready for the high-stakes moments.

Self-Efficacy

The quiet belief of "I can figure this out." Kids who lead and problem-solve in play carry that into the classroom, the friendship, the hard thing at sixteen.

These aren't soft skills. They're the skills that predict who handles the world well — and they're built at the kitchen table, fifteen minutes at a time.

See it before you sign up for it

Here's an actual Playbook Card

Free, right now, no email required, yours to keep. It's one of a handful we give away — the format every card follows, free or not. What Membership adds is below.

Belly Breathing
Ages 2+ 5 min No supplies

The Play

Have your kid put both hands on their belly. Ask them to breathe in slowly through the nose until their belly pushes their hands out like a balloon filling up, then breathe out slowly until it flattens again. Do 5–6 rounds together, out loud, so they can copy your pace. If they get distracted or giggly, that's fine — turn it into a game of "whose balloon can get biggest."

The Conversation

  • What did that feel like in your belly?
  • Did it feel different than your normal breathing?
  • Can you think of a time you could use this — before a big feeling, before bed, before something scary?

The Notice

Jot down anything you noticed — funny moments, good insights, or something worth telling their other caregiver. If you're the nanny, this is the line the parents will actually want to read when they get home.

Why it works: breathwork is one of the most direct ways to teach self-regulation — it gives a kid something physical to do with a big feeling, instead of just being told to "calm down." Practiced enough in calm moments, it becomes a tool they can reach for in hard ones.
See what Membership adds →
So what do you actually get

A few free cards. A completely different thing once you're a Member.

The card you just saw is yours to keep, no strings attached — one of a small set we give away free, forever. The Nanny Playbook Membership isn't more loose cards. It's the structured, calendar-based system built the way you'd actually use it.

Free, always
  • A handful of sample Playbook Cards — the ones you just saw
  • Yours to keep, no card, no catch
  • A taste of the format — not the full system
The Membership
  • A brand-new, structured monthly Playbook — laid out on a calendar for you, not a loose pile of ideas to sort through yourself
  • A themed set each month — a month on emotional intelligence, a month on self-efficacy, and so on
  • Goal-tracking and observation sheets, so progress isn't just felt, it's seen
  • A shared log built for handoffs — so you and your nanny are always running the same plan, even on the days you're not the one home
  • A library that only grows — every month you stay a Member adds another set you keep access to

Membership isn't open yet — join the list below for early access and a launch discount the day it is.

P
Who's behind this

I used to be the nanny showing up with no plan either.

Hi, I'm Paulette. Before any of this, I was the one actually in the room — nannying for a family whose girls I loved like my own. Most days, I was improvising, hoping whatever we landed on that afternoon counted for something.

Looking back, I wish someone had just handed me a plan — something I could run without needing to be a child development expert myself, that I knew was actually building something real in the kids I was responsible for.

That's the gap The Nanny Playbook fills. Not another parenting philosophy to read about at midnight — an actual, ready-to-use plan for the hours you or your nanny already have with your kids, so that time turns into something, every single time.

— Paulette

Questions

Before you go

I already have a nanny — why do I need this?
Because a great nanny with no plan still has to improvise on the spot, every single day. The Playbook gives them (and you) a plan to run instead, so the hours stay consistent no matter who's holding them.
My kid won't sit still for anything "structured."
Good — these aren't worksheets. "Structured" just means there's a simple plan behind the play, not that it's rigid. Most cards run 5–15 minutes and are built for real, wiggly kids, with room to turn any of it into a game.
Is this just another guilt trip about screen time?
No. Screens aren't the enemy here — exhaustion is. This exists so you have something just as easy to reach for, that happens to build something real too. Some days you'll still choose the screen, and that's fine.
What ages is this built for?
Most cards are built for roughly ages 2–10, with simple notes on how to scale each one up or down depending on your kid.
What's the difference between the free cards and Membership?
The free cards are single activities, yours to keep, no strings attached. Membership is a full structured monthly Playbook — a themed, calendar-laid-out set, goal-tracking sheets, and the shared parent/nanny log — delivered fresh every month you're a Member.
When does Membership launch?
It's in the works. Everyone on the list gets the free cards in the meantime, plus early access and a launch discount the moment Membership opens.