The Role of a Nanny at Totters: A Child Development Professional

A Totters nanny, whom we call your Totter, is a professional in childcare and child development who joins your home to give your child steady, responsive care and early learning, and to give you clear communication and peace of mind. She knows how children grow, she observes your child closely, and she turns each routine into a chance to develop, with a coordination team behind her every day. If you’re an international family living in Mexico, newly arrived, or visiting for a season, this article shows you how your Totter works, how we choose and match her, and what we’ve learned from years of working with families like yours. We’re sharing it openly because choosing the person who spends your child’s days is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make, and you deserve to know exactly how we think. You’ll also find the research behind our approach.

Your Totter is a professional in childcare and child development, certified in pediatric first aid and trained on an ongoing basis in child development and safety.
Responsive interaction between a child and a caregiver is central to early development, according to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University(2025).
Every Totter passes six filters before we introduce her to you: an in-depth interview, document validation, a criminal background check, a psychometric evaluation, pediatric first aid certification, and continuing training.
Behind your Totter stands a coordination team: an assigned coordinator, a substitute you approve, written protocols, and a solution when your plans change.
The decisions stay with you. You meet your Totter first, approve every profile change and every substitute, and can request a new match up to three times at no cost.
When you meet any caregiver, watch what she does in the first moments after a child struggles, because it shows how she sees your child.

In case you’re new here, we’re Totters Care, and our story starts with our founder, Montserrat Armesto. Montse holds a master’s degree in Neuropsychology and Education and a bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy, and she has dedicated her career to early childhood, working with families across different countries, cultures, and stages of life. Along the way she noticed the same thing again and again: when a family lives abroad, childcare becomes one of the most important and emotionally charged decisions they face.

The research explains why this matters. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University describes responsive “serve and return” interactions with caregivers as central to early childhood development, supporting healthy brain architecture and acting as a buffer against the effects of adversity (2025). A serve is anything your child does to reach out: a babble, a gesture, a question. A return is the caregiver noticing and responding. The same Harvard Center page notes that when these relationships are missing, development can be disrupted. Your Totter returns each serve, names what your child is seeing or feeling, and offers a steady base for big feelings. In our experience, children who feel known by one caring adult explore more freely, because they trust that someone will be there when they return.

Your Totter gives your child time. When your child is working toward their own understanding, she leaves a generous pause before offering an answer, because a child who is trusted to think builds knowledge in their own way. You may be surprised by how long we wait. We wait because children make connections to their own world, in their own time. Her observation is also what makes your daily updates specific: what your child explored, what frustrated them, what made them laugh, and which words they used.

Your Totter designs development activities with what you already have at home, and our early childhood education program turns daily rhythms into learning for children from ages 1 to 8. She shapes the environment to fit your child: sinks, mirrors, shelves, and seats sit at a child’s level wherever your home allows, so your child can wash their hands, see their own reflection, and reach what they need without waiting for an adult. We favor calm, warm, well-kept spaces with real books, real materials, and living plants, and we skip primary colored plastic and cartoonish decor, because we believe children deserve beauty and care.

Every candidate passes six filters before we present her to you. We begin with an in-depth interview about her background, her motivation, and her judgment in real situations. We validate the authenticity of her documents and review her criminal record before she enters your home. A psychometric evaluation looks at emotional stability, honesty, and skills with children. She holds a pediatric first aid certification, and she keeps training in child development and safety on an ongoing basis.

When everything goes well, almost any candidate is charming. What matters to you is how a caregiver reacts on a hard day: a tantrum that won’t end, an accident, an instruction she disagrees with. For that reason every candidate completes an integrity evaluation, the Veritas evaluation by Adam Milo, that places her in situations of pressure and conflict. It looks at resistance to pressure, mental strength, and emotional response, at how she handles violence, human relationships, and responsibility, at theft, trust, and harassment, and at honesty.

A great nanny combines warmth, reliability, and genuine respect for your child as a capable person. You may also want comfort with your family’s language and respect for your family’s culture and values. Here’s the judgment call we use, and we’d give it to any parent. Watch what a caregiver does in the first moments after a child struggles with something. A great nanny waits, watches, and offers just enough help for the child to keep going. A caregiver who steps in at once and finishes the task takes away the learning, even with the kindest intentions.