Rent-A-Mum – Family Care

About The Owner

Shirley Robinson is a British national and a Hong Kong resident, who has lived and worked in Hong Kong since 1989. A qualified nurse, Shirley was initially nursing in the private sector here. She later qualified as a CELTA teacher at the British Council in Hong Kong. Shirley bought Rent-A-Mum in 1998 and has operated all aspects of the management of the business since then. As well as a very busy and demanding schedule, at Rent-A-Mum, she teaches English part-time in local schools throughout the region, to local non-native English speaking children.

Shirley is a “people person” with strong social skills, who prides herself on being able to quickly identify the needs of individuals, whether they be the professionals registered with her, or her clients. Through her varied experience in this part of the world, she has an extensive working knowledge of Hong Kong especially in all aspects of childcare.

Our Team

Rent-A-Mum has over 100 people registered with us who are fully able to provide quality childcare. Backgrounds and abilities are varied and we place staff in accordance with the type and nature of the assignment as well as with our clients’ specific requests. Here are general profiles of the type of women registered with us.

Team Members

"The Professional Nanny" - These women have chosen to work with children as a career. They are more often than not, qualified in some area of childcare such as the UK nursery nursing qualification (NNEB, BTEC, NAMCW), the Australian/New Zealand nanny diploma, or degree holders in Early Childhood Education. They are NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING, ie from UK, Australia and New Zealand. As the qualification, and indeed the cultural concept, is alien to the South East Asian region, it is rare to find a professional nanny whose first language is not English.Professional nannies working in Hong Kong tend to be in the 25-40yrs age group, and have usually worked internationally for at least a year.

"The Maternity Nurse" - Maternity nurses can come from varying cultural backgrounds, although all MN's registered with us are native English speaking. The MN can also come from varying different professional backgrounds. They can be qualified as nursery nurses, and have fallen into maternity nursing via this route. They may also be Australian/New Zealand Mothercraft nurses, former general or paediatric nurses or occasionally, midwives. Some maternity nurses have gone into the area after raising their own children/grandchildren, and are consequently of more mature years. Maternity nurses don't tend to be younger than 30yrs old.

"The Student" - These young women are university students who have been born and raised in Hong Kong, and consequently have an excellent working knowledge of the region. Again they are native English speaking or sometimes bi-lingual Chinese. These "big sister" type tend to be on a gap year from University, or available during holiday periods. We never place these younger women in assignments with children under 2 years of age, unless they have proven experience with children younger than this. The minimum age of this kind of sitter is 18 years.

"The teacher" - We also have qualified school teachers on our books who are available evenings and weekends for babysitting.

"Others" - We also register women who work in a completely different type of environment to childcare such as office workers. Again, they are all Native English speaking, and have proven experience as babysitters. They tend to find working with children a "refreshing change" from their day jobs.