The International Nanny Association defines a nanny or housekeeper as one of person "employed by the family on moreover a live-in or live-out basis undertaking all tasks associated to the care of children. Duties are usually limited to childcare and the household tasks associated to childcare. May or may not really have had any formal training as such, though regular has a fine deal of real life experience. Nanny's workweek ranges from 40 to 60 hours a week. Usually works unsupervised."

Primary Functions: The nanny / housekeeper has the double responsibilities for the care of a family's children and as well as their home. The nanny / housekeeper usually work in surroundings where the family's children expend important time daily out of the home, normally at school. The nanny / housekeeper's childcare everyday jobs consist of full direction of children as they are in the home, concentration to their foods, dressing, and other hygiene process. The nanny / housekeeper's housekeeping household tasks consist of daily making beds and common straightening, children's laundry and bed linen; dust and shine furniture; sweep, and mop floors; uphold bathrooms; and vacuum.

Secondary Functions: Heavy housekeeping duties are usually not the responsibility of the nanny / housekeeper. The nanny / housekeeper might infrequently clean ovens, refrigerators, or any wax floors; might do parent's laundry and bed linen; might also run family errands. They may manage outside vendors in the home (carpet clean-up, window washing, plumbing, etc.).

A hazard in combining the nanny / housekeeper responsibility is that there might be clash among different aspects of their job responsibilities. Depending on the number of hours the children are in their own house, the clean-up household tasks might suffer. It is very rare to effectively unite the nanny / housekeeper responsibilities when there are children beneath 6 in the household.

A nanny / housekeeper might work eight to ten hours a day, usually five days per week. A nanny / housekeeper would normally hope two successive days off weekly. A nanny / housekeeper might live in or live out. They should have some past provable child care skills or similar training and education. The nanny/housekeeper works under the less supervision of the family people (adult members) and should be a self-starter, show sound judgment, be dedicated to the well being of children, and be clever to take initiative.