Our live out nanny has been looking after our two little ones for a year and a half now. The kids appear to get on with her well and continue to thrive/learn/sleep well/be happy/keep active, so no complaints there. However, and yes I realise the irony of me raising this on an online forum, I'm concerned she may have paranoia and/or would like to hide what she's really getting up to on any given working day. I'm therefore keen to assess whether or not I'm being unreasonable before raising it more broadly with her.
To cut to the chase, here's a handful of examples to help you with your assessment:
- she asks that we give her prior notice of being at home or coming home early
- she covers up or hides any electrical equipment in the house that she's unsure of (presumably due to surveillance paranoia) - think digital phone, alarm system, carbon monoxide alarm - note that if we uncover them, within the hour, they've been covered again
- our security cameras (not in place/operational in any of the 8 or so rooms which she works in) have captured her looking over our belongings like she's looking for something (in rooms which are utterly unreasonable for her to access), then quickly stopping and leaving the room upon realising there is a camera there
- she historically locked us out of our house with the door chain and expected us to ring the doorbell for access citing security as her rationale (the door has an automatic Yale lock anyway so it's not swinging in the wind); since repeatedly asking that she doesn't, she double locks the door using the traditional key locks
- since starting my own business last year and being at home a lot more frequently, she suddenly arranges morning and afternoon activities a million miles from our home on the days that I'm home, or that my husband works from home, having otherwise stuck to purely morning based activities historically (obviously this isn't a complaint - the additional activities for the kids is great - it's simply an example of a changed behaviour)
Am I being unreasonable in thinking this is peculiar behaviour? Is any of this justified and/or normal practice in the nanny community? Clearly I understand that some nannies prefer to work in isolation which is what may trigger some of this behaviour, however, I do try my hardest to give her space and not judge every situation that I'm simply on the periphery of.