Please or to access all these features

Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

hmmmm parents home late again and my son 10th birthday hmmm

135 replies

happychappy · 02/02/2012 18:54

not happy

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
happychappy · 03/02/2012 08:46

I agree and yes they are. I think they are going to go through a few.
I'm having a moment and thinking do I really want to do nannying any more given this and all the general rubbish that goes with it. I love working with kids but am not sure I can feel so insecure about my work. I know I'm not really up for working in a nursery, perhaps a school but then I won't get paid during the holiday. Really I have another 2/3 years and then I'll have my degree and can start something else, a new chapter but until then what. I chose to work as a nanny so I can be there fore my kids when they need me but as yesterday shows they are really getting the short straw.
I hate feeling poorly and really hate being grumpy about things I'm not really sure how to change. I'm usually such a positive happy person but feeling really out of sorts at the moment.

OP posts:
nbee84 · 03/02/2012 08:45

I understand where you are coming from and sometimes we do need to just have an anonymous rant.

I love my job, the parents are nice and we get along well. We have the same childcare ethos, they always back me up with discipline with the children - discussing ways which we, as a team, can tackle things. I have autonomy over my day - I can plan activities and menus as I see fit. They pay me on time. They were flexible when I needed time off for 2 funerals in 2 weeks Sad A lovely job and I enjoy going to work.

BUT, they are not very good timekeepers and it does rankle. You feel as if your own time is not respected. I had the same as you where they would telephone 10-20 mins after they were due home to say they were running late. In one month mb only got home on time on 4 occasions. I just think my employers don't realise that although a nanny is flexible and won't mind the odd late finish time it should not be the norm - in my last 2 jobs I could count the late finishes on one hand. Most lateness is ½ an hour or less so I would feel petty to bring it up but when I had to ask to finish on time one evening as I was going out with a friend I realised it was time to say something. Things improved for the next month, but have slipped back again (though, fingers crossed, the last 2 weeks have been good). If they are going to be late I do now get a phone call before I am due to have finished Smile

You can still enjoy a job and have no plans to leave but still have one aspect you need to have a good old moan about and as happychappy says; better to do it on here than take a bad mood home with you or speak out of turn with your employers.

BIWI · 03/02/2012 08:36

Are the new to employing nannies?

BIWI · 03/02/2012 08:36

Stupid. If he had to stay late then it should be up to him to get himself home and she should come home without him.

And even worse, if he was having a conference call on his mobile then he could have continued it in the car or had it at home! That call will have had to be arranged in advance, I'll bet, so he would have known that he was going to be late and should have alerted you to that and given you the chance to make alternative arrangements.

happychappy · 03/02/2012 08:35

Sorry not feeling good. Its affecting my typing. It should say shouldn't

OP posts:
happychappy · 03/02/2012 08:24

they go and come in the car together. In my contract it say I should work without a 12 hour gap. This rarely happens. As I say time to move on.

OP posts:
BIWI · 03/02/2012 08:23

Why couldn't one of them come home without the other, btw?

BIWI · 03/02/2012 08:22

I think you should spend the rest of the day (apart from lookong after yourself!) finding another job.

These people, like Heswall, are inconsiderate employers.

People like this seem to have no idea that they are employing somebody. Treatment like this, and the manner Heswall alludes to, are redolent of slave conditions, not appropriate conditions for an employee!

Flexibility is an admirable quality, but you are being taken for granted and this is being massively exploited.

They evidently don't care about you or your own situation.

People who treat their nannies like this make my blood boil.

Oh, and ignore comments here about what you were doing being on MN! Bibbity can't work a 24 hr clock Grin and others who made such comments have no idea of the realities of your day.

Good luck to you, and i hope you feel better soon.

happychappy · 03/02/2012 08:13

He was on a cnference call on his mobile, thats it

OP posts:
purits · 03/02/2012 07:41

Did they explain why they were late?

happychappy · 03/02/2012 07:34

woke up with a massive temperature and rang to say wont be in at 7.30 as need to take some medicine before coming anywhere near anybody and has got the shakes and feel sick. They're aren't happy. They needed to leave early. Least I gave them 1.5 hours notice and am still going in regardless of how much I want my sofa and Tv and duvet. And wake up yes its the weekend which will be spent looking for another job.
Anyone want a nanny in the Essex/Hertfordshire/Cambridgeshire borders area? I don't usually moan like this honestly.

OP posts:
franke · 03/02/2012 07:23

To be fair OP nearly everybody on this thread posted supporting you and agreeing that your employers were out of line on this occasion.

I hope you find a solution to this.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 03/02/2012 07:10

Well ať least its the weekend.

happychappy · 03/02/2012 04:12

Goodness, well I'm up at 3 because I am really bothered by the going ons of today. I wrote on here because it was that or open my big mouth and it coming out all wrong.

I am a very professional childcarer. He was asleep what work were you expecting me to do after the toys have been put away the house tidied and their dinner cooked, dishes washed and put away, chicken put to bed. Scrub the floors, sit and watch the TV trying not to crease the sofa. How many of those who called me being on the internet have NEVER used internet in their office? How many who have called me on bitching and never botched about their work. I just can't ring a friend so have done it annoymously it order I don't go home and sit in a foul mood with my family because I have steam coming out of my ears.

Just probably I was being a bit of a martyr but

  1. as a nanny I'm in a very vunerable position, I need my reference so have to be very careful what I say and how I say it.
  2. I was putting the 3 year old innocent first as he has done nothing wrong, has a flithy cold and really should be in bed not out in the cold.

My son was cool I think but I am very disappointed this is the first time I have ever been not around for his birthday. I have always taken the day off but it was made clean no time off until end of March (even though I have 5 days leave which I haven't used (not including overtime) to be used by 1st March. My husband was in hospital for a day last month I was fannied about so much about the day off even though I told them early December I needed that day off. I knew I had the day off after I had taken him to hospital!!!!

I don't might flexible, adaptable. I cool with the whatever approach for the most part BUT my family stuff that is known about way in advance and I try to plan for and then is fucked up I really am NOT cool with. I don't think I should be expected to be cool with. If the shoe was on the other foot that most certainly would not be cool with me and I would looking for another job.
Respect goes both ways and I am rapidly losing both patience and respect for them and the situation. I do above and boyond what is expected of me (including trying to fix electrics because the system blew again) but have pretty much autonomy in terms of how I do my work. Again there are benefit in this position I probably wouldn't get elsewhere particularly in this climate however the payoff doesn't always work.

I was planning to used my annual review at the end of February to reestablish the rules of ours relationship fully expecting them to want to change some things too. However, I am increasingly feeling that perhaps they need a mother/family member who is prepared to drop everything at anything time in order to accommodate their needs and wants. I can't see many other people staying very long in this job with the demands of it.

I have discussed this with DH and orginally agreed that the best road forward was to wait to the annual review and reestablish acceptable expectations. However given the last 2 weeks I can't see me not blowing my top and saying thank you but heres my notice. (Something I really can't afford to do). My DH feels perhaps nows the time to look for another role but I feel very attached to my charge and he is going though a really insecure stage and don't want to make that worse for him but my family are also suffering because of my work. I feel very torn.

Another reason for holding back on the conversation is I am very worried they will just say thats the job like it lump and I will say lump it. Thus turning into a very negative situation and at worse I then have trouble finding another role because of loss of my good name (something I have worked very hard for).

Hmmmmm what to do what to do.

PS those that seem to have a problem with me not working at 7.15 when officially I finish work at 7 having started at 7.30 in the morning. I assume in your job you have a lunch break? Coffee break? Are not restricted to where you can go during working hours? Don't have to have a mobile phone on you AT ALL TIMES? Can mostly choose if you've had enough and want to go home? Can choose ALL you holiday within reason ( I have chosen 10 days of which I ended up going in on 3 day of). nannying is a very reasonsible job which you have hugh restrictions placed on you not only in your own time but also free time (I saw once a mother on here her nanny smoked in her freetime; please when was slavery introduced). There is an increasing amount of disrespect to those who choose to work with children. I choose to work with children because it is something I am good at, trained for and actually like. BUT as most people who do this kind of job its the parents not the children who make it a great or just awful. Before responded I have not attacked anyone personally and was using this forum to rant however some people have been rather personal and unpleasant. I'm not looking for agreement but it would be nice before responding a tone of respect is used and understanding that I was when initially posting very very cross.

PPS I don't need or want grovelling just consideration as a human being and mother myself.

Ok phew got that off mychestSmile

OP posts:
wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 02/02/2012 23:07

Heswell. You may pay your nannies.wages but you do not own her.Jeese people with your high and mighty attitude certainly show yourselves up to have no reality of life .

hohohoshedittant · 02/02/2012 22:51

lol fair enough!

bibbitybobbityhat · 02/02/2012 22:48

Oh yes! I'm absolutely rubbish with 24 hour clock times Blush.

Not too good on east and west either but at least I can do left and right (unlike dh).

RitaMorgan · 02/02/2012 22:47

Where did you get that the child was asleep by 5pm bibbity?

hohohoshedittant · 02/02/2012 22:44

She posted he was asleep at 19:27, that's 7:27pm.

Where did 5pm come from?

NotYetEverything · 02/02/2012 22:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bibbitybobbityhat · 02/02/2012 22:42

Am intrigued by the idea of a 3 year old asleep at 5pm. That's a terrible time of day for a 3 year old to sleep isn't it?

Xmasbaby11 · 02/02/2012 22:42

It sounds unreasonable behavior, but maybe when they come home, you will hear the parents' side to the story.

TheCrackFox · 02/02/2012 22:39

I think she should just look for a new job. They sound like a pair of selfish arseholes.

hohohoshedittant · 02/02/2012 22:37

Everyone gets annoyed and bitches about work sometimes.

I would have thought anonymously on the internet was better than to someone who knows you/your child.

Heswall · 02/02/2012 22:35

I employ a nanny and am understanding if they need time off for unexcepted things cropping up, happy for my child to go along to appointments during working hours if absolutely necessary. The pay off is if I am running late she stays until I arrive home.
I do however pay her for her time and do not expect to be bitched about whilst the meter is running on an internet site. Unprofessional IMO.

Swipe left for the next trending thread