What exactly is it that nannies do - I need to know!

Oh how lovely for your Nanny student, I wish they'd done home placements when I was at college as I hated nurseries with a passion!

typical nanny duties are anything and everything involving children

including looking after their clothes, their rooms, nutrition and health, and stimulating them intelectually.

So childrens washing and ironing and name tape sewing is fine.
cooking childrens food (from scratch, even shopping for ingrediants) and washing up / laoding dishwasher and leaving a tidy kitchen afterwards is fine (Leaving the tidy kitchen that nanny was left

tidying playroom, childrens bedrooms / bathroom and playroom is fine, including things like light hooveing and dusting!

sorting tpys, and washing / maintaining them!

Also 'playing with' children, helping with homework, taking to clubs / swimming lessons / arranging playdates

Whilst some nannies may be happy to do them either regualarly or occasionaly, cleaning drains / cleaning general livng areas / walking dogs, feeding pets /cooking meals for parenst, doing parents washing / ironing etc are not "nanny" duties

BTW im a nanny and i can (and do) cook PROPER homemamde food....

Yes, if she becomes a nanny in the future, if she is vegetarian she will have to prepare meals for the family for whom she works, who may well eat meat. I know nannies who are vegetarians and yet they prepare meals containing meat, though the families have found that they eat less meat, as the nanny has sort of converted the children to eating more veg.

nannynick i got a raw deal too ...lol i loved cooking fresh everyday and the children ate it and on a monday the boss would welcome me back as they not eaten anything she had offered as it was not cooked the same as mine...lol love it

i think she will be very nervous and eager to please this is new to her too dont forget.
hopefully you will get on and she wont have an attitude..lol
but going back to duties she should have covered them in her studies and yes everything is asked of a nanny even mucking out horses and dog walking whilst older children were at school. i think in an interview things like that are discussed it is then you say yes or no to agreeing to do the jobs. although they come up within the day and you just get on and do them you are being the stand in parent after all but we should get paid at the end of week for everything else we take on

I think I get the raw deal... no pre-made frozen stuff, just a veg box and fruit box once per week plus store cupboard supplies. I care for 3 children, two of whom are under 5, and we find the time to cook.

Cooking is a good idea, it's one of the most important things a nanny needs to know how to do.

Agreed... cooking isn't taught a lot on courses. When I did my NNEB in 1998, I think we had something like and hour and a half of home economics, and very little of that was actual cooking.

So if you can get your student to help with cooking that would be great. Even just simple things - ministroni soup, home made pizza, pasta sauces including how to make a basic white sauce and cheese sauce. Fruit salad, milk shakes, real fruit ice lolly, fairy cakes and muffins, flapjacks. Perhaps even mini quiche, bread rolls, jam tarts, mini pasties (I use a potato based pastry).

As the student has been studying for a while, after all it isn't the beginning of the academic year, with luck she will have ideas of her own, plus I suspect she will have some work she will have to do as well - such as observations and maybe a project making something.

Good comment GeeGee most of the nannysI know cant cook decent homecooked food and all serve up freezerpremade food, though to be fair alot of usknowhow we justdont get the time!!

I've had nannies in the past and never asked them to do laundry or ironing for the children or any housework other than loading the dishwasher etc, although I understand that this is standard 'nanny duties'.

However one thing I wish nanny colleges taught better would be simple, quick, home cooked, healthy meals using fresh ingredients.

For most of my nannies, I have had to cook meals in batches at weekends for them to defrost and they would just add vegetables.

Otherwise, everything would have been out of a jar or tin or a frozen chicken nugget.

If you could teach her a few easy meals it would help her in the future.

Oh God thats awful I had too many years of picking up the fathers dirty undies to think of him in any way otyher than their dad!!! Some days couldnt even look at him

Actually that figure is 3 nannies that got the top job, not 2!
We have 2 in dd2s class!
(my smalls are always well presented!)

Why dont you stop and get a new book or something you know your DD1 will love then get the studentsto give it to her. Never know it may work have her sit qietly looking at new toy/book and hopefully your DD will go to her herself without feeling passed off as you put it

DD1 must be 3 or 4 years old I would guess, so explain to her that due to having DD2 to care for you can't spend as much time playing games with her, so you thought it would be nice if there was someone else who came to help for a while, who would play games, who would help with arts and crafts, who would accompany you to the park, groups etc.

anteater you know some naughty nannies . Thankgod with my male bosses once you have picked up and washed their dirty underwear the novelty wears off some what . lol

we have had 3 nannies and they all did things in very different ways, its up to what you want.
My advise is this tho..
Half the nannies we know in other families have ended up doing 'extra' duties with dhs..
2 went on to become new dws.. so beware!

Could also bake a cake for lunch/tea. Bake bread, make playdough etc... but making dough can be such fun for children - so perhaps a better thing to do with DD1.

Going to collect from pre-school and school can be an experience... going to toddler group can be fun. The more interaction she has with children (yours and others) the better. The more involved the better as well, so at toddler group, you relax and your student deal with anything that crops up.