What does nanny do during baby naps?

Is it reasonable to expect her to do some light housework like emptying the dishwasher, and prepping some meals etc

No.

You are paying for their time and expertise. Take care of your child yourself then if a nanny is not suited to you.

This can’t be real? This is like saying you won’t pay a babysitter whilst your child’s asleep. You wouldn’t expect a babysitter to be on the go if your child was asleep

You sound exhausting. Looking after a baby is a full time job, even when she is having a so called “break” she will still be multitasking eating and watching the baby. They are hardly breaks as she is unable to switch off fully.

Surely if the OP genuinely believes the nanny is doing nothing, tell her not to bother. Lock up, clock off, go home and come back when baby wakes. Saves paying her for those hours. But actually they are supervising. I doubt the napping will last long either. But as I said before, once you start dictating terms the nanny will tell you to jog on anyway and you'll be left with the shitty ones. I'd much rather have a great nanny who I could trust.

@Phoebo I commented on that thread, although I let our nanny get on with her day that's because I trusted her as a complete professional in what she did.

I couldn't do that if nanny thought it appropriate to go to their families houses etc.

I just let out nanny get on with her day as she pleased as long as the work I set her to do got done. So for example baby laundry and ironing etc if she did that and finished up really quickly I wouldn't have minded if she did nothing really.

This thread is a contrast to the other nanny thread! In that one, so many people thought the nanny shouldn't visit friends and family in her paid time. Personally I'd rather pay someone to do that, than sit on the couch and watch telly. To me anything more than 1- 1.5hrs is a decent break, like in any job. I was surprised to see one nanny on here gets a 6hr break, maybe I'm in the wrong job! 😄

Also, what nannies do you know who work 9 to 5? Or do you think the baby just gets left on his / her own for a couple of hours a day while the parents commute to their 9 to 5 jobs?

Also, people I know who have nannies tend to be the higher earners who don’t work from 9 to 5 themselves.

Chances are the least hours worked will be 8 to 6 and more likely 7.30 to 6.30 or 7

Someone said on here the nanny only works 9 to 5. This is assuming a normal work day for an office worker, which nannying is not. The nanny has to be here before the 9 to 5 office worker leaves for their commute and stay all the way until that worker is home again. My jobs typically were 8 to 7, and my own commute in London was 45 mins each way so it was a long, tiring day.

I never had 5 to 6 hours break in the day. That sounds made up. The nanny at your trial might have been showing you she can look after your child and otherwise was politely keeping out of your way and feeling awkward. Why wasn't she given some other tasks? If it was a free trial you can't expect her to get on with housework, I think.

Trying to think what things I did when a child was asleep. Mostly look after the other children, nursery commute etc. For singletons sometimes their nap was on the way back from the museum, zoo, playgroup etc, so I was pushing them home, navigating changing trains etc. The only time when I ever really had sit down breaks, I think, was the last year I worked when I was pregnant with my first and the little boy I nannied started nursery. He was out of the house less than 3 hours. I would return home with his buggy, clean up anything we hadn't managed before his morning activities, see about his laundry including sheets, dishwasher if needed, and then nap as I needed one. I don't think I really sat down for a break prior to the pregnancy.

Right, but absolutely nobody has suggested she lie around on the couch ‘doing nothing’ for the entire three hours. They’ve said that once she has taken her legal entitlement of an hour’s lunch break, she will then have about two hours to do all her actual tasks - this is nursery duties like baby laundry, sorting food for the baby, cleaning and organising toys, and planning and booking appropriate activities. Once this is done she will have completed all her tasks.

And it isn’t place to allocate her tasks outside her employment because she thinks the nanny should do these things. I don’t know why people think women who work in childcare should be servants or skivvies. They are doing the job they’re paid for, just like you wouldn’t tell your cleaner she needed to start cutting the grass for you.

Well this really, women supporting women unless it's "the staff"

The OP is putting other women down with her 'insensatively worded' post... we aren't going to support her in abusing other women in her employment.

If she’s an actual Nanny then she’s a childcare professional and won’t want to do any “light household tasks like food prep or emptying the dishwasher” for you as that’s not her job. Her job is to look after the baby and do tasks relating to the baby.

Maybe you’d be better off with a nanny/housekeeper type role but you might find it hard to recruit one. They also may not be qualified or have much experience, as most professional Nannies don’t want to do housework, and that’s fair enough really.

So she could prepare babies food and unload baby’s items out of the dishwasher but no she shouldn’t so be doing light housework for YOU.

The nap is her break time, the baby won’t always sleep for 3 hours a day. In fact give it a few months and the baby will be down to one nap a day.

If money is that tight you begrudge paying her to “sit around whilst baby sleeps” then maybe a Nanny isn’t for you.

I’ve only recently joined MN, but you guys can be really mean to each other… I thought this sort of thing was about women lifting up other women!?
I would like to believe that the OP perhaps chose her word’s insensitively when she referred to being ‘burned’ and the previous nanny doing ‘nothing’ rather than assume that she’s some kind of brutal dictator as some of the comments here imply!

in terms of the answer to the original question, my view is that the answer lies somewhere in between.

I have a job and it requires training and knowledge and responsibility, similar to a nanny/early childhood practitioner. In my role I have primary responsibilities. My manager may ask me from time to time to assist with secondary responsibilities. For instance, answering the phone or collecting extra paper for the printer are not my primary responsibilities. But if I have a quiet period, my manager may say, would you mind answering the phone while your colleague is in a meeting. I would say yes, I have sufficient time to do that. If I did not I would say, sorry I can’t get to that today. But if I can, I will, as it makes the running of my workplace smoother, most of my colleagues are the same (obviously there are a few who are not always!)

I think that this situation is similar to the nanny workplace situation. I don’t think family meal prepping is appropriate as this is a very personal thing, but I do think that once nanny has had her break (say an hour, depending on working hours..) then she may be able to do some tasks such as emptying the dishwasher, as this may then be refilled by baby morning tea/lunch things. However if she cannot, because baby only had a short nap, or baby was sick, so she has had some extra clothes/bedding to wash etc… then that is fine as it’s not within those primary responsibilities and the parents need to be understanding. But to say would you mind unloading the dishwasher if you have time, seems more than reasonable.

OP ran away :D I wonder if she has taken comments on board or is still looking for one who should deep clean during nap time

I think she should be deep cleaning and organizing your pantry.

Or maybe treat her like a human and let her have lunch and a cuppa.
There will be plenty to clean and organize for the baby.

She is being in the house, in your absence, making sure your baby stays safe. Need I say more. Who cares if she has a brew and puts her feet up. She's keeping your baby safe in your absence.

No decent nanny will agree to do housework. If you ask for this you will nay get people desperate for any job who either will not stay long, or will be very inexperienced.
You are not paying someone to sit around. You are paying someone to take care of your baby whether they are awake or asleep

If she’s through an agency there’s usually a specific list of tasks you would be allowed to ask her to perform.

Sure and that makes sense, it's juts alot of the responses were making OP out to be a slave driver which I think was unfair. One day the nanny might have a couple of hours off on a tough day, the next maybe half an hour. I just don't think OP should be expected to be paying someone to have all nap times with nanny on her phone all that time. Best thing is to probably actually find out from some agencies anyway, as I think people also confuse Au Pair for Nanny too which are completely different.

When does she take her breaks? I'd assume whilst the baby sleeps. As others have said- you can not guarantee that the three hour napping will continue, or that it will be that easy every day. Looking after the baby stuff is all that a nanny should be expected to do. I'd assume you have some 'down ti e' during the baby's nap currently

No one is saying all the down time should be a break but if the nanny is doing baby related activities (baby laundry, tidying toys, baby food prep, maybe research of activities to do with baby), they are likely to take an hour or two. If you then add an hour’s lunch and two 15 minute tea breaks, that probably adds up to around the 3 hours.

The OP seems to think the nanny doesn’t get a break and that she was ‘burned’ by a nanny who didn’t work during baby nap times.

It is perfectly possible to hire a nanny housekeeper, it’s just that most professional nannies don’t want to be one and won’t stay long in a house where that is expected.

I'm basing it on the nannies I know of they do housework, like prep food when the baby is nappies. Until they're about 3, alot of babies/toddlers sleep for 2-3 hours. It's reasonable to expect that in a week, that some other things might be completed for that 10-16 hours surely? I'm a SAHM right now to a toddler, so I think I have a fair idea of what goes on. Maybe you don't spend time with your kids much so you're clueless 🤷‍♀️ don't get me wrong it's not an easy job, but I think if I only did it 9-5, I'd find it ok!