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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask the nanny if she would like her own fridge / cuboard and seperate food

260 replies

mpje · 05/02/2016 08:51

Hello,

We have had the same nanny for about two months. Its all going pretty well (third time lucky) and she is lovley and the our three children get on really well with her.

We eat a unprocessed / organic diet that is very healthy but I understand it is alien to most people who eat a "normal diet". I know that she has a normal diet and I don't judge her for that but she may be unconfortable with some of the food in our house and although we've said to just help herself to anything I dont think she realises that some of it is very expensive (she ate two packets of crackers that cost 8 pounds as a snack!).

Would it be offensive to get her her own fridge and cuboard space? She is not live in.

thanks

M

OP posts:
Lweji · 05/02/2016 10:23

I'm sure it's also well past it's use by date, having been buried for millions of years and all.

LaundryService · 05/02/2016 10:24

Lweji Do they do a nice organic salsa dip for op to enjoy dipping her organic crackers in?

Perhaps some organic unprocessed chocolate biscuits for dessert mmm healthy! Next op will be saying there is no sugar in organic fruit

Oh and I don't subscribe to a 'normal' diet either...

Haters gonna hate, players gonna play.

Sallyingforth · 05/02/2016 10:26

Apparently Himalayan salt is the 'purest' because it has so many extra minerals that make it pink?

fitlife.tv/10-amazing-benefits-of-pink-himalayan-salt/

SantanaBinLorry · 05/02/2016 10:27

On no, feel terrible for laughing at aspirational crackers. I have pink salt Blush
To be fair it was on offer in Lidl and has lasted aaaaages as its super salty.

Lweji · 05/02/2016 10:28

Yes, with organic vegetables that have been grown in soil fertilised by organic dung teeming with parasite eggs.

SantanaBinLorry · 05/02/2016 10:29

and if I had a nanny she could use it Grin

Lweji · 05/02/2016 10:33

BTW, the pink is basically rust.

"the minerals within the sodium" LOL

"Himalayan salt is naturally anti-microbial, so clean up requires just a quick scrub or rinse." Are they actually suggesting that salt is rinsed?

I'm very amused.

Eminado · 05/02/2016 10:34

...

To ask the nanny if she would like her own fridge / cuboard and seperate food
Fairenuff · 05/02/2016 10:35

I'm really disappointed with OP for not coming back but FWIW having her own fridge/cupboard isn't going to stop her eating your food if you've told her to help herself.

BarbaraofSeville · 05/02/2016 10:37

Arf at something being the purest because it has lots of extra minerals in it.

My favourite poncy salt is Mallorcan sea salt for no other reason than I like going to Mallorca on holiday and sometimes buy it in a naice little grocers in one of my favourite resorts.

Thatrabbittrickedme · 05/02/2016 10:38

www.edgeofsf.com/food/harvesting-salt-on-the-ile-de-re-in-france/

I do have some of this, that I use for 'proper cooking'. Rinsed by the sea and dykes so clearly superior to the rusty stuff...

Ridingthegravytrain · 05/02/2016 10:42

Third time lucky on the nanny front? Did the others leave because your food made them uncomfortable ShockWink

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 05/02/2016 10:51

Her her own fridge and cupboard space

For a live out nanny? It would seem a little OTT to be honest and you would be expected to stock it. It's your job to provide her food during the working day or an allowance towards it. I'm going to ignore the £8 crackers because you are already getting the piss taken out of you something rotten. Grin What you choose to spend your money on is your own business.

I do have some sympathy. We have a mostly goodie free house and what we do have tends to be expensive as a very occasional treat or stuff bought to have with guests. Our old nanny would regularly go on the hunt for snackage and scoff some really nice stuff as though it was a packet of crisps. Quite irritating as she was always on a diet and would refuse to eat lunch with the kids, then crack and wolf down something incredibly calorific and expensive.

If you don't want your kids eating the pricey crackers or want it to be an occasional treat then point that out. She'll understand from that they are not for scoffing instead of eating lunch.

Honestly, the best thing you can do is to ensure that there is appropriate food for her in the house. Not any old processed shit because she can't eat that in front of your kids without sharing it, but something she actually wants to eat. In my experience, depending on the age of your kids but particularly with preschoolers, most nannies are running around like loons all day and using the 2 hour lunch time nap time to do some cooking or similar. They are not sitting down to eat a decent lunch and watch TV, so there is a real tendency to grab snack food on the fly in the way that you probably did when you had a newborn and were spending half the day feeding on the sofa. Talk to her about maybe buying some veg pots for example? Get her to put together a supermarket order so that you can just add the family stuff weekly. She must give you occasional shopping lists anyway?

www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Soulful-Food-OnePot-Thai-Green-Chicken-Curry-with-Kelp-Noodles/98471011?from=shop&tags=%7C20000%7C20002%7C37875%7C37893&parentContainer=%7C20002%7C37875%7C37893_SHELFVIEW

I'm sure there are lots of nannies who will sit down and eat a decent lunch but that's my experience with our nannies.

JustHavinABreak · 05/02/2016 10:53

OT but Lweji, where has Winnie's thread gone? (See what I did there?) Grin

SantanaBinLorry · 05/02/2016 10:53

poster Thatrabbittrickedme

I also have some self harvested local salt, for posh cooking.
Im officially a salt snob!

Still would pay four quid for crackers though!

Original poster
mpje · 05/02/2016 10:56

I don't wish to go into any specifics about the food, that is wholley detracting from the whole point. But to end it they are 3.99 a packet and are the brand a previous poster has mentioned, you can spend alot more. Anyway ignoring the goaders, yes this is exactly my point:

You can always do it under the guise of not wanting the kids to eat certain kinds of food but realising she has every right to eat what she wants.

That is it in a nutshell. I want her to feel free to eat what ever she wants and not restricted by the food we have. It is totally her choice what she eats as it what my family eat, and the choice is irrelevant.

She is a part of the family so I don't want this to be seen as a them / us issue. Just more a nice gesture to make everyone feel confortable.

For total transparancy the cost is part of the issue, one of us works in an industry that is sufforing majorly at the moment, so we don't have a high disposable income anymore. I wouldn't mind if she really liked some of these foods, but I don't think she does and would rather other ones.

I will ask her if there is anything she wants next time I'm doing a list. She is from the same background as me - northern but I've been in London for a few decades now.

OP posts:
ssd · 05/02/2016 10:56

I'm sure I worked for you in the 80's, family only ate organic unprocessed food, all Holland and Barrett, all cooked in a stone thing in the aga, took hours to make anything.....I cooked all this during the week of course...then at weekends when I was off they went to the local 3 in 1.....

just saying...

GrumpyOldBag · 05/02/2016 10:57

OP I am here to show you some love because we also favour an organic diet in our house, don't let the vipers get you down. Flowers

Lweji · 05/02/2016 10:57

She is from the same background as me - northern but I've been in London for a few decades now.

And you are calling people goaders?

Andfaraway · 05/02/2016 10:58

Crackers are hardly unprocessed. YABU

Lweji · 05/02/2016 10:59

Winnie's thread gone

It may or may not be around, or never existed. Who knows?

notonyurjellybellynelly · 05/02/2016 11:00

We eat a unprocessed / organic diet that is very healthy but I understand it is alien to most people who eat a "normal diet

You're a prat and for the record - eating the way you do is nothing unusual!

And the general rule of thumb is this - when someone is working in your house they eat the same quality of food that you and yours eat because anything else is food apartheid.

I have 5 people working in my house in various roles, but mostly they make up the care team who looks after my son. I'd be lost without them and my son and our family would be in dire straights. They can have whatever the hell they like out of my very well stocked cupboards and fridge and I hope they enjoy every mouthful of it.

Get over yourself!

Fairenuff · 05/02/2016 11:01

I want her to feel free to eat what ever she wants and not restricted by the food we have. It is totally her choice what she eats as it what my family eat, and the choice is irrelevant.

Well that's not true is it OP?

Otherwise you wouldn't be complaining about her eating your crackers which she obviously chose to do Confused

Unless you think she only ate them because there were no Jacobs available?

OllyBJolly · 05/02/2016 11:03

Sorry - I only managed to half way down page 2 and had to change my knickers

Place marking so I can come back for a laugh later. This is the funniest threat I've seen on MN. You lot are the greatest..Chocolate covered orgasms? Unicorn farts?

I will be sniggering all day (and have very important conference call this afternoon).

Lweji · 05/02/2016 11:04

FWIW, it's fine to have a separate place for her to have any food that she wants and you don't want the children to come in contact with. Although, you do realise that as they hit their teens and parties they will eat loads of crap anyway?

But, then you can't say it's fine for her to have your food and complain that she has it. You are making a big assumption that she doesn't like your food, even. Surely, if you have bananas or apples, they are basically the same. It won't be a problem for her to eat those.

I agree with others that you should budget as if you had an extra member of the family eating the same food.

Or, alternatively, have your own separate special expensive food, which is marked as special occasions only. I think I'd actually be more comfortable with that to avoid her eating more expensive items that yourselves don't eat frequently.

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