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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:
Greyponcho · 05/02/2016 11:14

Is it possible that although you've offered for her to help herself,she has no idea what any of it is, or just doesn't like it.
Sounds like you want the nanny to bring her own food and for you to just offer somewhere for her to store it.

Witchend · 05/02/2016 11:15

Olly did you have to change your knickers because you wear a special kind of underclothes like Eustace Clarence Scrubb? That's what this thread was reminding me of. (Voyage of the Dawn Treader-Narnia)

Stumbletrip40 · 05/02/2016 11:15

do you not accept that you're being petty? If you're suffering financially, make cut backs across the board rather than trying to control who is eating what, it's all a bit upstairs-downstairs for my taste. Why not cut back on the nanny and use cheaper childcare since this doesn't seem like it's working out for you. You haven't made any positive statements about your nanny.

Thatrabbittrickedme · 05/02/2016 11:15

OP apologies if I have come across as goady, I got carried away with how amusing I found the overpriced processed crackers with the special salt.

I have posted what I think is very sensible advice, that I live by myself - 1. offer to buy your nanny food she likes (basic element of making her comfortable in your home) and 2. if you can't afford to feed everyone the expensive stuff, you have to buy cheaper food (basic home economics) and save the good stuff for occasional treats.

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 05/02/2016 11:18

Lady, in the nicest possible way - if you don't have a high disposable income any more, stop spending £8 on 140g of a snack food that nobody needs to have.

bakeoffcake · 05/02/2016 11:19

Yes, get her a separate fridge and cupboard, fill it with food from the 25p shop which have just opened in London. I'm sure she'll feel really comfortable with that kind of food Hmm

you sound like a pompous twat OP

Lweji · 05/02/2016 11:26

BTW, it's also not goady to point out how people are being taken for a ride with all this expensive food stuff that brings marginal (possible) health benefits. Particularly if you are not that financially comfortable.

Theimpossiblegirl · 05/02/2016 11:26

You can get the pink salt at Aldi but their crackers aren't £8!

LovelyFriend · 05/02/2016 11:32

well you did tell her to help herself.
I'm sure she has no idea that anyone would buy crackers for £4 a tiny pack.

It sounds like she enjoyed them anyway - and you did say "help yourself" - sounds like you need to retract that.

Perhaps you'd be better off having a special "off limits" cupboard where you keep your pink salt, expensive crackers etc.

HSMMaCM · 05/02/2016 11:40

Maybe she thought you had kindly bought her favourite crackers and ate them. Own do you know she doesn't eat organic unprocessed food all the time?

Sallyingforth · 05/02/2016 12:18

Pink salt at Lidl and now Aldi! What is the world coming to?

mouldycheesefan · 05/02/2016 12:19

The solution doesn't address the problem. How will giving nanny her own food shelf stop her eating the crackers? or will she only be allowed to eat what is on her shelf. If this means she has to eat different food to the kids will this be a problem?

Op hasnt said how she knows that it was nanny who ate th crackers and not the kids

ikeabroccoli · 05/02/2016 12:26

OP, you are not the person who went completely up the wall because their nanny had fed their child marksies filled pasta, are you?

Being all natural and organic and freefrom taste is wonderful, but those crackers are not 'unprocessed' in the slightest. Tesco value tortilla chips have less in them than special crackers. Oh and are only 50p a bag.

And how do you know the nanny isnt sneaking your dc 'forbidden' food when you are not around to see it?

My toddler had a pizza for lunch. Or to be more precise...
approx 2/3 a wholemeal pitta (w/meal flour, yeast, salt, oil, water)
tomato puree (tomatoes)
few bits frozen sweetcorn
few bits of onion I was chopping for tonights tea
grated cheese

BarbaraofSeville · 05/02/2016 12:35

I wonder if one of the OPs previous nannies was the one that took the DCs to, horror of horror, McDonalds on days out. Shock Grin

ikeabroccoli · 05/02/2016 12:53

That'll be chicken, potatoes, salad and bread when the mother is given a run down of the days meals then

GreenPetal94 · 05/02/2016 12:55

Hold on isn't it better (by your food beliefs) that she ate the unprocessed crackers than you encouraging her to have her own cupboard for crisps and mars bars? Either it is better to eat the diet you eat or it is not, why should then nanny not be entitled to eat that way.

Tram10 · 05/02/2016 12:55

Maybe the OP does not live in the UK, hence the price of the crackers. I live in the Middle East and anything imported and 'organic' costs an absolute fortune.

runningLou · 05/02/2016 12:59

Communicate with the nanny - actually ask her what she prefers.
At the moment your concerns are based on the fact that you think she is too northern / poor / undiscerning to appreciate the better class of food to which you and your DC are entitled. If you firmly believe the food in your home constitutes is a good diet, which presumably you do, then everyone in the household should be allowed to partake. The separate fridge/cupboard thing smacks of segregation.

toffeeboffin · 05/02/2016 13:00

Grin sallyingforth

ghostyslovesheep · 05/02/2016 13:02

anyone remember Gwyn banging on about her kids microbiotic organic carb free diet

and the next day they where pictured with dad eating grab bags of Watsits!

OP stop being daft - just but cheaper crackers

toffeeboffin · 05/02/2016 13:02

Are you Gweneth Paltrow, OP?

you really should wear sunscreen you know

Beahun · 05/02/2016 13:04

I bought pink salt in the 99p shop! It's everywhere!

EponasWildDaughter · 05/02/2016 13:05

I'm struggling to understand why anyone is thinking the Nanny doesn't like the OPs food Confused (She noshed 2 packets of the crackers after all)

OP says ''she may be unconfortable with some of the food in our house'' - so even she doesn't actually know.

Why not just ask the nanny if there's anything she'd like bought in? As well as being welcome to what ever's already there.

But we know that the real point is that it's a money thing now and that the nanny isn't actually welcome to help herself.

chanelfreak · 05/02/2016 13:09

I really want to say have a Biscuit but I'd prefer an aspirational cracker now, to be honest

Focusfocus · 05/02/2016 13:14

I'm off to eat a quinoa and fruity lentil salad on a bed of organic red Russian kale with freshly squeezed organic cherry juice.

I don't have any £8 crackers to go with . Please tell me what they are

waits for chippy delivery as baby ears boob juice