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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:
specialsubject · 05/02/2016 14:34

Just had home-grown parsnips for lunch. No pesticides so organic I suppose. No food miles - more like food meters.

but they were processed because, guess what, I didn't eat them raw!!

but I am 'most people'....

OP, if you think crackers are unprocessed and pay £8 a packet then you must have been born yesterday. If you don't want the nanny eating the gold plated stuff, put it in a locked cupboard.

SantanaBinLorry · 05/02/2016 14:37

most people in this country don't eat an 'unprocessed / organic diet'
bold/quote fail,

KatharinaRosalie · 05/02/2016 14:42

I really need to know what this 'uncomfortable' food is. Organic cricket flour?

Zariyah · 05/02/2016 14:46

I love crackers. Can easily munch my way through half a pack a day if I let myself.

willowthewhispy · 05/02/2016 14:50

I think everyone else is being unreasonable for making a simple question from OP into a bitchfest over crackers and diet choices. Just because you are all hiding behind your computers, you think it gives you a right to act like bitchy girls at high school. Shame on you all.

The crackers were just an example - get over it and there is no point being mean or making fun of someone else's food choices. Once you get used to buying/eating certain things, it becomes normal regardless of price.

I think that since you both come from a similar culture, it should be easier to talk to her regarding what foods she prefers to eat normally and that you would like to respect her right to eat what she wants by getting a fridge/cupboard space and ask what she thinks of that.

There is a perfectly sensible way to go about opening this for discussion with your nanny. Ultimately it is your house, your choices, your rules. She may be 'part of the family' but she is ultimately replaceable.

I don't think you are being unreasonable.

Lweji · 05/02/2016 14:50

I love them with cheese.
Can't be arsed with ott expensive crackers to live an extra week.

I already have a gm who is over a century old and not sure if I want to live that long.

Lweji · 05/02/2016 14:51

I think everyone else is being unreasonable for making a simple question from OP into a bitchfest over crackers and diet choices.

I think the main problem were the goady comments by the OP, which have already been pointed out.
The crackers are just a humorous side issue.

DawnOfTheDoggers · 05/02/2016 15:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CottonFrock · 05/02/2016 15:07

I think it's a reasonable enough idea, OP. I used to babysit when I was a student for a woman who (very unusually for a working-class area in the mid 1980s where I'm from) ate a vegan, healthfood diet - looking back as an adult, she had just split from an uptight and unfaithful golf-playing barrister, and was embracing rebirthing, reiki, veganism etc as part of a new life.

There was nothing in her house other than an occasional, expensive piece of organic fruit that could have been turned into a quick snack. She was stuck for cash, and all of her cupboards contained brown rice, dried beans, pulses, herbal teas etc - all taking either time or know-how to make into a meal. If she was late, and I ended up staying hours longer than planned, I was always starving, because I didn't want to start cooking rice or soaking beans, and I knew that the few wizened apples she had lying about were expensive!

Assuming your kitchen looks something similar, it seems like a nice gesture to provide your nanny with some foods she likes.

NickyEds · 05/02/2016 15:14

This is so funny. Aspirational crackers are the new naice ham!!

I think that since you both come from a similar culture,

Do you mean The North???

DurhamDurham · 05/02/2016 15:29

Currently walking up and down the cobbled streets of Durham asking for aspirational crackers but people keep giving me funny looks and a wide berth.

willowthewhispy · 05/02/2016 15:29

I meant British - not from the 'North'. It might be different if said Nanny is from abroad.

motherinferior · 05/02/2016 15:36

Has nobody said ‘let them eat cake’ yet?

(Mind you, OP, one sniff of a tub of chocolate minirolls and your kids will be all about the Dirty Food. Ho yes.)

Crazypetlady · 05/02/2016 15:41

Ah this has made my day.

Focusfocus · 05/02/2016 15:47

The heathen that I am I have eaten smelly kebab from my chippy that delivers and am now sitting Snelling of aforementioned kebabs and regurgitated breastmilk.

My organic dog has eaten organic kibble and is doing an organic shit in the garden.

I have Tesco everyday value crisps in the fridge that the dog is eyeing.

I want to be the nanny so I get some kale crisps

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece · 05/02/2016 15:53

I have Tesco everyday value crisps in the fridge that the dog is eyeing

Crisps...in the fridge...what...what!!?!

LovelyFriend · 05/02/2016 16:01

www.finecheese.co.uk/cheese-partners/crackers-and-biscuits-for-cheese/toast-for-cheese.html

personally I LOVE these crackers which are £3 a packet. I feel very extravagant buying them but I prefer them to cake so I will have them on the odd Friday night.

But I hide them. I will only share them with very nice people.
And a very good cheese.

Fontella · 05/02/2016 16:32

Oops - buggered up the link.

Fingers crossed - this is brill!

Lweji · 05/02/2016 16:32

'let them eat cake’

What? Processed food?

BarbaraofSeville · 05/02/2016 16:43

Those toast things look amazing Lovely. Can you get them in Waitrose or anywhere else that I am not going to have to pay to have posted

let them eat cake Sugar Shock White flour Shock

.

motherinferior · 05/02/2016 17:04

I once went to a one-year-old’s birthday party where the PFB’s mum was berating her DP for having bought a chocolate cake not a carrot one. Poor little bugger.

I have been known to make cakes out of organic ingredients, but they are Proper Cakes. Not Clean Cakes. Utterly dirtycakes covered in (fair-traded, organic) chocolate icing. Cakes that would have an X-rating slapped upon their filthy, filthy cakiness.

TheGreatSnafu · 05/02/2016 17:09

Yes, those toast things look very nice lovely - are they available in any stores?

toffeeboffin · 05/02/2016 17:48

How come we're talking about cake?

Last time I looked it was crackers?

Plus, to point out the bleeding obvious, Northerners do not know who Marie Antoinette is.

nattyknitter · 05/02/2016 17:55

Being in the South for decades must really make a difference.

Up here in the grim North I have a box in the snack cupboard for 'entertaining snacks', ie much nicer stuff than I usually have for when people come round, (the snacks don't tapdance or anything). I'm of the opinion guests to my home should be offered nice stuff.