To ask Nanny for weekly antigen test ?

[oliveoilandcheese]

Is it reasonable to ask nanny to take a weekly antigen test ? I'm also happy to take one. I'll buy them myself and provide them. I just feel safer that way.

I'm not a nanny but if I was, I would wonder that other restrictions you would think were reasonable.

For example, you say you don't go out for walks if you think it's too busy, will you let them use their own judgement about when they take your child out? When things start opening up again, would you not want them going to baby groups?

@Teakind yeah I'm not comfortable letting a stranger go outside with my baby on their own for now. I would go with them for now. That's also something I have told the potential candidates up front and they have all said that's perfectly OK with them. I can go out with them on my lunch break.

@Teakind at the end of the day no one needs to work for me if they don't like the way I handle my home and baby and our safety. They can just turn down my offer. I'm super relaxed about everything- except covid/ catching it.

@Teakind baby groups are completely out of the question for now and even when they start again, I imagine it will take quite some time for me to be comfortable with that. Again, I can't let a stranger take my baby out by themselves.

[quote oliveoilandcheese]@Teakind yeah I'm not comfortable letting a stranger go outside with my baby on their own for now. I would go with them for now. That's also something I have told the potential candidates up front and they have all said that's perfectly OK with them. I can go out with them on my lunch break.[/quote]
I think that’s very extreme.

@daisypond everyone is different. You don't need to be my nanny so we are all good.

Well as long as you’re laying everything on the line up front as you say you are then I don’t see a problem with it. Your cautiousness may well appeal to someone who has a vulnerable family member that needs to work but is worried about bringing something home.

I would be exceptionally blunt with prospective Nannies though so they really do understand what’s expected.

You seem quite anxious about the situation but otherwise why not. Just be mindful from an employment law point of view you'd have to pay your nanny full pay if she doesn't work for a couple of weeks due to a positive test.
The tests you are mentioning seem quite cheap so I'd worry about the accuracy but up to you!

@NotExactlyHappyToHelp yeah exactly. I really do and the responses have been good. No one has said no or that it's bad and they understand. We all have our reasons for doing what we do. I certainly have mine.

@oblada thanks for the heads up on the legal side of it. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

You mentioned not emoloying them if they didn’t have the Covid vaccine. Will you be checking their other vaccinations? I think you need to tread very carefully on the side of employment law.

@PotteringAlong that's not what I meant. I was talking hypothetically how I think it's wrong if that were to be the case and it's also wrong to expect someone to take an antigen test for work purposes. I probably didn't express myself well. But I was talking about the big picture of it all.

Not sure why you’d bother, if I’m being honest. Big waste of cash (same goes for government too, imho) and can give false sense of security.

They are very inaccurate, lots of false negatives. Also false positives are an issue- how much depends on which test used- are you going to pay the nanny if they have to isolate?

@PotteringAlong I didn't say I need a vaccine or anything like it. I'm just a mum and you're acting like I'm a big corporation the way you're accusing me of potentially breaching employment laws. I have not yet and will get relevant advice.

@jacks11 I'll do whatever is required by law/ contract.

Not employing sb because they don't want to get vaccinated is likely to be fine tbh. Unless they cannot get the vaccine due to some disability, that could be a tricky one. But otherwise refusing a vaccine is unlikely to amount to a protected characteristic.

Well, big corporation or not, you still need to follow employment law. Anyhow, in your first post you explained I had misunderstood. The stroppy second post 2 minutes later was unnecessary.

Depends how often she works but in all honesty I don't see the point as she will have had contact with you and your child anyway.

[quote oliveoilandcheese]@Teakind yeah I'm not comfortable letting a stranger go outside with my baby on their own for now. I would go with them for now. That's also something I have told the potential candidates up front and they have all said that's perfectly OK with them. I can go out with them on my lunch break.[/quote]
You don’t trust your nanny to go fir a walk with your child alone

Wow. Why not

If you can find a nanny happy to do that great

Tests. Fine if you are paying

I'm a Nanny, OP.
Be careful of being overly precious about your baby - it's a common problem and I know many, many, many nannies who have left jobs because the Mum was overbearing, controlling and had a tendency to micromanage. Usually this was because she was anxious about the baby/child.
A good Nanny is hard to find - you'll need to trust them to do their job, and banning them from leaving the house without you is not a great start.

And in reality - very few Nannies would be happy with remaining indoors all day, every day with only a brief outside trip for their boss's lunch break.

thats fine. but lateral tests taken by an asymptomatic person are literally useless........Brum uni ran their own controls and basically said they are useless. The only ones that do work are PRC ones, but by the time you get your result it's days old and so you still wont know whether the nanny has it or not.

Lateral tests are being rolled out by the govt for show....not because they make much sense

@PotteringAlong your initial post was pretty annoying though.. but whatever

sorry PCR ones

In my area there is symptomless testing readily available and DH is having one every weekend as he’s travelling on public transport daily.

I think it’s fine to ask.