To think me being here shouldn't be a problem?

[mrsathome]

I am working from home four days a week, and would like to have a nanny for before/after school runs and childcare and for our 2 year old. The agency have said they are struggling to find nannies to work in the same house as a parent. Why is this a problem? Can anyone shed any light?

It’s interesting as I have to admit I find it really stressful DH working from home … but I get my arse handed to me if I mention it and apparently if he’s shut away in a room it’s not a problem!

If you’re in the house, if your children get even a whiff of you being in the house, then they want you and distracting them is fucking hard work

or you can’t distract them and they cry for you

Discipline and boundaries - if you come down in the middle of the day then you have to be 100% on board with the fact that your nanny is in charge. Doesn’t matter if you’re there. Your nanny is in charge. And it’s incredibly hard to stick to that and causes problems for the nanny if mum says one thing and nanny says the other…or mum says “no nanny said no” so nanny is always the bad guy 🙃

V hard to be your silly self around kids, singing, playing etc knowing someone can probably hear you and could come down at any time

If it’s nap time and nanny is sitting down having some lunch or a breather, it’s incredibly hard to actually relax when it feels like your boss is about to appear and you should look busy

there are nannies who will do it, I am not one of them and so are the majority of my nanny friend

To add a contrasting voice to the majority:

We have employed a nanny since our daughter was a baby. Pre-pandemic we both worked from home occasionally and it was fine. The baby never came looking for us. We didn't interfere with the nanny taking care of her. Coming down occasionally for a coffee or whatever never caused an issue. As our daughter got older and could ask for things if she eg asked one of us for a snack when we were there we would direct her to the nanny and say she was in charge. Once the pandemic hit our nanny did homeschooling while we both worked from home full time. It was fine. Over 7 years we have had two nannies so both stayed with us a good amount of time and don't seem to have been driven away by us working from home a little or a lot. Clear boundaries and respect for the nanny's role are key to making it work imo.