How much TV time should nanny give kids

[yadayadaa]

When watching a three year old and one year old ?

Oooooh, it's really gotten under your skin

@NotAnotherBathBomb is that a goal of yours? To get under the skin of people of people you will never meet? How sad.

Whatever parents are comfortable with. Frankly the whole screen time limit think is hokum. TV is fine, screen time is fine

None. I'd be extremely annoyed if my nanny was letting my one year old watch TV

What a bizarre post

Hold up nannies, in a 12 hour day caring for multiple children with varying needs to the best of our professional abilities, plus the domestic responsibilities that the job entails, we should not expect to be entitled to ANY kind of break, let alone a PAID one. This is because we chose this career so we mustn’t ever be tired or expect our employers to treat us like human beings with our own lives and commitments outside of our jobs. We are mere machines that must come up with endless activities and tasks to keep even the most challenging infant occupied and educationally nurtured every minute of every working day.

Honestly @SkyandSurf I can only say that it’s good you’re upfront about the above at interview stage, and you’re lucky to have found nannies that will accept your attitude.

I wonder if @SkyandSurf is a bit like my previous employers who would panic when I requested holiday (paid and legally entitled) begrudgingly give it (always with heaps of notice and with a degree of flexibility on my side) and then passive aggressively drop comments about how much rest and time off I was going to get and how awful it was going to be for them in the lead up to taking it.

So very draining.

I remember to this day 'watch with mother', I would have been to nursery, had lunch, then literally watched with mother before my afternoon nap.
I did the same with mine, but obviously different programmes.
I think it's nice as part of a routine and only 15 minutes out of a whole day.

My friend is a nanny and her employer doesn’t give sick leave. Maybe it’s contractually ok but it’s rather mean and might explain why their nannies never stay very long.

I agree. Fond memories of watching in the night garden and the CBeebies bedtime story with my dc while they had a drink and snuggled up ready for bed.

The nursery I work at doesn't. It's part of a chain and none of them use TV. When my DDs went to nursery there was no TV. Or at the one my son went to prior to changing nursery.
Maybe some do but I don't think it's normal.
OP up to you. As a parent I don't really allow it during the day but he watches about 30 minutes before bath time.
You are paying her so tell her how much TV is acceptable.

Urgh. Awful employers. I've got some stories to tell but this was one of my worse jobs:

• Holidays had to be taken on THEIR terms. I stupidly agreed to it.

• I asked for a day off for my birthday as I wanted to go for a spa weekend. She laughed in my face whilst saying "wouldn't it be lovely if we all had time of for our birthdays. She then proceeded to book the day of my birthday off from HER work and went to a spa. I stupidly stayed.

• She allowed her 4 year old to kick me and slap me in the face. When I (quite rightly) put some discipline in place, I was told that I was wrong and that "I don't care if they hit us, as long as they aren't hitting each other". I stupidly stayed.

• She told me I could have a party whilst they were away (I was live-in). She knew ALL my friends, she knew that I was bloody responsible and then made me cancel the party AN HOUR BEFORE it was meant to start. I'd spent a fortune on dinners and drinks. And my friends had made a massive effort (it was Halloween). I called her sister in tears and she told me to call everyone to let them know the venue had changed - to HER house. She was an absolute star. But I stupidly stayed in the job.

• I handed my notice in after being there nearly 2 years. She was SCREAMING in my face "HOW CAN YOU DO THIS, HOW DARE YOU, I THOUGHT YOU LOVED MY KIDS...ETC...". Super aggressive. I stupidly retracted my resignation and stayed another 8 months.

There is SO much more. I became a shadow of myself due to being so bullied.

I think all this debate shows why we need employment laws, and why everyone should be clear and up front about their expectations.

There seem to be both nightmare employers and employees on this thread!

If I interviewed someone for a job and they came at me with this attitude, I definitely wouldn't hire them.

How do some people think treating the people who are caring for their children like shit is any way to making a productive relationship?

Some of these stories are shocking.

I have Thursdays home with my toddler and pre schooler, we got up, had breakfast, built a fort and went to a toddler activity by 10.39, then had lunch out with a friend and went to the park, got home at 3.30. I put the telly on (actually the eldest played tablet games and the toddler danced to cocomelon) for half an hour while I made them aa snack, started dinner and drank a cup of tea. Then we read books and got the teddies out and had a soft toy party, then at 5.30 they had another half hour while I finished dinner. I'd be absolutely fine with a nanny doing something similar and my eldest often watches another half hour nursery days before we head out while I get the toddler ready. We had a music and dance activity, a playdate and 2 solid hours running round a park, kids need downtime too.

If that works for you, I don't see anything wrong with that.

My concern was, that while I am doing all the cooking and cleaning and clearing up- the nanny was literally just looking after the kids- she still kept putting them in front of the TV. That's slightly different.

I don't mind if she puts the TV on when she wants a break or when she's making them something to eat etc.

But it's worrying that she felt the need to in the situation I described.

Yeah that's very different, I think I'd have a chat with her and maybe phrase it as 'how I'd like the kids day to be structured' and give her some guidance. If she was previously a babysitter I'm assuming she doesn't have nanny experience or is very young? If so she may just not know what she's doing. In that case I'd tackle it very positively 'so, since we employed you as a nanny I'm starting to realise I've not given you much guidanc on how I'd like the day to be structured, ideally I'd like to be responsible for X,y and z while you're responsible for a,b and c, I'd like to get the kids doing more structured activities, here's how I see their days going, outings, indoor activities, educational activities, meals and scheduled downtime, during which time you can maybe grab a cuppa, have 10 mins quiet time yourself etc etc.' I'd take the 'never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance' stance and essentially give her some on the job training.

Also that literally wouldn't work in my house, they both need activities and engagement and wouldn't just sit mesmerised by a screen, I know because I've had periods of illness and WFH when it would have been very useful if they would 😂

@Forgooodnesssakenow thank you so much. I'm going to frame it exactly like that. Not in an accusatory manner whatsoever. She just doesn't know what to do and is probably worried to step on my toes too. It's really not an easy job either if you're not used to it. I think working in a nursery is so completely different to being a nanny. She'll need to see if it works for her.