to be irritated by people saying my job is easy?

[MilkNoPoisonPlease]

I probably am, but I'm tired and in a bad mood!

anyway, I'm a nanny, i've been with the same family for well over a year now and i love it!

i work either 3 or 4 days per week (for this particular fmily i do babysitting other days) depending on the parents workload. from 8am-7.30pm (although cn be later) this day includes,

getting kids ready for school and gettin them there
doing some chores once baxk at the house for 30 mins
taking youngest midee to an activity (baby massage/bounce.sing&dance etc)then get back for 11.30 to get her lunch sorted

feed her lunch etc and get her down for a nap by 12

in the time shes asleep (1 1/2-2 hrs) i need to do kids washing and hang it up, take down other stuff etc, tidy up, wash up, prepare as much of dinner for eldest two for later, as i can

i get about 30 mins time for myself

then get baby up and dressed feed her etc then out the door by 2.45 to be at school gates by 3,15

pick up kids, and ferry to various activities then getting homework and instrument practice etc done

then finishing dinner and feeding baby and cleaning dishesthen getting everyoine bathed in pyjamas and stgorys read by 7/7.30

now i have nothing but the upmost respect for parents, i can at least hand these children over to their parents at the end of an evening, BUT, i mentioned to a friend that i was tired today and her reply was "oh please your jobs a piece of piss"

this isnt the first comment ive had from people about this, along the lines of "so what exactly do you do in a day? anything?" "like you have anything to complain about at work you have it cushty" " oh please you barely work" etc to name a FEW

now i work my friggin ass off each day and parents Really apriciate it and the kids are wonderful, im just fed up of being told my job is easy or i dont do anything.

So aibu? (i know i probably am, just having one of those days!

sorry i know this makes no sense im just in a bad mood about being judged yet again over my bloody job! (have been told my job is terrible as i take children away from parents and encourage them to leave them at home etc )

I have just about finished maternity leave (boo hoo), and when any of my childless friends has made the 'lucky you all that time to read/watch telly/relax/laze about remarks I have just smiled sweetly and thought 'I can't wait until you have your first child, and I may remind you of this comment then'. Funnily enough, none of my friends with kids have made any such comments but instead have come round and washed up and let me go for a - unscheduled!- poo.

I think being a nanny must be incredibly hard as ok you get to go home in the evening (sometimes) but you don't have the biological and hormonal drive to love the kids so you have to really learn to love them!

Thank you all for replying!

On the other 1/2 days i do about 6 hours for someone else on 1 day and the other day is mine todo as i wish (am trying to find somewhere i can learn how to Teach baby massage)

I really understand that yes during the day i do alot of what a SAHM/D would do but i dont have nights etc etc. i homestly have so much respect for SAHM/D's

The Friend in question, works in an office 9-5 4 days per week and has never looked after kids.
its niggly comments that annoy me, i think people think my job is a "gap" job, until i find something i "want" to do (someone once told me they were glad they werrent stuck in a rut jobwise like i am!!)

i LOVE my job, i wake up and am glad im working that day, the kids are wonderful as are the parents BUT it doesnt mean its not hard and it doesnt mean i dont get annoyed at the kids when there playing up, nor does it mean i can do everythiong as i have qualifications. i struggle with getting the baby onto bottles and finding time to fit everything else in, like parents do. but i feel like im expected to know everything.

sorry went off on a tangent there!!!!!!!!!!!

Teachers are someone else that gets stick! yes they get how ever many weeks of holiday a year but theres still lesson planning & HOURS of marking, to name a couple of things! having worked for a teacher i see how hard they work

robino-thank you yes that matters to me!

Sorry if there were anyother comments/Qs to answer...computer wont load the first page...will offer babysitting to anyone who can fix this damn computer!!!

and sorry for any x posts...just taken me 20 mins to write this!

I think the job is harder in some respects than being a SAHM, because you can't get away with sitting on the sofa in your pajamas on days when you are knackered and putting a lion king DVD on!

YANBU. You have described my day to the T. I have just gone back to work after mat leave. It used to drive me mad when dh asked me what I had done all day. Like i had time to .....fart.
The perosn who made the comment to you has no idea. Don't let it upset you.

I am YANBU!!

YANBU

I employ a nanny who doesn't do the washing or houshold stuff (other than tidy around the things they have 'messed' during the day) and she is fantastic and hardworking. I would never say her job is easy.

I think people always think other peoples jobs are easy because they've never had to do them. Most of us don't really understand what other people do all day so can never appreciate exactly how hard their job is.

YANBU, but I am sympathetic. I'm a SAHM and there are many similarities between our days. I'm know for sure some of my friends (and more specifically their husbands) think it's a doddle and I sit about chatting with friends while drinking tea (which is sometimes true I admit!). I think you have to be a bit thick skinned. I do it because it's my choice to be at home for now with my littlies, you do it for your own reasons. Try to ignore them.

YANBU I go out to work to get 'a break'.

I would seriously go insane if I was left at home with the dds every single day. Going out to work is much easier than childcare and running a home.

I don't think people who work f/t appreciate just how much there is to do during the day when you have dc. I know that DH is under the impression that I sit watching tv and drinking coffee all day.

YANBU - being a parent (or nanny) is hard work, so yes, it'll be tiring BUT please don't forget, there are also harder jobs out there as well.

I got a bit fed up with the relentless line 'being a mum's the hardest job in the world' being trotted out when i was on mat leave. sorry, but one young baby was nowhere near as hard as being a ft teacher. now, going back to work, being a ft teacher AND coming home to do dinner, dishes, laundry, playing with child etc etc. THAT was quite hard work. even so, i would say there are prob other jobs which are harder still.

Doesn't sound easy to me.

Milk - I know exactly how you feel!

I've been a full-time nanny for 23 years. People still ask me when I am going to get a proper job! Grr!

I love being a nanny, you get the unconditional love of a child without the worry of bringing them up, paying for things, finding a babysitter so you can go to the pub on a friday night and getting a lie-in!

But as a nanny, I work bloody long hours (generally 60+ a week) I have the additional worry of looking after someone elses pride and joy (especially when the children are kami kazi experts!) I DON'T DO housework but I do all the things related to the children - washing, ironing, cleaning up behind them, cooking (and freezing for myself and my employers to use at a later date) shopping (including weekly supermarket shop and clothes/shoes and any other things we need, craft stuff, birthday presents for other children, any errands the parents need me to run (as long as we have the time!))I change the children's bedding once a week, sometimes more often!

Some days are a doddle, spending the day at the park/beach/zoo etc.

Some days are exhausting!!

And then we have the pain of leaving children that we adore at the end of the position! Which is the reason that I am giving it all up!!

Like some have said, I just ignore it and long for the day that they are a parent and realise looking after a child isn't that easy after all!!

Can only say YANBU. When my two were little (there's only 22 months between them) I was knackered.
I was also bored, stressed, lonely, fustrated and couldn't wait to get back to paid work for a break!

YANBU - I've never understood why being a nanny is percieved as being easy, but being a SAHM/D is seen as "the toughest job ever"

If DH ever commented that my day at home as a SAHM ws a piece of piss, he would prbably not survive. Although I think he may have thought it he's too wise to ever actually say it!

Thank you for all your comments!

We had an arguement about it today, se does ask for an arguement sometimes i must say!

she went on saying she's seen me working and im clearly crap at my job, i dont care about the kids etc etc and my job quite frankly IS a piece of piss...a monkey could do it

which stupidly made me cry !!

and without sounding stupis or big headed, i acually think im pretty good at what i do!

im just fed up of people asking me when im going to get a career!

She's babysitting her niece next week overnight...who can be a bit of a PITA...sorry but

sorry...in a rubbish mood today! x

I agree, and also agree with nooka sayign that people thinking you enjoy your job means it's easy. I loved my PGL job, 40+ hours a week for £80 a week. Damn hard work but I loved it, which apparently made it 'easy' as I wasn't complaining. I love my nanny job, but apparently it's easy because 'all [I] do all day is chill out while the kids are at school'. Never mind the cooking them dinner, getting them to school with everything, getting them bathed before bed and ensuring that they brush their teeth or anything (or cleaning up after a lazy DB!) gr

YANBU

Hmmm know that one, Im a childminder,most people asssume I sit on my bottom drinking coffee and watching the telly all day.

Also my 'Job' doesnt finish when the mindees go home, as I have a house to clean, a husband and two boys 11 & 8 to cook, clean, wash and homework to do, as well..

Absolutely VicScrum -I am always amazed on MN when people feel they can criticise how others do their jobs from a position of having no idea at all about what it entails. I am an independent social worker (after 30 years in the job) and social workers have been absolutely "rubbished" on another thread, by some very rude posters. Sorry don't want to hi jack the thread either.

I think ANY work that entails looking after children is tremendously hard work and very very tiring. I think the OP sounds wonderful and very very hard working. I think people think looking after chdn is easy peasy but all of us who have done it/are doing it know that nothing is further from the truth.

Re Teacher - I have 2 sons and a dil who are primary school teachers and they routinely leave the house at 7.30 am to get to school at around 8 and never get home till 6. - 6.30 and very often work in the evenings and one of the weekend days. In half terms they alwasy worka t least 2 full days and the same during the other holidays. In the summer they work for about a week of the holidays. I reckon if you add up all the extra hours they work through the year, the holidays would equate with the "normal" holiday entitlement of people working 9 - 5 with no overtime. And the stress that is involved is phenomenal - has to be seen to be believed.

she went on saying she's seen me working and im clearly crap at my job, i dont care about the kids etc etc and my job quite frankly IS a piece of piss...a monkey could do it

And this is your friend? Trade her in for a better one. Even if that were true (which clearly it isn't) she shouldn't say it.

Does she hate her own job? Sounds like it.

hi, again thank you for your replies

"friend" is a but of a strong word...we were friends...very close friends but over that last year weve really grown apart...she can be incredibly selfish at times and im really had enough!

we managed to have another arguement today (she says she dont wanna talk to me...um so why call me ...and i am marginally pissed off!

you have all been lovely listening to my moaning! and your comments have been lovely too! (ooh im going all netmums now!...thanks hunny)