Mileage for nanny's personal trips & things

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Our newly employed nanny in her first months mileage claim has claimed for a trip to a local town (with her mother) and my two DCs and back
We were keen when we employed her to stress to her that we wanted to allow her the freedom to run errands and that we didnt want the three of them stuck indoors all day.
However, where does one draw the line ? Whilst I don't mind her going on the odd shopping trip with her mum, should I be paying for it ?
also is it reasonable (first timer with nanny) to ask a nanny to clear up after herself and kids. if kids were in a nursery i would come home to a house exactly how i left it in the morning. i dont mind so much toys being left out but clearing up in kitchen and dining room after meals is a biggie and ensuring cooker is left clean(ish) and surfaces left wiped down etc...thoughts?

Of course she should clean up after meals. We had a lazy nanny who just left everything - we would come home to not only the lunch and dinner stuff on the table, but toys all over the sitting room floor. She absolutely should clear up after herself and any mess she has made. This would bother me a lot more than trips out with her mother. The last thing you need to do when you get in is start cleaning up someone else's mess.

You need to be firm on this issue - we were probably a bit lax and our nanny just got worse and worse and we ended up sacking her.

i think you're right. a firm hand needed. we dont want to get too heavy handed with her as she is cheap, on the other hand, we are paying her a wage to do a job.

Yes, she should clean up as she goes.

Re the mileage: I'd be prepared to pay for any expenses our nanny incurs in doing things for the children (e.g. taking them out to lunch or to play etc) but would not pay for a shopping trip on which my DCs tagged along. Working hours should be used for the benefit of my DCs, and while the odd errand is fine and often unavoidable, a shopping trip with mum sounds like she was having a nice day out and the kids were tagging along.

I think you need to be quite firm: if she's newly employed this could be the thin end of the wedge.

yes she should tidy up after herself

if i had people in my house, i would expect it to be left in the state i left it in, so same goes for work

milage can be tricky, sounds like she was doing a trip for her/her mum and tbh you shouldnt pay

but if you didnt make clear at the beginning then maybe pay this time but have a chat about milegae and what you will happily pay for

ie anything that benifits the children

If she went there for personal errands then you shouldn't pay.

Of course she should clear up after herself and dcs.

If your nanny took your children to the shops to entertain them (this time of year shopping centres can be quite fun with their animated xmas scenes and visit Santa, plus all the xmas decorations to look at) would you pay the mileage?

If they happened to bump into her mum whilst at the shops, would you still pay the mileage?

My guess is that you probably would in both the above but once the trip involves picking mum up from her home and taking her to the shops, then that's where it becomes an issue - would that be right?

Is having her mum tag along on trips out a good thing? I would expect not in most cases - exceptions being things like themeparks, where having more than one adult can help a lot.

Deep cleaning would not be part of a nannies usual job. General tidying as they went along would be. However with children do get sidetracked quickly... you may be rushing after breakfast to get children dressed and off to school. So dirty things may sit around a while.

Children at home make a mess... it's what children do best. They can be encouraged to tidy up from a young age, nanny can assist with that.

So yes, have a word about general tidying but try not to insist that all toys are away when you get home from work, as you want your children to be entertained by toys rather than TV I expect.

Cleaning the cooker is not really part of nanny duties - though a quick wipe every now and then does help to keep the top reasonable.

Keep in mind that your standard of tidying may be somewhat different to your nannies. Not everyone is a very tidy person. Certainly have a word about it but don't expect the standard to match your's... it may well be that your nanny is fairly untidy and doesn't 'see' things that need tidying away.

i do realise that same as having a cleaner or any other employee, not everyone would do things the way that i do things. and i do not worry about toys being put away that is not a problem.
when i say clean cooker, i dont want to see her on hands and knees scrubbing the oven, but if something boils over whilst on the hob or cheese melts into grill pan whilst making cheese on toast, i would expect her to wipe it up.
i also know only too well that its not always easy to get around to tidying/cleaning whilst there are two kids to look after...it was MY job to do that up until now, but at the same time, if I wasnt doing my (paid) job to my boss' satisfaction, she would not hold back in telling me so.
I dont mind cutting her a bit of slack i think but i was curious to see where people would draw the line.
i'm also aware that our nanny hated her previous boss (in a nursery) and was fed up with how constraining it was being in that environment, so we wanted her to konw that doing the odd semi-personal thing was ok from time to time. and i also want my kids to realise that its not always gonig to be all about what they want to do whether they are in my care or hers.
each time she does go somewhere with her mum it does involve collecting her and dropping her back home as she does not drive. in some respects it may help her to have her mum around as she is a first time nanny. But, if she can't manage on her own, i guess she should not be doing the job...then I'm in trouble!

if I wasnt doing my (paid) job to my boss' satisfaction, she would not hold back in telling me so.

Thus why I feel you do need to say something. It then gives her the opportunity to improve.
If things do not improve the you can start more formal disciplinary procedures, should that become necessary.

if she can't manage on her own, i guess she should not be doing the job

Yes that is a worry. It's not as though they were going to a themepark where there are rides which one child can do and the other can't, thus another adult is very useful to care for the child that can't go on that ride.

Perhaps have a limit on how much contact there is with her mum during working hours. Maybe say 1 day a month.

I think the line is drawn in differnet places for different employers so as NN suggests, talk to her...

I often tidy up after my employer in the morning as they are usually in a rush e.g. wash pans, empty and re-load dishwasher, wipe surfaces just so I can use things and it would then bother me if they asked me to leave the place completely sparkly and clean every day when I left or got annoyed if I forgot to wipe up a small spill (though I always leave it better than I found it!).

So I suppose right now we have blurry line but works for us. Sounds like you are leaving it tidy and nanny leaving it messy though- that would drive me mad.

I second the needing to talk to her, both in terms of giving her a chance to improve and also in terms of initiating disciplinary procedures/as a backup for a reference. If she doesn't improve and you let her go because she's so untidy it annoys you then you need to have raised it in a discussion with her (keep notes of all discussion btw, however friendly) before you can mention it in a reference.

Tidying up after yourself is common courtesy but, from what I've observed, not doing that is a common failing in nannies who come from a nursery environment where there are assigned jobs (such as cleaning) and adapting to multitasking as a nanny can be a challenge. I don't mean to imply that all ex-nursery nannies are incompetent by this, but that there's a tendency to prioritise children over cleaning which means that tidying up can slide. Unlike in a nursery there isn't a set cleaning up time/slot for tidying away at the end of the day. The good news is that once it's pointed out it's easily fixed.

Likewise defining the lines of how much time is acceptable to spend with her mother/on personal errands may need to be made more explicit than for an experienced nanny. It's lovely that she has a strong relationship with her mother and that she's treating your DCs almost as an extension of her own family but if you're not happy with it you need to say so. It may be nothing to do with her experience though - some bosses are happy with having that extended family relationship, some aren't. With each family it's a equilibrium that every nanny has to renegotiate at the beginning of a position.

Do you have a house rules document? Both the state of the house (i.e. leave it as you found it) and 'personal trips' should be covered in this. I've specified in mine that 2 hours a week are allowed, but only if the interests of the children are met at all times. In terms of time spent with her mother - I agree with GFAM - depends on relationship with the mum. My nanny takes my kids over to see her grandma - it's definitely an outing for the kids and they adore going over to see her, so I have no probs there.

hi, I have been a nanny for 15 years, been with one family for 8 years and another 5 years, (both full time) whilst employed by these families, I every other week took the children to my parents home, where they had their own toy box and were given lunch/tea(even came to overnight stays through one reason or another) My bosses never complained about me charging mileage for this to happen and always thought it was lovely. If however then its for the nanny and her Mum to roam around the shops whilst A you are paying her to look after your children and B for her mum to join her then its a different matter!! as to the cooker, If when I am cooking I Would clean up after myself. hope that helps.