Nanny duties during naps

[ghislaine]

I'm employing a nanny soon for the first time. My son naps about 3-4 hours during the day so I was wondering what I can legitimately ask her to do during that time and what might be off-limits.

So far I've come up with doing his laundry, sorting his clothes and cleaning his bottles. There's no way that'll fill all the time. I know she'll need time for her lunch but there are quite a few hours to fill each day! Could I ask her to cook/prepare food for him to freeze during the week? He has mostly home-made frozen mashed/chopped stuff. Could I ask her to deep clean his high chair? Sponge down the pushchair? Are these the sorts of things nannies would expect to do? I obviously wouldn't ask her to do anything non-child related.

Some nannies I interviewed had a clear list of what they would do eg ironing, emptying dishwasher but with this one we forgot to discuss it and I thought it would be easier to bring it up when she starts.

You are not unreasonable to ask her to do any of those things - they are all things that are about the care of your DS. Certainly I would be expecting her to cook for my child, and also to clean up after him.

I am a nanny and the jobs you describe fit under the title of nursery duties so it's fine and if you've employed an experienced professional nanny, she would do these anyway.

I suggest mentioning these things should be done during sleep periods but allow your nanny to plan how she will fit tasks into her week.

Hi seventh, she'll have a nine hour day so he might spend nearly half of it in his cot!

Thanks for all the suggestions and help so far.

anything child related your nanny should do - by all means mention a b c but allow her to do them when suits her rather then say monday wash, tuesday iron etc

obv your dc must be a young baby so will sleep more but as time goes on will obv sleep less so take that in mind when they get older that some duties may not always be done depending on what you ask

also your nanny will need some relax time to have her lunch/re charge her batteries