Concerns about my nanny

[waterlillie]

We've had a nanny for about 6 months now. Although she is sweet with our daughter, I feel that she is a bit of a slob around the house. We tried to discuss this with her at her last appraisal, but things haven't really changed. By way of example, although my DD (who is 2) is also at nursery three mornings a week (and then sleeps for at least 2 hours over lunch) her washing and ironing always seem to get left to the last minute (and is then done in a bit of a rush), her toys and books are often left lying around at the end of the day, the bin is full of dirty nappies My concern though is that because I rarely spend time at home alone with my DD (I work full time and my DH is around to help out at weekends) I am really not sure if I am expecting too much of our nanny. She has told me that she works flat out, but on the rare occasions that I have been at home during the day I have noticed that she always seems to find time to watch at least an hour of TV (when my DD is sleeping). Wld be grateful for some thoughts from others as to what is reasonable to expect. Also, when a nanny is being paid for a whole day, how much time is it reasonable for her to expect to have free during her working hours?

Wow FredArthur... you are VERY lucky to have a nanny that cleans your house!

i wont do cleaning (i leave it to the cleaners) and i dont know any other nannies that do either!
i do ofcourse sort the childrens rooms and tidy up aftermyself though!, and leave an immaculate kitchen every night

I clean the house sometimes . I get bored when the little one is in bed .

I don't think it's unheard of for a nanny to do cleqning as well. Probably not the norm if you've got 2 under 3s. But not that rare.

Our nanny keeps on top of the washing (and is very good about hanging up adult washing etc as well as kids), cooks adn washes up, clears up all the mess they make (and they make a lot!! - she is fab and they have good fun all day), changes children's beds, does odd bits of shopping (milk etc) and does all the nursery runs when we cant.
The house is always tidy when we come home, though I think that is partly because we also respect her working environment and leave it tidy for her in the morning as best we can with all getting ready to go out.
She has my dd2 all the time, ds afternoons and dd1 after school. Plus all 3 of them in the holidays.
Think yours is taking it easy, tbh.

So sis DH have "a gentle word"?

Oh dear-that should say "did" dh have.....

NannyL, I'm not sure I'm "lucky" that the nanny cleans the house - it was something that I made clear in the initial job advert and discussed at length before hiring the nanny (and part of her pay is specifically for doing that) - and I know several other nannies who do the same. Incidentally, two days a week my kids are both at school or nursery so there are a good 14 hours a week to do this in.

It comes down to the point of what people expect to do - the more a nanny knows what she is asked to do as early as possible in the job, the easier it is for everyone, and the less angry parents get about things not being done or nannies get about being asked to do something they don't think is their job. Don't get me wrong, I think it's perfectly reasonable for a nanny to say she would never do housework, but she needs to make that clear before she takes a job. I also think it would be unreasonable for me to just assume she would do the housework without making it clear that that is part of what she's paid for before she resigned her previous job to come and work for me.

If Waterlillie's nanny is supposed to clear up after the child, she should do that as it's part of her job, and she should do it with as much pride as looking after the child. What I was trying to say is that no one's perfect, and sometimes we put up with some things done less well if the more important thing is done really well.