Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Sorry if this offends anyone but...... 'plump' nannies?

255 replies

sunnyjim · 12/02/2007 21:26

Is it just us or are nanny's generally 'plump'? (okay in this specific case I'm talking fat really, size 18+)

We have a new nanny, not started yet, but doing the odd half day alongside me to check that we all get along.

I just have concerns about her ability to deal with DS (active 22 month old) on a day to day basis. She finds it difficult to get up or down from the floor and I found I had to slow my pace massively when we went out to the park today.

I guess a part of me thinks that if she has a weight problem, does this reflect in her willpower/ self motivation in other areas?
Will she feed him decent food?
Will she take him to active sporty things (which he loves) or focus on sitting sitll crafty things (which he hates)

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
morningpaper · 15/02/2007 20:01

I'm a size 10 but on the overweight on the bloody BMI charts in the Doctors

bastards

that's because I am about 10 inches high I think

stupid charts

willow2 · 15/02/2007 20:19

That's bloody enormous for an oompah loompah. Get a grip.

Blu · 15/02/2007 20:45

To comment solely on "a fat person isn't, in all honesty, going to be able to get up & down from the floor." rather than the OP - have you ever watched sumo wrestlers on tv??
LOL at SueJonez ROFLATGUAGWC

Blu · 15/02/2007 20:48

Actually I fall into the apparantly sainted Ideal nanny size 14 bracket - and I can't bloody well get very far off the floor these days.
That is because my perfect nanny material active, sporty and adventurous nature led me to sustain an undignified injury at a circus.

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:07

Oh Blu - you can't stop there... do tell... were you employed by the circus at the time?

MrsJohnCusack · 15/02/2007 22:15

oh FFS - I promised I wouldn't post on this again but I have itchy fingers

YES the OP is perfectly entitled to not employ a nanny she doesn't think is physically able to look after her child for whatever reason.

What WAS offensive was the extrapolation to 'are nanny's generally 'plump' etc.' (what ALL of them just because this one is?) and 'does this reflect in her willpower/self motivation in other areas' and 'will she feed him decent food'.
If people can't see WHY this might get people's backs up then I despair really.

And there's no point then later coming back saying 'well what I actually meant was this, and this' and getting cross when people aren't psychic and don't understand what you actually meant wasn't quite what was originally written - we can only comment on what is actually written and if that's not clear from the outset, then too bad. Further explanation did make it all a bit clearer but I still think the original post and title came across as extremely inflammatory.

Now PLEASE don't let me post on here again.

willow2 · 15/02/2007 22:16

Re' surviving heart attacks whilst morbidly obese (v obese, which is a different thing)... that's presuming the ambulance crew can get you on a stretcher, carry you out of the house and actually get you to the hospital?

Bollocks. When you are the size I am talking about your health is at grave risk and there is no way that you would be more likely to survive than someone of average weight. But I will check with my trauma surgeon mate tomorrow if needs be.

willow2 · 15/02/2007 22:17

Oh God Blu, you're not still suffering the aftershocks of Zippos, are you?

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:19

OP didn't say her nanny (I presume now ex-nanny) was morbidly obese she said she was size 18+.

willow2 · 15/02/2007 22:22

Sorry. Presumed you were referring to my earlier post as it ws the only one to have mentioned the risk of heart attack. My mistake.

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:23

and I would presume (perhaps incorrectly) that the study looked at all heart attacks didn;t ignore those where the person was so enormous that they couldn;t lift the strecther though I doubt that sample size would have been statistically significant anyway.

And I'm not suggesting from that study that its healthy to be overweight that depends on many things.

A doctor once told me that the biggest determinant of how long you lived (though not necessarily how healthy you were) was what age your parents lived to ie genetics. Complete aside but I'd love to know if this were true.

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:24

no willow wasn't addressed at you

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:25

MrsJC - STAY AWAY FROM THIS THREAD, there's a good girl. It's not good for your blood pressure in your condition.

jajas · 15/02/2007 22:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:31

partly it depends on their BMI which is their weight divided by the square root of thier height less inside leg measurement then takeaway the number you first thought of. Or something like that.

suejonez · 15/02/2007 22:32

Also they have discovered that things like heart disease are more dependant on your shape rather than your size eg apple shape more likely than pear or hour glass to have a heart attack.

krabbiepatty · 15/02/2007 22:39

I know this is wildly off-topic but are nannies really getting more than £9 net per hour (after tax and NI)? - a nanny candidate seemed to think this was not competitive. I know this has nothing to do with weight, but at least this thread is getting attention,. Anyway most grateful for any thoughts, excuse hijack...

Caligula · 15/02/2007 22:50

I think the fat ones are getting more than that kp. They get paid by weight. The plumper the nanny, the higher the hourly rate.

MamazonAKAfatty · 15/02/2007 22:57

as us fatties cannot control ourselves mybre its good that we can't find employment. i mean who wants to offer a job to a lard arse that can't get off the floor?

at least if we don't work we can't afford the cakes and biscuits we shovel into our mouths

krabbiepatty · 15/02/2007 22:57

Ah, thank you Caligula. I couldn't tell how fat this one was through cyberspace; she must have been huge. I will have to get a very low BMI one, possibly a supermoggle.

suejonez · 15/02/2007 23:03

lol krabbie - if only I were paid by weight [wistful emoticon]

sunnyjim · 15/02/2007 23:22

"And there's no point then later coming back saying 'well what I actually meant was this, and this' and getting cross when people aren't psychic and don't understand what you actually meant wasn't quite what was originally written"

Ah so glad you've cleared up the matter for me, I was brought up to believe there was a point to apologising if you realised you had got something wrong and offended people. I wasn't cross about people not being psychic, I was a bit cross that people seemed unable to accept a genuine apology for an illthought out original post title and content.

thanks to those poster who realise that I wasn't making comemnts abotu plus sized people in general, I was making comments about my concerns with this one specific person based on observation.
here's what I observed;
She is very large - tbh I'd say probably a size 24+
She struggles with basic physical movements like getting up from the floor
She walks slowly.
She can't get onto the pushbike.
She found it too far to walk DS to the softplay zone we go to.
She continued to discuss 'sitting still' type activities such as crafts sessions even after I had specified that DS is a physical learner and prefers active play
Despite having been told my views on not having sweet things out to 'tempt' DS she left a sugar bowl (which she had poured out) within reach of his high chair.

Now for the bit which will get people's backs up, I do draw conclusions based on someones weight. If you are a size 18+ SOMETHING must be causing you to carry that additional weight. I studies fat and nutrition and although there are some conditions which lead to difficulty in losing weight/regulating appeitie they are very rare. If this nanny has such a health issue I would have hoped she would fill it in on that section of the job file, int he same way I'd want someone to fill in epilepsy, wheat free diet etc.

So as I ahvn't been told about any health condition that is seriuos enough to cause her to carry an excess weight of around 8 stones I can only assume that its down to the basic equation beign mismanaged. You know the one, energy in (food)- energy out (exercise).

So somehwere in her life she isn't 'balancing the books'. Now this is ONLY a concern because of the helaht /fitness implications. I don;t care a tot if she is plump and fit and healthy but the weight is visibly affecting her ability to be active.

So despite it affecting her health and physical ability she has been unable (so far) to do anything about it. Is that ignorance of healthier eaitng habits? lack of willpower? dislike of exercise? bad psychological issues meaning she comfort eats? or something else?

I'm sorry but for a person who is going to be spending 40 hrs a week with DS I want them to be a role model for healthy active enjoyment of life. None of the possible reasons behind her excess weight I gave above are particularly healthy. Now if someone can give me a healthy reason why she might be this overweight that would be great, I can't think of one and so I am concerned both about her ability to do the job and the role model she would present for my son - who strangly enough I DON'T want to grow up Obese.

OP posts:
MamazonAKAfatty · 15/02/2007 23:29

im a size 24.

i have two VERY active children. a 2yo DD and a 6yo with HFA and ADHD.

we take walks in the park, go for rides on our bikes, trips to farms, play football, run about chasing each other...etc etc.

they also eat well and are very healthy.
I am overeight because i deliberatly put on huge amounts of weight whilst with my abusive ex partner and i am now finding better things to do with my day than stress over fitting into a size 10.

Not every "plump" person spends their day in Mcdonalds!

MrsJohnCusack · 15/02/2007 23:50

'thanks to those poster who realise that I wasn't making comemnts abotu plus sized people in general, I was making comments about my concerns with this one specific person based on observation'

Sorry - I must have totally misunderstood your original 'Is it just us or are nanny's generally 'plump'? (okay in this specific case I'm talking fat really, size 18+)'

That IS making a comment about plus sized people (well, nannies) in general. That's WHY people got offended

Anyway, don't employ her. Problem solved.

And I'm sorry & apologise I didn't recognise your apology. Yes it was big of you to say it wasn't well thought out in the first place. My last comment was probably directed more at other posters on the thread who I thought were missing the point I'd made.

mishmash · 16/02/2007 01:06

Is it not a case of "Swings and Roundabouts"

Read the earlier post butnot latest ones.

OP - we had a nanny who was slim and trim but was as slow as Christmas. Everything was in slow motion and when she got pregnant it sssllllllllloooooooowwwwwwwweeeeeeeddddddddddddd to below snails paste - so I think it really is the person and not the build that makes a good nanny. "Build" as I put could be a size 18 as in being big boned.

However if you are concerned about health risks then I would look carefully at it.

I don't think OP meant any offence to anyone