nanny's meals & contracts

[monkeyboys]

it's my first time posting here - i've eventually found my way here while looking for our first nanny who fingers crossed, we've finslly found! no pressure, only back at work in 4weeks eh? (!)

we're just at the stage of drawing up contracts - hooray! unfortunately we had to go through anagency in the end - i say unfortunately because of their charges rather than the hopefully lovely nanny they've found us. quite an easy job for them really - they sent one applicant to us and she seems perfect for us, esp compared to the others i've seen/spoken to.

aaaanyway, my question was about nanny's meals. when we asked at the interview, she said of course she eats with the boys. that's fine by us - we're not going to quibble over an extra sandwich/portion of bolognaise etc etc. but the contract the agency have sent us says under benefits nanny receives 'all meals'. does it need to be that formal? and does that mean if they go out for the day say, we'll get billed for any food bought? is that normal?? we're so new (and naive!) to this. hubby says that in no other job would an employee be fed - he's got a point but we both agree this isn't just another employee. we've asked for packed lunches wherever possible. i might just get rid of the whole paragraph but thought i'd ask advice as you seem like a much more seasoned bunch than me

any other top tips for the contract???

IME for a day nanny, all meals that nanny has whilst working are paid for by the employer. For a live-in nanny, it is all meals whilst working and any other meals eaten at home, (i.e. everything except for meals she eats outside the home when she is not working).

HTH

OUr contract says (to the effect of) the nanny can help herself to whatever snacks she wants during the day, and we expect her to help herself to lunch at our place. Sometimes they do this, sometimes they bring there own food, it really varies. We've never had one eat us out of house and home - and I've never heard anyone else speak of that !!! - although current one makes a bit too much food for DD, so there is sometimes wasteage in that regard.

You can certainly say, take a packed lunch on outings.

nanny is a daily nanny.

A live in nanny will expect all meals to be paid for except when she is out and about on her days off. If she goes out for the day with the charges her meals will also be paid for by you. The same applies for a live out nanny during working hours all meals provided by you.

I appreciate that your DH is saying on no other job would an employer pay for meals, but in nannying this is the way it is and although you are employing someone the regular office type employee employer rules dont work.

On your specific question about days out, yes, cost of nanny's lunch (or whatever meals involved) would normally be met by employer. Most employers do a cash float system for expenses - nanny's lunch would usually come out of that.

Is she going to be live-in or live-out?

Also, if she has (nanny)friends over you normally pay for their food -not nec prawns and smoked salmon! In most situations this would be off set by reciprocal invitations but worth knowing.

sorry, didn't mention, she's a live out nanny (i value our guest bedroom too much!).

thanks for the quick responses so far - if its normal that's fine. like i said we weren't going to quibble but just nice to know what's the 'norm' and expected so we're not unpleasantly surprised by it iyswim? dh knows the nanny/parent relationship is very differnt to that with his office workers, he was definitely different in the last few interviews we did (relaxed, himself) than the first one (formal, interviewer hat on)!!

have also talked about having friends over/going to other friends. we've said its fine as long as its not all one way and we'd quite like that to happen as it'll be nice for the boys. don't expect my friends to bring a pack lunch with them on a play date for the boys so why is this any different??

lol at the nanny eating us out of house and home - i'd like to see here try with the amount of food in this house

I think my contract says something like all meals (normally but not always prepared and consumed at employer's home) provided by employer. In other words, I provide the food, but that is not a free ticket to eat out whenever you want.

it was exactly the legoland type of scenario i was thinking of jura! are you in surrey or hampshire too btw? god this site is confusing to a technophobe!

Be careful, though. The food bill can quite easily get out of control. I run a "you write it on the list and I buy it" system. If I didn't, the food bill would easily be another £100 per week. Easily! So, I wouldn't regard this as quibbling.

I generally like my nanny to pack lunches not only because they are moreeconomical but also because they are more nutritious.

another £100????? our weekly bill is not much more than that for a family of 4 (with a 2yr old and 8month old in nappies!)

have already agreed to get her to write a list and we'll then internet shop the bulk of it. fresh fruit, veg, milk, bread can then be picked up by either of us as necessary - allows some flexibility and if it gets out of hand, then i'll be doing that all the time.

it's a minefied isn't it??

Hi Monkeyboys,
Not about the food but about your comment about "unfortunately" having to use an agency because of their cost and "quite an easy job for them, as they only sent one applicant"

Well they were obviously worth every penny, as the one they sent you was the "perfect" choice to use your words.

I would be more sceptical of the agencies that send half a dozen or more CV's or applicants as they obviously have not done their job by matching the family and nanny. IMO that would be an easy job of charging a few hundred pounds for sending you a load of CV's....

Agencies can't seem to get it right, can they?

Our current nanny - who is lovely, so I'm treading lightly with her on it - will pretty much spend the full £20 I leave on food if I ask her to go to the store unless I'm really specific. It's not that she's buying stuff for herself or junk food, it's just more like: this would be nice, we could make this etc. Which is fine, to a point, but in line with what Jura and Eleu were saying, it's not something I could have happening three days a week.

TO clarify: i didn't mean bring packed lunches round to friends houses or vice versa, it's more what Jura said, when there is a trip out somewhere extras like food can add up as well.

I spend £150 per week on food for DD (almost 5), who eats like a bird, DS, who eats like a normal 2-3 year old, DH, who works away Mon-Fri, nanny, and me. I am always being moaned at for not having any food in the house. I open the fridge, and point out there wouldn't be anywhere to put anything if I did buy it cause frigde is full.

What they mean is "the food that I want right here right now is not already prepared sitting in the fridge waiting for me to heat it up in the microwave". No, of course not. Someone has to cook it?

arrgh, seem to have got myself misunderstood on a few points.

wakeuppeople, i agree the agenct were worth every penny - there is no way we would have found this nanny by ourselves (only registered with agencies) and her personality seems to suit ours perfectly. its just a shame i couldn't have saved the not insubstantial fees (10% of her yearly wage)!! my 'unfortunately' was purely about the extra money oin a perfect world rather than their work for us.

harriet the spy, i didn't think you meant pack lunches to friends house, i meant we had already discussed friends coming round and having food (and vice versa). i did take you to mean big trips out as it seems you meant.

eleusis, thats about what our weekly shope is for a 2 yr old that eats not far off what i do, an 8 month old that is variable, a husband that is here most nights and of course me (who is still ravenous from breastfeeding!). maybe its dh's - mine always moans about not enough food in the house too despite there clearly being plenty of it - sigh....

Hi monkeyboys, welcome to this section of mumsnet... not seen you around before

I'm a nanny and I work in Surrey (just about), actually right on the Surrey/Berkshire border. Sounds like you may be in a similar area, if so do feel free to contact me directly, if your nanny would like to meet another local nanny (I care for children aged 9mths, 3yrs, 4yrs and 9yrs - older two at school most of the time).

In my contract, I have all meals whilst on duty. I work 7.45am to 5.45pm, so my employer provides lunch and tea - both of which are eaten with the children, and which are typically the same as the children. My employer does not get any food especially for me... I just use whatever is available in the home, which I will occasionally supplement with things from the local farm shop (for example, got to work this morning to find that only veg left were two leaks and some potatoes... so will get a few carrots and other veg from the farm shop to tide us over until the veg box delivery).

Outings, we go to Legoland (it's open in a few weeks ), Lookout, Coral Reef, Windsor Great Park and various other places. Legoland usually involves taking a packed lunch, though sometimes we will splash out and get children's fish fingers meal deal (as a annual pass holder, we get some discount on meals). This comes out of my weekly kitty (£20), so it can be a large amount of the weekly kitty. I always go to Legoland with a friend (much easier having 2 adults and a group of children), so we take it in turn to buy adult things like Coffee - this I use my own money for. Legoland passes I pay for myself... would be nice if my employer would buy those, but it's a big expense, and I don't have to go to Legoland.

So as others have said, allocate a weekly kitty for activities/eating out, and let your nanny decide what to spend it on. Once it's spent, no more money till beginning of the next week... your nanny will soon learn to budget for things, plus finding cheap or even free activities to do!

I met an agency owner recently, who said that she sent just one nanny for interview with a parent, and the nanny got the job. I wonder if you are the parent concerned... could be, if you are local.

10% of a yearly wage!!! I'm sure she's worth every penny and it's great you've found someone you are really happy with - but ouch! Am vowing never to complain about nursery etc 'administration' fees ever again!

Are agencies really charging 10% of yearly salary as placement fee. Gosh, didn't know it had got to that high... placement fee could easily be £2000+. Mind you, advertising costs can be high, so finding suitable candidates and finding parents looking for nannies, could be costing quite a bit in terms of ad-spend.

£2000! Fuck me, I'm in the wrong business.

i think it varies massively from agency to agency. we only contacted 2 relatively local ones - one was 10% (they said gross, dh haggled to net) and the other was a standard £800. plus VAT on top of course... not exactly cheap, but i put adverts on NJ myself and hadn't found someone suitable so far (well we did, then it fell through etc etc). and the more pricey agency seemed to match us better than the other agency, so i guess we got what we would have been paying for. not going to dwell on it tbh, whats done is done (very luckily and efficiently i must say). 14% though???? jesus, i thought 10% was bad enough! no wonder one of the nannies we interviewed had her own agency running as a sideline at one point!

nannynick, lol, i had images of you in a cowboy hat smoking a cigar drawling 'not seen you round these parts' while you slowly tapped your cowboy boots on the floor . its a small world if that is us the nanny agency owner was talking about (HPI?) - hope it was a nice conversation . i'm not sure how to contact you directly but definitely sounds like we're in the same area - i'm on the hamps/surrey/surrey borders. not sure how many contacts nanny has, i know she's mentioned at least one so far... your meal arrangment sounds exactly like the sort of arrangemet i thought was fair, was expecting more things for the boys on the grocery list than for nanny. occassional thing, fine. if its in the house, fine. just want things to be reasonable and fair for all of us. damn these rose tinted glasses!