anyone else feel they should tidy up before their nanny comes round?

[nowwearefour]

i just found myself compulsively cleaning/ tidying my (admittedly not perfect) house before my nanny comes tomorrow. i am the least house proud person i know. i cant believe i am acting like this. am i alone? should i be doing this? (it isnt that bad- wouldnt be horrible for her to work or anything if i hadnt done my rushing around!!)

my bosses most definitely do not tidy up in anticipation of me arriving

It is irritating as a nanny if you feel you have to do lots of tidying or washing up before you can get on with your day.

I have always left the house clean and tidy for our nanny arriving. Perhaps the odd breakfast thing is left waiting to be loaded into the dishwashed if it is on, but otherwise the house is tidy.

It is her place of work afterall and it would be pretty crap to arrive faced with a midden each day.

It also helps to set the standard that the house is left in at the end of the day, I find, when it is equally lovely to come home at the end of the day to a nice tidy house

I have noted that when the nanny is coming in DH runs around putting all the breakfast things away (including all his foul porridge making stuff) but when I am at home he walks out leaving his trail of destruction behind him!

Naughty, naughty, naughty!

Our nanny is faced with a midden, but all I can say is it is much much less of a midden than it was before dh and I attacked it in the 2 hours before she gets here.

Oh, Soapbox, I now have a vision of you wagging your finger at us in the manner of Lucinda from the Aprentice

This hit a very raw nerve as we came home to a spotless house yesterday (and with all the kids' ironing done, despite having two charges instead of one because of the half term hols); and DH & I then proceded to crash out early leaving the dinner plates. Came downstairs this morning and had to apologise profusely to the nanny, who had already loaded the dishwasher and wiped down, before even taking off her jacket , so 'it could be out of the way before the kids get up'. I am such a scumbag mummy and definately do not deserve her.

nannies dont expect nor want a spotless house ( we all make a bit of mess ) [wink}

but

nothing annoys the nanny more than having to tidy up after employers esp in the morning ( ie all their unwashed dinner/breakfast plates) left on side - not even placed in empty dishwasher!!

Nowwewrefour - please dont stress yourself out, the tidier you leave it in the beginning, the tidier the nanny will expect it every day - i m sure she saw your house at the interview and if she thought you were that untidy, she would have turned down the job

I refused a job on the grounds that the house was a TIP - and i am sure yours isnt!!

squiffy, buy her some flowers or choc's to say thanks for being such a wonderful nanny. AS a nanny of many years , (and i,m sure i can speak for most nanny's) we dont mind occassionally putting away , doing the dishes etc, but a thank you, always says how much you apricate it and not expect it.

it was left very nice when i came home tonight. so it probably was worth it ! but i wont kill myself over every last thing out of place then....

as a nanny when there really is loads of stuff left out i dont do it either...

they had a big casseroled pot thing left from the weekend that was there for 2 weeks as i refused to wash it, and they didnt get round to washing it.

i am very happy to do
all the washing / clearing up for
EVERYONES breakfast
EVERYONES drink cups etc throughout the day
EVERYONE who is at home at the time lunch stuff
and mine and the childrens dinner stuff from the evening

im NOT happy to do the pots and pans from my bosses dinners in the eveing and their stuff used at the weekends when i am not there... and i dont

(loading / unloading anything at all from the dishwasher doesnt bother me in the slightest though)

the thing is i feel she is there to look after my children not to tidy up my house so feel grateful for even the washingup of lunch things she does when i am not there! some of you are amazing people very kind

who ever makes the mess should tidy it up

i cook lunch, i wash up ( well put in dishwasher)as should your nanny nowwearefour - a nanny isnt there to tidy up after the parents but to look after and tend to the need of the children( and their mess through out the day)

much prefer to load/unlaod dw rather than wash up!!!

have been known to turn down a job as didn't have a dw though to be fair, there were 2 identical jobs with nice parents/hours/same age children etc so I took job with dw