Is my nanny acting inappropriately here - opinions please

[nannywobbles]

I am a mumsnet regular but I've name-changed for this because I don't want to be identified.

I have recently recruited a new nanny to look after my children, the youngest of whom is 12 months old. We are currently in a 2 week handover period and I am going back to work next week, when she will take sole charge.

Yesterday, I took the older children out for a few hours and left the nanny to take care of the baby. When I returned home, I found her sitting on the sofa watching daytime television (not cbeebies, I mean some kind of game show) with the baby on her lap. She had some toys with her, and I think she was trying to keep the baby entertained whilst watching the television.

Now, my initial reaction was that this is totally inappropriate, but I would really welcome the mumsnet jury's view! Obviously I'm in a state of complete stress anyway what with going back to work and I don't want to overreact here.

I guess the following info might also help:

1. She is a professional nanny with about 5 years experience, and we employ her professionally, i.e. we have a contract, we operate PAYE etc.

1. I said that I wasn't comfortable with her watching TV and she said OK that's fine. Her previous employers were fine with it apparently. I didn't ask her how long the telly had been on for or for how long she would normally watch telly in an average day (I should have done, I know).

1. I never watch daytime telly myself so I suppose I might be in danger of being a bit snobby about it - I mean if she'd been listening to radio 4 then maybe I would feel differently?

1. I do have some reservations about how energetic she will be with the kids, but she's kind and responsive and obviously loves children.

So.... was this completely out of order? Or just a minor issue where different families take different approaches? Please help me put it into proportion!

I worked as a nanny and would never have
even thought of putting the tv on for myself but if she gets no breaks as I did I can understand her doing something like that just to recharge her batteries everyone has different ways of doing this.

If the baby was having a rest and it was your Nanny's break, then I think you could give her the benefit of the doubt. I have stipulated times when I'm happy for the tv to be on and when the children can play computer games etc. I had exactly this problem, however it was founded as even the children mentioned that the Nanny spent more time watching tv or bidding on ebay than looking after them!! We did have a chat about it and all she needed was some guidelines and communication of exactly what our expectations were and she turned out fine.
I think I was guilty of not communicating this in the first place as I thought it would be a difficult subject and assumed she would just take over and carry on looking after the kids exactly the way I did. Maybe she thought that's what I did....watch telly, bid on ebay and spend loads of time on public forums on the computer !!

Its simple though isnt it, Your house your rules.. you are employing her to look after your children and she must act according to your wishes and standards or take another job.

I dont think day time telly is appropriate for anyone actually.. rots the brain...

hi there i use to be a nanny for ten years, i now childmind as my child has started school. when i was working as a nanny i would watch my telly when the children were sleeping and i was eating my lunch or i was doing their ironing. when the children were awake and around i sometimes had the radio on . only stations like magic which don't play songs with bad language., but i mainly had the children's cd's on.

Hopefully your nanny will work out as now she knows your views on daytime tv (and don't forget her ex family didn't mind) and that's why she had it on as had done in a previous job

all familys are different how flexible they are over different things whether tv/food (strix and White bread lol) disapline or how tidy they like things left