Writing no phone use into a nanny contract

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what a pot was stirred! It’s scary how addicted some of you are to your phones. It’s unhealthy and this thread proved it.

+ 1. And why parents choose daycare. Daycare workers aren’t allowed on their phones and they earn minimum wage.

This and other reasons why we choose preschool as soon as possible. At least somebody was watching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow! So much hair on fire! We have three candidates, all who know our conditions on phone use, interested in the position - all college graduates with teaching experience.

We have a full time housekeeper to guarantee nanny’s breaks when my child has stopped napping; a house landline to contact nanny with any emergencies and, of course, her phone connected to her new watch. If she must make a call, she will be able to ask our housekeeper to stay with our child and step away.

You people are truly insane. Millions of people don’t keep their phones in their hands when working.

Thanks for the few who actually addressed my concerns. We will mention it in the contract as part of our working agreement.

We know OP is trolling because the original post says “We want to make it clear upfront that we will not accept any phone use when out baby is awake. We plan to put it in our ad and mention it during interviews,” but now she’s saying they already have three college-educated candidates who agree with the policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a nanny and work for an extremely high profile family. I can’t even bring my phone into their home, I check it in with security. I get it back 11 hours later, after my shift. I have a nanny phone. Honestly it has made me a more engaged nanny as I used to mindlessly scroll while the kids played independently. Now at this job I don’t have that option. Sucks that I won’t know about emergencies until after my shift, but that’s the job I chose. I’m also paid 120k a year which I’m sure is way more than op is paying.

Op - if this is you, and you have a security detail and want to provide not just a watch but a second phone that you then have your staff go over, and pay wages like this, it sounds great. That way your nanny can also take lovely sweet pictures of your baby that only for sure ever reach you, keep you updated ad have a way to be reached by your other staff if there is a terrible emergency.

If this is not you, I’d strongly suggest saying this is what you would like and why and not actually putting it in the contact, and getting someone who you trust will really do this. This will create a much better setup. You must trust your nanny; you are giving then responsibility for your child, the most precious thing in the world. If you don’t trust them to be judicious on this point with you, why trust them to be serious about your child’s safety? I mean are you also putting it into your contract that the nanny will not drop the baby while he/she is awake (or asleep)?

Perhaps more productively we had a former Waldorf school teacher as a nanny so the no electronics idea was a given. You can find this and also will need to pay appropriately to show you respect the skill set and commitment to your wishes. But you need to shift your mindset about how to use your contract and how to create a trusting productive relationship that is optimal for your child. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

We are talking about the nanny. But what about the poor kid? Can you imagine the type of damage the OP will inflict on this poor child over the years. I’m not a nanny. I’m a mom of five adult kids. OP, unless you get serious mental health treatment, your poor kid is screwed.

[Anonymous]

It's neglect and illegal if the nanny is on the phone while watching children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm with you. We've always hired older nannies for this very reason. I cannot handle young kids always on their phones never paying attention to or engaged with kids. I used to see it all the time with nannies at parks and playgrounds. Parents never have a clue and always told me how great their nannies were. Yup.

My advice is to hire an older nanny who may not be as addicted to social media/apps all day (or whose greatest concern is going out at night and meeting people). We hired a nanny at age 55 and she's been with us 10 years. Never had any phone/technology/missed work issues. We count ourselves lucky.

Are you sure? I see plenty of older nannies at the park sitting on the bench with their phones. And I see plenty of younger nannies....not doing that.

Exactly. Older people are just as if not moreso 'addicted".

Yep my 62yo former nanny was really into Facebook. Granted, she mostly was on it when the baby napped, so I didn't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We want to make it clear upfront that we will not accept any phone use when out baby is awake. We plan to put it in our ad and mention it during interviews. As suggested here, we plan to give our new nanny a new Apple Watch for emergencies. We are sure of our decision so no need to debate.

My question is how to include no phone use in a contract? Just state agreed to expectations or under cause for dismissal? Or after the ad, the interview and our reminding nanny, is it necessary to put into the contract at all?

You'd better be paying $100/hr. No phone use is unreasonable and unrealistic. No one will accept your insanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's neglect and illegal if the nanny is on the phone while watching children.

I hope my office puts this rule into effect and no personal phone calls ever exept a death. I am so sick of both men and women talking to their spouses, kids, nannies.

[Anonymous]

Come back and tell us what happened, OP! Did you find someone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's neglect and illegal if the nanny is on the phone while watching children.

No it’s not. You are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's neglect and illegal if the nanny is on the phone while watching children.

Please provide the penal code or law which states that a nanny being on the phone while watch watching children is illegal.

We'll wait. 🤡

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like two nightmare, socially awkward, control freak, Aspergers type people. Ugh.

No, it actually doesn't sound like that at all. Please don't use this as a fun word for forum replies when you don't actually know what it means. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTF! She isn’t allowed to use her phone AT ALL? I am a SAHM and use my phone a lot. Pulling up nursery rhymes on you tube to dance around with the baby. Checking the temp and radar before going for a walk to see if I’ll need an umbrella. Taking pictures when the baby does something cute. Googling a question about how to use a product or something.

Hire a nanny you trust and then trust her to use her judgement. Banning her from using a phone at all, ever, seems insane. If you hire someone who is scrolling social media for hours, then fire her, but you sound awful.

No, not when the baby is awake. She’ll have full breaks when he’s asleep as she’ll have no “chores”. She can pull up the weather, etc on her watch.

I assure you I am not awful. I’m simply not addicted to my phone.

“Full breaks” while your child is napping??
A full break means she can leave your home for lunch, maybe meet a girlfriend or run a few errands too.
And she won’t have to have a listening ear into the baby monitor in case your child has a nightmare & awakens suddenly.

[Anonymous]

Please com back and tell us what happened , Op!

[Anonymous]

So much hair on fire on this thread. We are not allowed to be on our phones at work. It’s normal. But OP is now confronting a common nanny problem.
Nannies talk on their phones, watch TV, visit other nannies, drag your kid to their second job snd on and on. I was very glad to end the nanny phase of my life. We did preschool instead.
Surprisingly the pre school principal didn’t allow constant phone use while watching our kids. Shocking !