Writing no phone use into a nanny contract

[Anonymous]

The phone addiction is real. I leave my phone at home all the time and never think about it. If I am somewhere and have an emergency there are plenty of addicted people around who can help me. I mean, how many emergencies are you people having?

[Anonymous]

I once told a nanny in the park that I noticed she had not glanced away from her phone for a full 20 minutes and did she know the child in her stroller had a bee on its face?

[Anonymous]

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.

Yeah I stayed home for two years and was shocked at the number of nannies on their phones/totally disengaged with kids. And I don’t mean like they checked their phone once or twice or made a call or two. Watching kids can be so boring. I mean just literally sitting for the entire time on the phone, occasionally glancing up to make sure the toddler hadn’t escaped or something.

There is a nanny at our local park who is chatting on her phone every time I see her. I don’t even know who these people are who can chat on the phone with her every day for hours. She pushes the toddler in a stroller and then just lets him sit in it or move around playground while she talks on the phone. In some ways it might be safer than the other nannies who scroll Insta, because at least her eyes are on the child. I’ve only met one nanny at the park who didn’t use her phone and she even told me that her employers were really strict about it. I think the other employers just don’t realize the extent of their nannies’ phone use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A professional and experienced nanny would see this for what it is, a controlling neurotic mother who will micromanage everything. Only a desperate or inexperienced nanny would take this position. Plenty of better jobs available.

This. Just find a professional who understands the bounds of reasonable use. If you pay for an experienced nanny she will understand and not require draconian rules. If you're trying to go cheap and find someone who doesn't know what reasonable phone use looks like, then yeah you may need a contract.

[Anonymous]

Put it in the rules on the contract, completely reasonable, many jobs like drivers require no phones

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put it in the rules on the contract, completely reasonable, many jobs like drivers require no phones

No, drivers can do handsfree.

[Anonymous]

My sister is a high-end nanny ($40 per hour for one kid) and she and her other high-end nannies have no-phone rules in their contracts. I guess if you are paying 18-20/hour you can't ask for much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I once told a nanny in the park that I noticed she had not glanced away from her phone for a full 20 minutes and did she know the child in her stroller had a bee on its face?

Stalker much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I once told a nanny in the park that I noticed she had not glanced away from her phone for a full 20 minutes and did she know the child in her stroller had a bee on its face?

You actually come off as the bad one here...

[Anonymous]

No, she doesn't.

Phone addicts stalking this thread.

[Anonymous]

i have more than once seen a mom (and once a dad) literally fall off the curb with the stroller because they could not bother to look up from their phone. I laughed loudly right at them and received quite the angry look back at me. I laughed even harder.

[Anonymous]

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.

Yeah I stayed home for two years and was shocked at the number of nannies on their phones/totally disengaged with kids. And I don’t mean like they checked their phone once or twice or made a call or two. Watching kids can be so boring. I mean just literally sitting for the entire time on the phone, occasionally glancing up to make sure the toddler hadn’t escaped or something.

What's shocking to me is the amount of time kids are watching things on the phone. Just yesterday I was walking my dog and I saw a little girl (maybe 3ish) on a walk in a stroller hunched over watching a video on her phone wile the mom or nanny was talking on the phone. What was the point of going for the walk??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put it in the rules on the contract, completely reasonable, many jobs like drivers require no phones

No, drivers can do handsfree.

I guess you don't understand that it's not the holding of the phone that creates issues,do you?

[Anonymous]

Have you seen how anguished and fidgety people get when they lose their phone or forget to bring it somewhere ? It's like wacthng a heroin addict go though withdrawal!

[Anonymous]

At least it helps people understand addiction.

--addiction counselor