Did you settle when hiring your nanny?

[Anonymous]

Kids can eat sandwiches or other simple foods. I think I was well into school years before I ate something for lunch that wasn't a sandwich--and it was only because I bought my lunch at school. Kids don't need fancy meals, so that should be a pretty low priority overall. If you find someone (like me) can and enjoys cooking, then great, but I'm not sure that should be the dealbreaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for a new full time nanny since our current nanny needs to move out of state. We have probably interviewed 20 nannies by now and can’t seem to find exactly what we are looking for. Maybe we just got really lucky the first time around, but I am am very curious - do most people end up settling or compromising on what they really want when hiring a nanny, or have you found someone who checks every single box on your list?

I think what makes it hard is that we know exactly what we want based on what our current nanny does for us, and maybe she just goes way above and beyond?

For example, we found one nanny we like but she doesn’t cook. She said she can make kid basics like mac n cheese or spaghetti but we would ideally prefer someone who can make more than just that.

Another nanny billed herself as very neat and organized but both of her references said she wasn’t so great at cleaning up after the kids but they didn’t care because she was so much fun.

A couple seemed great and met almost all our needs except they have younger kids of their own and can’t start before 8:30am, which is too late for us because we need someone who can arrive by 8am.

Is your nanny mostly perfect or is compromising the norm?

Nanny here- Is she a nanny 30+? I ask because I’m a nanny and many nannies tell employers they can only cook basic meals, because of job creep. I’ve been to culinary school and never put that on my resume or tell parents, because then they expect that you are also an unpaid chef for the parents or happy to do complicated meal prep or make family meals - for no extra pay. If you nanny is in her early 20’s it’s possible she can’t cook, but most nannies know how to cook but we always just say ‘basic meals’ in interviews due to abuse from previous employers. I’m pretty sure she knows how to cook a chicken breast, but so many families expect mini gourmet meals for kids and a whole bunch of other family cooking, so it’s in our best interest to say we can only do basic cooking. It weeds out a lot of families. I would never say I only make frozen meals, but I do say I can cook basic healthy meals FOR THE CHILDREN.

This is such a good point. I’ve seen families just start adding onto the nanny’s tasks abd convince themselves it’s NBD. Cooking meals for a family takes more than twice as much time as cooking for the children. I’ve also seen families start mixing laundry because it’s NBD for the nanny to run a family wash while the kid naps. Pretty soon she’s expected to fold too and the parents are annoyed if things get hectic one day and dinner’s not ready for them when they get home.

Nanny here- During pandemic my boss has gotten used to having an unpaid personal chef. Now she is visibly disappointed when I don’t make complicated meals according to her tastes and preferences. Once i realized my efforts weren’t appreciated and were now expected, I stopped making meals catering to her, and now just cook meals for the kids.