Writing no phone use into a nanny contract

[Anonymous]

If you feel you need this in the contract it’s a sign to choose a different nanny. OR that you need to work hard on not micromanaging

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Apple Watch doesn’t work unless I’m near my phone.

They have cellular models with its own service plan that don't need to pair with a phone to make or accept calls. I assume this is the model OP plans to give the nanny. I guess the nanny could be reachable on that in an emergency, but she would have to give everyone the number, which would be different from her personal phone number. I doubt OP, who is a control freak, would be down for that.

So then wouldn't OP possibly have the same issues with the nanny being distracted by calls/texts on the Apple watch that she wants to avoid with the phone? Or she can monitor the calls/text on the watch?

[Anonymous]

You'd be much better off here to ask in the interview "Tell me about how you feel about using the phone when caring for the baby?" and repeat their answer back and state your expectations so there is no denying you had a conversation. Then decide based on that.

I would not work for an employer who writes into my contract that I can't check personal email or look at Twitter while at my job (not a nanny).

Not saying it's unreasonable to talk about and set limits here, we've all seen nannies at the park on their phones, but your approach seems draconian.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And she can ask Alexa or Google to pull up any song or rhyme she wants. We have both and Alexa in every room.

Paranoid about reasonable phone usage but ok with Alexa in every room. SMH.

I think you missed OP’s concerns. She clearly isn’t anti-technology and is giving away Apple watches. She just want the nanny engaged and paying attention to her child when the child is awake. Millions of people can’t use their phones while working. And it sounds like the nanny will have breaks during the day.

I really don’t get the nannies-go-berserk uproar. And I do think it’s something we’re going to see more and more.

There are not millions of people who are prohibited from using their phone all day while at work. It was an issue in some warehouses where employees wanted to ban phones because they did not want photos taken of bad conditions on the floor but they have not been very successful enforcing it even in those circumstances. The only people I know who can’t use personal phones at all are people who work on skif facilities and even they can make a personal call from a landline. When I took a cruise even the Philippino deck hands were allowed to use their phone to check in on their families while they were swabbing the deck.
Also it’s developmentally inappropriate for a baby to have someone in their face every waking minute. If you don’t leave them alone for a bit they won’t figure out “gee, if I want that toy I will need to wiggle my body forward until I can reach it..”. That’s why moms always say “I turned my back for one minute and of course that’s when he started rolling over!”

[Anonymous]

so---the nanny can never show your child pictures of themself? Never check the library hours? Bus schedule? When/where the puppet show is (or whatever.) Never check out an ebook from the library? Never find the poem her grandmother read and read it to your child? Really? Devices are here to stay OP--and they're not all evil. Get used to it.

[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.

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".

[Anonymous]

It means your nanny can’t order DoorDash or an Uber. They can’t text a parent that they are running late for a play date. They can’t even check the weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It means your nanny can’t order DoorDash or an Uber. They can’t text a parent that they are running late for a play date. They can’t even check the weather.

I suspect this is OP’s first child and is a very young infant, so OP isn’t thinking through the realities of what these rules will mean a year from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It means your nanny can’t order DoorDash or an Uber. They can’t text a parent that they are running late for a play date. They can’t even check the weather.

I suspect this is OP’s first child and is a very young infant, so OP isn’t thinking through the realities of what these rules will mean a year from now.

She’ll regret it when all the other parents have daily cute baby photos from the nanny.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I would love to see how you’re going to maintain this level of control over anyone that interacts with your child throughout their life.

[Anonymous]

Your nanny and your housekeeper are going to have lots to talk about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your nanny and your housekeeper are going to have lots to talk about.

hahah! Yes. But it'll be a great conversation bc the nanny has a college degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nanny won’t be able to be a mother herself then, because no mother would after to be permanently unreachable at work.

Come to think of it the nanny wouldn’t be able to have sick parent, or a spouse, or any medical issues herself that might entail receiving a phone call from a doctor.

Why does it have to be ZERO phone use? Why not allow very limited phone use?

Yup. This is what I was thinking. Or married. What if her husband has a heart attack.