This shouldn't be an issue right now, as you should be paying your nanny to stay home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are the kids? Most kids can't assess how cooked a chicken nugget is. I would be worried if they are eating uncooked meat.

Burning is very visible so easy to comment on. You say you saw the pancakes she left and they were burned black. Obviously the nanny also knows the kids aren't earinf the food. Just tell her that since the kids are 't earing what she cooks, You don't see the cooking part will be part of her role going forward.

Chicken nuggets are already cooked. She’s just defrosting and heating them up. How do you not know this?

If a 5 year old says the chicken nuggets were cold, I would believe them. Especially if the nanny has a history of being a bad cook in general.

You don’t realize how particular your tastes are until you have someone else cooking for you. Whenever we have hired housekeepers to cook for our family in the past, I have left specific recipes. It’s difficult for someone to come into your home, look around at whatever is in your fridge/pantry, and come up with a satisfying meal for your family including kids and adults. As often as not, they are going to take perfectly good food and make it inedible.

I think that you need to work with her to decide whether this is part of her job, in which case you will leave specific recipes, instructions, and ingredients, or it is not part of her job, and she needs to focus on other things.

Anonymous wrote:How old are the kids? Most kids can't assess how cooked a chicken nugget is. I would be worried if they are eating uncooked meat.

Burning is very visible so easy to comment on. You say you saw the pancakes she left and they were burned black. Obviously the nanny also knows the kids aren't earinf the food. Just tell her that since the kids are 't earing what she cooks, You don't see the cooking part will be part of her role going forward.

Chicken nuggets are already cooked. She’s just defrosting and heating them up. How do you not know this?

How old are the kids? Most kids can't assess how cooked a chicken nugget is. I would be worried if they are eating uncooked meat.

Burning is very visible so easy to comment on. You say you saw the pancakes she left and they were burned black. Obviously the nanny also knows the kids aren't earinf the food. Just tell her that since the kids are 't earing what she cooks, You don't see the cooking part will be part of her role going forward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just be very specific: the kids think this is burnt, the kids feel this is too spicy, etc, and see whether she adjusts.

Thats rude

OP should phrase it as "We only like to eat pancakes that don't get more than golden brown." and "The kids prefer their chicken nuggets warm all the way through - I've found it takes 8 minutes on each side at 425." "We prefer our vegetables to be roasted for about 25 minutes and seasoned with half a tablespoon of [spice] and [spice]."

It's "Let me show you how to do a good job for OUR family. If the nanny doesn't change after the OP says this, then the OP needs to move to "You know what? James and I were talking, and we'd like you to focus on reading and playing with the kids, rather than cooking. So please let the cooking go - we'll handle that from now on. Thank you."

Are you serious? You would speak to another adult this way? How are some of you actual socially functioning human beings?
OP, just tell the nanny you prefer to cook, or take this as a great opportunity for your kids to learn that we don't always get things exactly like we want...I suspect "too burnt for your kids" is actually just fine and you are ALL a bit more than picky.

Cooking for my kids is important to me. I love to cook, and I love to know that I'm the one feeding them. When someone else is caring for my kids, I just say "I enjoy cooking for my own kids, so I don't need you to do that."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just be very specific: the kids think this is burnt, the kids feel this is too spicy, etc, and see whether she adjusts.

Thats rude

OP should phrase it as "We only like to eat pancakes that don't get more than golden brown." and "The kids prefer their chicken nuggets warm all the way through - I've found it takes 8 minutes on each side at 425." "We prefer our vegetables to be roasted for about 25 minutes and seasoned with half a tablespoon of [spice] and [spice]."

It's "Let me show you how to do a good job for OUR family. If the nanny doesn't change after the OP says this, then the OP needs to move to "You know what? James and I were talking, and we'd like you to focus on reading and playing with the kids, rather than cooking. So please let the cooking go - we'll handle that from now on. Thank you."

Was her reference real?

So do you want her to cook or not? if you don't, say, Please don't cook, we are picky about what we like and would rather do it ourselves. If you do want her to cook, you need to be specific and give feedback and recipes. Is your stove more powerful/different than what she's used to?

You sound a little wishy washy like you're hemming and hawing and hoping she'll pick up on your desires; that's not a good approach.

Anonymous wrote:Just be very specific: the kids think this is burnt, the kids feel this is too spicy, etc, and see whether she adjusts.

Thats rude

Sounds like she lied on her resume about the cooking part

Just be very specific: the kids think this is burnt, the kids feel this is too spicy, etc, and see whether she adjusts.

Do you want her to cook? She may not be good now, but if it's possible she was exaggerating during the interview process, classes could help.

Someone is going to tell you your note is tone deaf given what's going on right now but our lives move on.

We've had our nanny for 6 months now and really love her, however not sure how to address one slight issue. When we were interviewing her she kept talking about how much she loves to cook and how everyone always tells her that her food is amazing. If fact, one of her references mentioned it out of the blue when we were speaking.

My kids often complain about what she cooks or refuse to eat it - she burns rice and roasted veggies, chicken nuggets she just has to heat up are still half frozen, etc. When she first started she always offered to cook for all of us anytime she was free while the kids are napping, but to us, her cooking is mediocre at best, and downright bad some of the time. We never asked her to do this, she just kind of took it on. Everything is either undercooked or overcooked, too seasoned or totally bland.

Recently I have been trying nicely to let her know she doesn't need to cook anything but she doesn't get the hint. Today she made some pancakes to keep in the fridge so the kids could eat them for breakfast, however they are so burnt that I know my kids will never eat them. When it comes to my kids, I don't want to micromanage but recently I have been cooking things and leaving them as leftovers and just letting her know they want it for lunch or dinner or whatever.

Is there something I can say to her that won't offend her? I know people have different tastes but I am shocked her last family thought she was so amazing.