Pretend you can't cook

[Anonymous]

I love to cook and don't have a full kitchen in my own apartment, so my MB lets me use her kitchen to cook for myself (with my own ingredients) or cook something for them. Last week, during evening babysitting while the baby was sleeping, I made them a lasagna. Of course MB insisted I have some of it. Then she froze the rest-it's hard for her cook on weeknights. I also prepare homemade babyfood for "my" little one. This is was all discussed prior to them hiring me. If I hadn't wanted to cook I would have said so then. There are lots of things I'm not good at but I have no pride in admitting that.

[Anonymous]

I can cook basic things but I don't really cook meat. Boiling or baking chicken breasts, or browning some ground beef is about as much as I do with that. I hate frying things, and I also never really cook meat for just myself and so I never really learned how to cook many different meats.

I don't mind cooking foods for other people that are hard to mess up (pasta or veggies), but anything that could make someone sick from not cooking enough, or that might get burned on the outside and still not cooked enough on the inside is NOT something I will do. I do most of my meat eating as take-out if at home or frozen and just throw in the oven, so I am not going to do more than that for other people's meals.

I love 2 of my families that I work for (the ones I cook for the kids) in regards to this. One family only eats soy products (like MorningStar Farms) at home unless they do take out, and the other is Jewish and since Kosher meat can be expensive, they don't really do meat in their house. They are more relaxed outside of the house though and the kids are allowed to eat non-Kosher meat away from the house. I am also allowed to bring my own stuff into the house if I want but just can't use their dishes to eat it on/with. Cooking for the kids just means some pasta and veggies/salad or maybe some canned soup.

[Anonymous]

This is a fine approach if you want to stay in the exact same type of position forever. However, if you have cooking skills and can add this to your resume with glowing recommendations on what a fabulous cook you are then you will be able to compete for better jobs down the road. Its always short sighted to do whatever you can to side step work. A bad work ethic where you are figuring our ways to do the minimum will not get you anywhere in life.

[Anonymous]

OP, adults need not pretend in real life.

[Anonymous]

my nanny said she doesn't cook. she might not but she also doesn't try. I pay 17 an hour. I fired her last week for someone with "better fit" Have someone who will cook starting next week.

[Anonymous]

How much you pay the nanny, matters nothing to your children. What matters most, or at least should, is some stability in their home lives, while their parents are absent.