How do I (gracefully) ask my employers for feedback?

[Anonymous]

When I was first interviewed for this job 6 months ago, MB and DB let me know that they would be giving me lots of feedback as I got to know their kids' personalities and routine. Now we're 6 months in and the kids and I have settled into a routine of our own that works well for us. The only problem is that I get the impression that MB and DB are sometimes not happy with me, for reasons that are never made clear. I have gotten virtually no feedback from them this entire time, and it's stressing me out because I feel like there has to be something they want me to do differently.

I was never told any sort of firm household rules; I was told how their previous nanny did things, and I was told that the kids and parents really liked the previous nanny, so I have tried to run things similarly to the way she did. I have asked about specific rules and guidelines and been given vague answers; they have never given me specific guidelines about TV time, for instance, even when I have asked. Sometimes it seems like the parents have no rules, and other times it seems like they suddenly decide there are tons of rules. Sometimes when DB works from home he will come downstairs and look angry, and ask the kids why they are doing a particular thing, and they should be doing this other thing instead, and he will walk away without saying a word to me. He never clarifies, "in the future can you make sure they do X instead of Y?" He just tells them to do something different from whatever I am having them do, and then walks away, and sometimes gives me a look.

I have no idea how to ask for feedback from them. There haven't really been any specific, isolated incidents for me to cite as evidence that they don't like what I'm doing; it's just a general feeling that I get. They also both have a tenuous grasp of English so it can sometimes be hard to communicate stuff like this to them.

[Anonymous]

You schedule a "review" meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You schedule a "review" meeting.

+1

And if you think language skills will be an issue, go ahead and find a written review form they can use and give it to them ahead of time so they can't clarify their thoughts better and so you'll have a formal record of the meeting and what transpired.