How much do you micromanage your nanny?

[Anonymous]

Hello, we are generally happy with our nanny as she is loving towards our kids, very accommodating, and extremely trustworthy. I do, however, find her a bit lacking in the creativity department. She sticks to the same routine every day and I can tell my son has lately been bored. I would like to come up with a set schedule of things for them to do each week, to ensure my son gets a variety of activities and doesn't get bored, but I also can tell my nanny is not a huge fan of this. Please note I wouldn't think of a set schedule if our nanny was constantly thinking of new things to do. But since she is not, I feel someone has to for our son's sake. How would other parents approach this type of a situation?

[Anonymous]

Didn't you already post this?

[Anonymous]

Just buy some new supplies and show them to your nanny.
You don't have to tell her what to do or when.
Your kid will do plenty of crafts in school, let him/her live his childhood.

[Anonymous]

OP, I doubt your story, but if it's for real tell us what kind of weekly schedule you might propose that the nanny do with your son.

[Anonymous]

I'm amazed by how many people are convinced this post is fake. I think OP's gripe is pretty common among parents. In fact, I've met a lot of highly educated parents who choose daycare over a nanny because they want their child to get more "teaching" than most nannies do.

OP, I'm in the same situation. My nanny is great in most ways--I hear it all the time from neighbors and the leaders at a couple of classes DD takes. Her personality is wonderful and I trust her completely. However, she isn't particularly creative and DD is at the point where I think she needs more varied learning opportunities.

I've tried buying books with activity ideas and leaving them for our nanny to read during naptime, but when time allows, she reads magazines instead. I've tried buying new supplies, but she just uses them in the obvious child-led ways.

When we sit down for an annual meeting in the next month or two, I plan to emphasize that I want DD outside getting some sort of exercise for at least one hour every day and being read to for at least twenty minutes every day. I think those things are already happening most days, but I want her to know that I notice and it's important to me.

I will also require that she plan and implement one new creative "teaching" activity per day, which should be noted in her daily log. She can come up with ideas on her own or by using the books I've bought. The activities don't need to be complex and I definitely don't want formal instruction using flash cards or the like, but I do want the nanny to think about new adult-led ways to nurture DD's development.

Activities could include playing animal charades to promote "pretending." Or making play-dough and treating it as a science experiment about what happens when we combine something wet with something dry and powdery. Or making a weather wheel or chart for the refrigerator to help DD identify "hot," "cold," "sunny," "rainy," etc. Or visiting the zoo to see the animals in her books. Or having a scavenger hunt outside for ordinary things like a caterpillar, a red leaf, a gray rock, a yellow flower. I realize that some attempted activities will fail and there may be days when it just isn't possible to attempt anything, and that's okay.

I'm sure a lot of the nannies on here will rail against this "micromanagement," but I prefer to see it as management designed to promote a good employee's growth in a critical area of her nanny skill set. You just have to make sure she has enough down time to plan stuff.

Also, my current thinking is that stating expectations (rather than imposing a schedule with specific activities) should be enough. The nanny should be able to read books and plan activities as well as I can. She should also be able to figure out how to best schedule the day.

[Anonymous]

How old are your children and is English the nanny's second language? I don't mean to hurt your feelings, OP, but she sounds like one of the bargain nannies rather then a more expensive professional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed by how many people are convinced this post is fake. I think OP's gripe is pretty common among parents. In fact, I've met a lot of highly educated parents who choose daycare over a nanny because they want their child to get more "teaching" than most nannies do.

OP, I'm in the same situation. My nanny is great in most ways--I hear it all the time from neighbors and the leaders at a couple of classes DD takes. Her personality is wonderful and I trust her completely. However, she isn't particularly creative and DD is at the point where I think she needs more varied learning opportunities.

I've tried buying books with activity ideas and leaving them for our nanny to read during naptime, but when time allows, she reads magazines instead. I've tried buying new supplies, but she just uses them in the obvious child-led ways.

When we sit down for an annual meeting in the next month or two, I plan to emphasize that I want DD outside getting some sort of exercise for at least one hour every day and being read to for at least twenty minutes every day. I think those things are already happening most days, but I want her to know that I notice and it's important to me.

I will also require that she plan and implement one new creative "teaching" activity per day, which should be noted in her daily log. She can come up with ideas on her own or by using the books I've bought. The activities don't need to be complex and I definitely don't want formal instruction using flash cards or the like, but I do want the nanny to think about new adult-led ways to nurture DD's development.

Activities could include playing animal charades to promote "pretending." Or making play-dough and treating it as a science experiment about what happens when we combine something wet with something dry and powdery. Or making a weather wheel or chart for the refrigerator to help DD identify "hot," "cold," "sunny," "rainy," etc. Or visiting the zoo to see the animals in her books. Or having a scavenger hunt outside for ordinary things like a caterpillar, a red leaf, a gray rock, a yellow flower. I realize that some attempted activities will fail and there may be days when it just isn't possible to attempt anything, and that's okay.

I'm sure a lot of the nannies on here will rail against this "micromanagement," but I prefer to see it as management designed to promote a good employee's growth in a critical area of her nanny skill set. You just have to make sure she has enough down time to plan stuff.

Also, my current thinking is that stating expectations (rather than imposing a schedule with specific activities) should be enough. The nanny should be able to read books and plan activities as well as I can. She should also be able to figure out how to best schedule the day.

PP that doesn't sound like micromanagement, it sounds like management (and completely reasonable).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed by how many people are convinced this post is fake. I think OP's gripe is pretty common among parents. In fact, I've met a lot of highly educated parents who choose daycare over a nanny because they want their child to get more "teaching" than most nannies do.

OP, I'm in the same situation. My nanny is great in most ways--I hear it all the time from neighbors and the leaders at a couple of classes DD takes. Her personality is wonderful and I trust her completely. However, she isn't particularly creative and DD is at the point where I think she needs more varied learning opportunities.

I've tried buying books with activity ideas and leaving them for our nanny to read during naptime, but when time allows, she reads magazines instead. I've tried buying new supplies, but she just uses them in the obvious child-led ways.

When we sit down for an annual meeting in the next month or two, I plan to emphasize that I want DD outside getting some sort of exercise for at least one hour every day and being read to for at least twenty minutes every day. I think those things are already happening most days, but I want her to know that I notice and it's important to me.

I will also require that she plan and implement one new creative "teaching" activity per day, which should be noted in her daily log. She can come up with ideas on her own or by using the books I've bought. The activities don't need to be complex and I definitely don't want formal instruction using flash cards or the like, but I do want the nanny to think about new adult-led ways to nurture DD's development.

Activities could include playing animal charades to promote "pretending." Or making play-dough and treating it as a science experiment about what happens when we combine something wet with something dry and powdery. Or making a weather wheel or chart for the refrigerator to help DD identify "hot," "cold," "sunny," "rainy," etc. Or visiting the zoo to see the animals in her books. Or having a scavenger hunt outside for ordinary things like a caterpillar, a red leaf, a gray rock, a yellow flower. I realize that some attempted activities will fail and there may be days when it just isn't possible to attempt anything, and that's okay.

I'm sure a lot of the nannies on here will rail against this "micromanagement," but I prefer to see it as management designed to promote a good employee's growth in a critical area of her nanny skill set. You just have to make sure she has enough down time to plan stuff.

Also, my current thinking is that stating expectations (rather than imposing a schedule with specific activities) should be enough. The nanny should be able to read books and plan activities as well as I can. She should also be able to figure out how to best schedule the day.

PP that doesn't sound like micromanagement, it sounds like management (and completely reasonable).

+1. I'm a nanny and these are all reasonable requests for any nanny. Reading to children is extremely important, as well as keeping things new and exciting. I like to pick a theme each week with my charges and teach them new things daily. If one week is about colors, we do a different arts and craft project each day specific to the color. It's really not rocket science. This is what separates the nannies and the profressional career nannies.

[Anonymous]

Professional*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are your children and is English the nanny's second language? I don't mean to hurt your feelings, OP, but she sounds like one of the bargain nannies rather then a more expensive professional.

Sorry, PP, but money does not necessarily buy child-development talent, and experience in the nanny field does not necessarily instill it. I am not the OP, but my nanny displays similar weaknesses to hers and is a native English-speaking U.S. Citizen with a degree from a state flagship university. She is in her mid-thirties, very experienced, well paid, and doing this as a career.

With some individual exceptions, a lack of creativity and teaching skill among nannies is a problem at all levels of the profession. I think this is partly because nannies work mostly apart from colleagues and supervisors. Any work environment where the employee faces no pressure from a boss or client to excel and can't measure herself daily against high performing peers tends to breed professional complacency.

PP, if you were half as good as you think you are, you would recognize that your steady commitment to applying your teaching talent and creativity on the job is rare, even among highly-paid "professionals." And instead of attempting to blame the OP for hiring what you assume to be a bargain-basement immigrant, you would try to help her find productive ways to encourage her solid B+ nanny become an "A," because you would be sophisticated enough to recognize that you, as a nanny, would be held in greater esteem if the entire profession aspired to higher standard of performance.

[Anonymous]

I'm a nanny, and I would be completely comfortable with this. Many nannies go into this line of work because they want a slow pace. Let us know how this goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous



How old are your children and is English the nanny's second language? I don't mean to hurt your feelings, OP, but she sounds like one of the bargain nannies rather then a more expensive professional.

Actually, she just sounds like a poor nanny. It's obnoxious of you to assume its due to her language, PP.

[Anonymous]

OP, have you considered that perhaps your nanny could be simply burned out?

Make sure you keep her in mind and keep the job exciting for her as well.

I highly recommend letting the nanny have complete autonomy.
For instance, let her have driving privileges. Let her drive your son around town on educational and fun daily outings. They can visit the zoo, playground, parks, library and even stop for ice cream and stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed by how many people are convinced this post is fake. I think OP's gripe is pretty common among parents. In fact, I've met a lot of highly educated parents who choose daycare over a nanny because they want their child to get more "teaching" than most nannies do.

OP, I'm in the same situation. My nanny is great in most ways--I hear it all the time from neighbors and the leaders at a couple of classes DD takes. Her personality is wonderful and I trust her completely. However, she isn't particularly creative and DD is at the point where I think she needs more varied learning opportunities.

I've tried buying books with activity ideas and leaving them for our nanny to read during naptime, but when time allows, she reads magazines instead. I've tried buying new supplies, but she just uses them in the obvious child-led ways.

When we sit down for an annual meeting in the next month or two, I plan to emphasize that I want DD outside getting some sort of exercise for at least one hour every day and being read to for at least twenty minutes every day. I think those things are already happening most days, but I want her to know that I notice and it's important to me.

I will also require that she plan and implement one new creative "teaching" activity per day, which should be noted in her daily log. She can come up with ideas on her own or by using the books I've bought. The activities don't need to be complex and I definitely don't want formal instruction using flash cards or the like, but I do want the nanny to think about new adult-led ways to nurture DD's development.

Activities could include playing animal charades to promote "pretending." Or making play-dough and treating it as a science experiment about what happens when we combine something wet with something dry and powdery. Or making a weather wheel or chart for the refrigerator to help DD identify "hot," "cold," "sunny," "rainy," etc. Or visiting the zoo to see the animals in her books. Or having a scavenger hunt outside for ordinary things like a caterpillar, a red leaf, a gray rock, a yellow flower. I realize that some attempted activities will fail and there may be days when it just isn't possible to attempt anything, and that's okay.

I'm sure a lot of the nannies on here will rail against this "micromanagement," but I prefer to see it as management designed to promote a good employee's growth in a critical area of her nanny skill set. You just have to make sure she has enough down time to plan stuff.

Also, my current thinking is that stating expectations (rather than imposing a schedule with specific activities) should be enough. The nanny should be able to read books and plan activities as well as I can. She should also be able to figure out how to best schedule the day.

Interesting post here. It seems to me that if you hired an actual nanny, she would be "teaching" your child appropriately. Sounds like you found a sitter who is always waiting for your direction. Some parents may want exactly that, it's not a nanny. A nanny knows what to do, and does it.

[Anonymous]

i am creative very that never gave me a raise