House Rules?

[Anonymous]

Nannies -- what are some of the house rules your employers have? MBs, what house rules have you used that have been really helpful?

[Anonymous]

No eating anywhere except kitchen.
No shoes on carpet areas.

[Anonymous]

Isn't this sort of thing common sense? Like you take your shoes off in the house unless it's been confirmed that they don't want you to bother.

[Anonymous]

"Like you take your shoes off in the house unless it's been confirmed that they don't want you to bother. "
I do not see that as common sense unless my shoes are muddy. No one I grew up with took shoes off (PA) except for an Asian friend whose mom was from Japan and they were obnoxiously strict about it to the point where I was invited in the house only once in the 3 years we were friends.
I'm happy to take shoes off but think the burden lies on the host to tell guests they are "welcome" to take off their shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Like you take your shoes off in the house unless it's been confirmed that they don't want you to bother. "
I do not see that as common sense unless my shoes are muddy. No one I grew up with took shoes off (PA) except for an Asian friend whose mom was from Japan and they were obnoxiously strict about it to the point where I was invited in the house only once in the 3 years we were friends.
I'm happy to take shoes off but think the burden lies on the host to tell guests they are "welcome" to take off their shoes.

Taking off your shoes at the front door is also commonplace in most of Europe. Most of the rest of the world is generally less wasteful than we are. They would not want to vacuum everytime you brought invisible fecal residue into their house, especially if they have children who play on the floor.

[Anonymous]

I agree, I grew up in a home where shoes were generally worn in the house. I wear shoes in my own home and would never expect anyone to take off theirs in my home. I dont think it is neccessarily the norm or commone sense ot take off shoes in a home. That said, my NF prefer everyone remove shoes while in their home. I think this would be up to the family to make clear. My MB let me know on day one that shoes can be left on the mat at the door when I arrive each day.

[Anonymous]

I take my shoes off and leave them outside the door. One mom went behind me and picked them up and placed them by the front door.

Here are some doozies from my contract...try guessing which poster I am hahah:


a. At no point will the Nanny engage in activities that are personal in nature to include but not limited to checking or sending e-mail, accessing social media sites, surfing the web, school work, watching television, reading magazines, reading books, personal errands, games or personal phone calls.
b. The Nanny’s full attention should be on the children at all times when they are awake and daily/weekly tasks should be done when the children are napping. In the event that all weekly and daily tasks are finished, then the Nanny is to notify the Parents and additional child care specific developmental tasks will assigned.
c. No visitors, except on prior notification and approval of the parents.
d. No service or maintenance personnel whatsoever inside the house unless specified by the Parents.
e. No short, local, long distance, or collect calls, except in the case of an emergency or previous notification of the Parents.
f. The Nanny may answer the telephone unless otherwise instructed by the Parents.
g. She is not to receive any mail or packages, nor sign for any mail or packages, unless requested by the Parents.
h. No unapproved rides in any cars.
i. The house is to be kept locked at all times.
j. Smoking is prohibited.
k. Drinking alcohol is prohibited.
l. Report any suspicious visitors or phone calls to the Parents immediately.
m. Report to the Parents immediately any falls or injuries (including bumps, bruises, cuts, illnesses, etc.) occurring to the children or the Nanny.
n. The Nanny must inform the Parents if she is feeling ill.
o. Both the Parents and the Nanny are to maintain a play area for the children that are free from potential dangers, i.e. choking/strangulation hazards, breakables within children's reach, etc.


Some of these are wonderful ideas and ones like B will mean your nanny will quit and call you the worse family she has ever worked for

[Anonymous]

I agree with PPs that removing shoes is not necessarily a rule in a lot of homes. It definitely is not in my nanny families house. Both parents always have shoes on in the house. The kids have large play pats in their play room where no shoes are worn on so that is their safe clean place to play on the floor, beside there, the kids where shoes just like the adults most of the time. each family has their own preference in this. None of my last 4 nanny families removed shoes indoors as a rule.

A couple house rules in my NF house:
-Do not eat what is on the bottom shelf of the fridge (usually foods specifically for MB and DBs dinner
-No food in the playroom
-only sealed water cups in the nanny car, not food or drinks besides that

[Anonymous]

Regarding not checking cell; that's not something I will ever not do. I have about 20 family contacts in my phone and work very frequently before/after work for other families, often within hours' notice if I am available. If a parent asked me not to check my phone, they would be a hypocrite because that same parent probably was one who contacted me while I was providing care for another family.

Good thing there aren't parents so anal about checking phone that I have worked for so all good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I take my shoes off and leave them outside the door. One mom went behind me and picked them up and placed them by the front door.

Here are some doozies from my contract...try guessing which poster I am hahah:


a. At no point will the Nanny engage in activities that are personal in nature to include but not limited to checking or sending e-mail, accessing social media sites, surfing the web, school work, watching television, reading magazines, reading books, personal errands, games or personal phone calls.
b. The Nanny’s full attention should be on the children at all times when they are awake and daily/weekly tasks should be done when the children are napping. In the event that all weekly and daily tasks are finished, then the Nanny is to notify the Parents and additional child care specific developmental tasks will assigned.
c. No visitors, except on prior notification and approval of the parents.
d. No service or maintenance personnel whatsoever inside the house unless specified by the Parents.
e. No short, local, long distance, or collect calls, except in the case of an emergency or previous notification of the Parents.
f. The Nanny may answer the telephone unless otherwise instructed by the Parents.
g. She is not to receive any mail or packages, nor sign for any mail or packages, unless requested by the Parents.
h. No unapproved rides in any cars.
i. The house is to be kept locked at all times.
j. Smoking is prohibited.
k. Drinking alcohol is prohibited.
l. Report any suspicious visitors or phone calls to the Parents immediately.
m. Report to the Parents immediately any falls or injuries (including bumps, bruises, cuts, illnesses, etc.) occurring to the children or the Nanny.
n. The Nanny must inform the Parents if she is feeling ill.
o. Both the Parents and the Nanny are to maintain a play area for the children that are free from potential dangers, i.e. choking/strangulation hazards, breakables within children's reach, etc.


Some of these are wonderful ideas and ones like B will mean your nanny will quit and call you the worse family she has ever worked for

All of these points make perfect sense to me. The sad thing is this not common sense to many nannies so it needs to be spelled out

[Anonymous]

b. The Nanny’s full attention should be on the children at all times when they are awake and daily/weekly tasks should be done when the children are napping. In the event that all weekly and daily tasks are finished, then the Nanny is to notify the Parents and additional child care specific developmental tasks will assigned.

To the previous poster who think the above clause is grounds for a nanny to quit. Why? It isn't as if the employer is giving heavy housecleaning. If you are paid to provide attentive childcare and do childcare related duties why do you think you need good chunks of the day to be spent not working but being paid.


I understand that many nannies here do all their tasks while the kids are awake because they want to enjoy themselves during 3-4 hours of nap time surfing the web, watching TV etc. This REALLY isn't appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Of course this is where this thread is going...way to derail things yet again MB's

[Anonymous]

The contract is insulting to me because I am the type of nanny who makes 50+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

b. The Nanny’s full attention should be on the children at all times when they are awake and daily/weekly tasks should be done when the children are napping. In the event that all weekly and daily tasks are finished, then the Nanny is to notify the Parents and additional child care specific developmental tasks will assigned.

To the previous poster who think the above clause is grounds for a nanny to quit. Why? It isn't as if the employer is giving heavy housecleaning. If you are paid to provide attentive childcare and do childcare related duties why do you think you need good chunks of the day to be spent not working but being paid.


I understand that many nannies here do all their tasks while the kids are awake because they want to enjoy themselves during 3-4 hours of nap time surfing the web, watching TV etc. This REALLY isn't appropriate.

Exactly! There is no question that if I ever finished everything on my TO DO list at work, I would be expected to proactively seek out more work, even if that meant taking on tasks that aren't really part of my job or don't fully utilize my skill set but help the office/firm run more smoothly. The sense among nannies that they are entitled to personal time on the job is amazing to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

b. The Nanny’s full attention should be on the children at all times when they are awake and daily/weekly tasks should be done when the children are napping. In the event that all weekly and daily tasks are finished, then the Nanny is to notify the Parents and additional child care specific developmental tasks will assigned.

To the previous poster who think the above clause is grounds for a nanny to quit. Why? It isn't as if the employer is giving heavy housecleaning. If you are paid to provide attentive childcare and do childcare related duties why do you think you need good chunks of the day to be spent not working but being paid.


I understand that many nannies here do all their tasks while the kids are awake because they want to enjoy themselves during 3-4 hours of nap time surfing the web, watching TV etc. This REALLY isn't appropriate.

Exactly! There is no question that if I ever finished everything on my TO DO list at work, I would be expected to proactively seek out more work, even if that meant taking on tasks that aren't really part of my job or don't fully utilize my skill set but help the office/firm run more smoothly. The sense among nannies that they are entitled to personal time on the job is amazing to me.

While I agree 3*4 hours is excessive not all nannies have that and they ARE entitled to a break of at least an hour to eat and relax. Most jobs provide their employees to have a break. Thankfully I don't have slave driven MB who expect me to forego a break to clean up her mess. I have an hour break (the 2 year old naps 2 hours and the 5 year old have an hour of quiet time) and my MB has ALWAYS encouraged it because she knows being a good nanny is not easy work and no break at all equals a quickly burned out nanny.