Nanny venting on lice situation

[Anonymous]

[/b. I wish parents would consider the feelings of others. My charges has lice and the parents are asking me to do the shampooing..combing out the nits.clean the beds..pack away stuff...etc...It is too much work involve. She's giving all those instructions over the phone. Why can't they come home early to delouse their children..I have my home to clean when I get off as a precaution..WE HAVE FAMILIES TOO...Our day doesn't' t end when we walk out their door.

[Anonymous]

OP here...Another long freaking list...They knew the children had lice this morning..a text message would have been great..it's not like I get paid when I don't work..I should have been given a choice whether I wanted to expose myself and family to this

[Anonymous]

I'm an employer... I can totally understand that this wouldn't be fun, but assuming it's in your job description to take care of the kids, it seems like this would be included...

Also lice isn't transmitted typically except head-to-head contact, so unless you are rubbing your scalp against he children or their bedclothes you shold be okay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an employer... I can totally understand that this wouldn't be fun, but assuming it's in your job description to take care of the kids, it seems like this would be included...

Also lice isn't transmitted typically except head-to-head contact, so unless you are rubbing your scalp against he children or their bedclothes you shold be okay

This IS NOT a nanny responsibilty.

[Anonymous]

I agree, I think that it's not ok to ASSUME the nanny should take care of this. And she should definitely had been given a heads up prior to coming in to work. If the parents were really in a pinch and couldn't stay home, then I might understand and be willing to help out, but only if they asked instead of assumed. A nanny is not your family's personal nurse.

[Anonymous]

No way is this something a nanny should be doing. Getting rid if Lice is a huge undertaking

[Anonymous]

Nope, they should have let you know before you showed up. I'd like to be prepared, and am not interested in bringing that shit home to my family. I would take care of the sheets and such like i typically would, but I wouldn't be doing the other stuff. That is a parent's job.

[Anonymous]

I've dealt with lice for a couple of families I have worked for in the past. While the families dealt with it in my off hours, I dealt with it while working. It is a huge pain in the butt, but it is part of taking care of kids. Lice happens.

OP, you have already been exposed. Depending on how bad their lice is, you have been exposed to it for awhile. It isn't that you didn't want to come in if they had let you know, it is that you didn't want to do the clean up.

[Anonymous]

I don't see the problem here. Taking care of the kids, including sick kids, is part of your job. An outbreak of lice is akin to illness. As a parent, I would deal with it during my off hours, but I would have little patience for a nanny who wanted me to take time off from work to handle lice treatments so that she could avoid exposure.

And the fact that you wouldn't get paid for taking the time off work is irrelevant. If your unscheduled absence would cause the parents to miss work, that's a problem.

[Anonymous]

No, no, no, this is not a nanny job. It is not as though the lice magically appeared when the parent's walked out the door. They knew their children were infested and chose to let someone else take care of it.
Taking care of sick children is one thing, delousing them is QUITE another. It should have been handled before the nanny got there. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the problem here. Taking care of the kids, including sick kids, is part of your job. An outbreak of lice is akin to illness. As a parent, I would deal with it during my off hours, but I would have little patience for a nanny who wanted me to take time off from work to handle lice treatments so that she could avoid exposure.

And the fact that you wouldn't get paid for taking the time off work is irrelevant. If your unscheduled absence would cause the parents to miss work, that's a problem.

If a child has Strep, should a parent hold off on taking the child to the doctor because that is the nanny's responsibility?
If a kid throws up all over themself, should a parent avoid cleaning the mess because that is a nanny's responsibility?
That is ridiculous. Parents who like to play these sorts of hands are the same people who don't understand why their nanny quit.
You pull lice out of your child's head. Don't leave it for her caretaker. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the problem here. Taking care of the kids, including sick kids, is part of your job. An outbreak of lice is akin to illness. As a parent, I would deal with it during my off hours, but I would have little patience for a nanny who wanted me to take time off from work to handle lice treatments so that she could avoid exposure.

And the fact that you wouldn't get paid for taking the time off work is irrelevant. If your unscheduled absence would cause the parents to miss work, that's a problem.

If a child has Strep, should a parent hold off on taking the child to the doctor because that is the nanny's responsibility?
If a kid throws up all over themself, should a parent avoid cleaning the mess because that is a nanny's responsibility?
That is ridiculous. Parents who like to play these sorts of hands are the same people who don't understand why their nanny quit.
You pull lice out of your child's head. Don't leave it for her caretaker. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

I agree that this is asking too much of the nanny to delouse multiple children and sanitize everything. Especially irritating because they knew ahead of time and didn't notify her or do any cleaning themselves. If my boss explained the situation and asked me to come assist I'm sure I would (wash bedding etc while she deloused kids sounds ok or maybe help folding laundry and caring for kids that were already cleared of lice). Your boss sounds really obnoxious, sorry OP.

[Anonymous]

OP here...NOOO...I don't care for the mb's comment..I should not have to delouse the children. Those are the same parents that take time off for well doctors visit and every little crap their children do in school..Bottom line is my mb like most of those out there have a cleaner and did not want the humongous undertaking of cleaning up and treating her children's hair..At least someone could have shown up at 4.
I personally don't see why mb's should think that because we are nannies every thing goes..I'm sick of this..especially when I don't get paid for my sick days when I get sick from their household....In this case I think I should be given the option of whether I want to lose a day's pay or not...You mb's can't have it your way all the same time...
I WOULD HAVE RATHER STAY HOME AND LET THEM KEEP THE MONEY...since you mb's think we get such a great paycheck

[Anonymous]

I dealt with this this summer. Luckily the family did all the heavy lifting (cleaning sheets, giving the kids the initial treatment, etc). They only had me do the follow up checks on the kids each morning- I got there before the kids woke up, so this made sense, MB/DB did a check each night before the kids went to bed as well. I agree that asking you to completely de-louse the house is too much, them not doing any of the work themselves is completely inappropriate.

While I'm here, I might as well recommend Trader Joe's Tea Tree Oil shampoo/conditioner for yourself. Tea tree oil is a natural lice repellent, so it will help give you some peace of mind that you won't get lice as well.