Do families usually allow nanny to do personal shopping on paid time?

[Anonymous]

Our nanny has been with us for a few weeks, watching our newborn. She seems to assume it is ok to shop for herself during the day. She takes him for walks and buys groceries for her own family at Safeway, Giant, etc. I would appreciate perspective on whether this is normally accepted behavior for nannies in DC or not. It seems very wrong to me that she's assuming it's ok to do her personal errands during time when I am paying her to watch my child. Furthermore, my husband and I had debating asking her to do personal errands like that for us, but we decided against it because we wanted her to be 100% focused on our newborn. Any experience or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. I want to be reasonable.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny for a now ten-month-old (have been since has been since his birth) and have never done ONE personal errand when I was working. It is more than okay for you to demand that she give 100% attention to the baby and not do errands during our work time.

[Anonymous]

I take my charges to run personal errands quite often. It's beneficial for everyone, the kids get to get out and walk around and I don't have to spend every second of my free time doing errands.

[Anonymous]

I run errands all the time. Though never a full on grocery shopping trip. I run to target or the post office, bank. I take care of toddlers and not a newborn though.

[Anonymous]

Personal errands should never be done during work hours. It is very unprofessional. If you want to get out, take your charges to someplace fun or educational for them - not Target for you. I run my errands on my own time. No exceptions.

Yes, OP, you have every right to demand this of your nanny.

[Anonymous]

I've only ever done very quick errands with my charges, and there's often a reason it can't be done outside my work hours. So things like gassing up the car, or running to the post office. Usually takes less than 10 minutes, and is generally of a time sensitive nature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personal errands should never be done during work hours. It is very unprofessional. If you want to get out, take your charges to someplace fun or educational for them - not Target for you. I run my errands on my own time. No exceptions.

Yes, OP, you have every right to demand this of your nanny.

I think it really depends on how many hrs your nanny works. I had a nanny job where the single mother was deployed over seas and I worked 24/7 for 18 months straight. I've also had 24 hr positions where I only get maybe 1 day off a month. Stuff happens and you end up needing more clothes. Tampons, birth control. You have a tooth ache and need to go to the dentist . Sometimes the kids just have to come along. Not all people work 9-5 mon- fri.

[Anonymous]

We put in our manny's contract that we would ask him to do no more than a certain number of errands for us per week. So for example, if we see on Sunday that we're about to run out of wipes I'll leave a note for him Monday morning to buy more at Target with petty cash. Once he's at Target, I couldn't care less if he also picks up shaving cream for himself or a few things he needs from there.

I don't mind if he pops into his bank during the day, or if when he goes to the farmer's market for us, decides the cherries look good and buys some for his house also.

If he went food shopping for his house on a regular basis while working, complete with refrigerating items at our house I'd probably feel he was taking advantage.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here- I do personal errands (groceries when I shop for nanny family, walgreens when I shop for MB, post office etc) because I work 60hrs a weekend there's no other time to do these things. My MB says she doesn't mind because she wants her kids to grow up normal, and normal kids go on errands with their parents. Since I do all the errands and groceries, unless the kids do them with me they don't go them at all. I wouldn't go to the mall (except during Xmas with permission) but I do go to target sometimes. I've been with my nanny family 9 years so we have a level of trust and my employers are okay with this.

[Anonymous]

60hrs a week, not weekend! Sorry typo

[Anonymous]

No, I do not allow our nanny to do personal errands on our paid time - then again, we do not have out nanny work 60+ hours a week. For a normal 40-50 hour workweek, I would say absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

Short errands are not a problem for us as I want DS to have practice sitting in the grocery cart and waiting in line and learning how to behave in public. He's older than yours so I wouldn't be okay with a full-out grocery trip, but when he was smaller and mostly alternating between sleeping, eating, and looking around I wouldn't have minded.

[Anonymous]

I run errands for my NF family - post office, grocery shopping, & dry cleaning - and if my personal errand is something that falls within those (like picking up a gallon of milk for my house) or getting gas then I do it because I'm already there. Other than that I save personal errands for my personal time. (I work 45 hours a week)

[Anonymous]

I do them all the time with MB's blessing. We go to the grocery, target, the bank, the car wash....all sorts of places. My charge LOVES it. We do a balance of errands for me, errands for her parents, and fun activities for her.

[Anonymous]

I run errands sometimes. It never occurred to me that it would be a problem. We often go to a coffee shop for a snack or Whole Foods for a snack. If we're at WF and there's a quick something I need, I'll get it. No big deal. Your baby is a newborn...they sleep all the time. How much focus does she need to give a sleeping baby? kids who are used to running errands are in your best interest because it will make it easier for YOU to run errands w/ the kids because they'll know how to behave. I don't think this is a big deal assuming she's not going to the mall and trying on clothes or buying a weeks worth of groceries etc. A few grocery items is no big deal IMO.