Nannies, do you do mb's dirty laundry (panties, sheets, etc)?

[Anonymous]

I nannied for a woman and now babysit her kids on weekends. She has me wash/fold her underwear all the time. I mean I understand she's got a lot on her plate (her husband passed away) but come on. Do you really think I want to touch your disgusting underwear?! I usually don't fold her underwear. I leave it all in a pile on her bed. It pisses her off, but I honestly don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I nannied for a woman and now babysit her kids on weekends. She has me wash/fold her underwear all the time. I mean I understand she's got a lot on her plate (her husband passed away) but come on. Do you really think I want to touch your disgusting underwear?! I usually don't fold her underwear. I leave it all in a pile on her bed. It pisses her off, but I honestly don't care.

That really IS disgusting. Why don't these women have any dignity, and clean their own yucky mess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. Drawing the line at not doing laundry does not a lazy nanny make. There are just boundaries about what I will and will not do to make my employers happy. I do a great job caring for their kids, cleaning anything and everything kid related, and generally if I see something that needs to be done I do it, from loading and unloading dishes, picking up things they are low on, to taking the car to the car wash because its dirty and the kids love it. I do not, however, touch my bosses' laundry. I also don't wipe their butts, spoon feed them, or kiss their boo boos. The nerve!

The question is, do you feel above doing something like that in your job at all, or is it that if you do more work, you want a higher pay to do it? I wouldn't necessarily take a position that includes it if I am getting an average rate for the position, but if you give me $3-5 more per hour to do parents laundry and make beds, and a few other housekeeping duties that a nanny doesn't normally do, I might go ahead and take the extra money. It's really not that big of a deal, and if I can make $120-200 more per week at a 40 hours/wk position, then what do I have to complain about? If I am already doing it for the kids, why not the parents too and make some extra cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. Drawing the line at not doing laundry does not a lazy nanny make. There are just boundaries about what I will and will not do to make my employers happy. I do a great job caring for their kids, cleaning anything and everything kid related, and generally if I see something that needs to be done I do it, from loading and unloading dishes, picking up things they are low on, to taking the car to the car wash because its dirty and the kids love it. I do not, however, touch my bosses' laundry. I also don't wipe their butts, spoon feed them, or kiss their boo boos. The nerve!

The question is, do you feel above doing something like that in your job at all, or is it that if you do more work, you want a higher pay to do it? I wouldn't necessarily take a position that includes it if I am getting an average rate for the position, but if you give me $3-5 more per hour to do parents laundry and make beds, and a few other housekeeping duties that a nanny doesn't normally do, I might go ahead and take the extra money. It's really not that big of a deal, and if I can make $120-200 more per week at a 40 hours/wk position, then what do I have to complain about? If I am already doing it for the kids, why not the parents too and make some extra cash.

I'm not above doing anything. I do the children's laundry, my own laundry, and my husband's laundry. I do not and will not do my boss' laundry. It's not about being pride for me, it's about a boundary issue. It would be hard to maintain a professional relationship with someone who's panties you wash. I want my bosses to respect me and to be able to respect them in return. You can find someone willing to pay you a quick buck to do just anything, so that's not a good reason IMO to do something.

[Anonymous]

*being proud *just about anything

[Anonymous]

"Do you pay her well? Probably not. "

she makes $800 a week in outside the beltway SS area. it's not exorbitant but relatively high for our near-by area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. Drawing the line at not doing laundry does not a lazy nanny make. There are just boundaries about what I will and will not do to make my employers happy. I do a great job caring for their kids, cleaning anything and everything kid related, and generally if I see something that needs to be done I do it, from loading and unloading dishes, picking up things they are low on, to taking the car to the car wash because its dirty and the kids love it. I do not, however, touch my bosses' laundry. I also don't wipe their butts, spoon feed them, or kiss their boo boos. The nerve!

The question is, do you feel above doing something like that in your job at all, or is it that if you do more work, you want a higher pay to do it? I wouldn't necessarily take a position that includes it if I am getting an average rate for the position, but if you give me $3-5 more per hour to do parents laundry and make beds, and a few other housekeeping duties that a nanny doesn't normally do, I might go ahead and take the extra money. It's really not that big of a deal, and if I can make $120-200 more per week at a 40 hours/wk position, then what do I have to complain about? If I am already doing it for the kids, why not the parents too and make some extra cash.

I'm not above doing anything. I do the children's laundry, my own laundry, and my husband's laundry. I do not and will not do my boss' laundry. It's not about being pride for me, it's about a boundary issue. It would be hard to maintain a professional relationship with someone who's panties you wash. I want my bosses to respect me and to be able to respect them in return. You can find someone willing to pay you a quick buck to do just anything, so that's not a good reason IMO to do something.

You can easily have a great professional working relationship when doing someone's laundry. The boundaries are where you draw them. I don't see what you find so repulsive about it, it's just clothing. It's not like you have to have sex with her because you see her underwear. If you are willing to wash kids underwear, which can be even more gross when they can't wipe themselves well, or you are willing to do things outside of strict children related duties, why do you find that ONE thing to be an absolute no-no? Why does it freak you out so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If DB's laundered underwear is still skid-marked, it's time to throw them out and start over with new ones and a different laundry technique.

I was asked once to do the parents' dirty laundry. DB's undies were skid-marked. I folded them inside-out, tushie out, so the shit-stains showed, blatantly. They never asked me to do their intimates again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. Drawing the line at not doing laundry does not a lazy nanny make. There are just boundaries about what I will and will not do to make my employers happy. I do a great job caring for their kids, cleaning anything and everything kid related, and generally if I see something that needs to be done I do it, from loading and unloading dishes, picking up things they are low on, to taking the car to the car wash because its dirty and the kids love it. I do not, however, touch my bosses' laundry. I also don't wipe their butts, spoon feed them, or kiss their boo boos. The nerve!

This makes perfect sense. I would never ask the nanny to do our laundry. Not even the kids' laundry, actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. Drawing the line at not doing laundry does not a lazy nanny make. There are just boundaries about what I will and will not do to make my employers happy. I do a great job caring for their kids, cleaning anything and everything kid related, and generally if I see something that needs to be done I do it, from loading and unloading dishes, picking up things they are low on, to taking the car to the car wash because its dirty and the kids love it. I do not, however, touch my bosses' laundry. I also don't wipe their butts, spoon feed them, or kiss their boo boos. The nerve!

This makes perfect sense. I would never ask the nanny to do our laundry. Not even the kids' laundry, actually.

+1

[Anonymous]

I am paid very well and I don't have a problem with dirty laundry. Big deal. It's a part of life and running a household.
One time there were ants in the shower covering a diaphragm.... I left that mess.

[Anonymous]

The problem with laundry isn't that it is gross. Its just clothes. Its not hard to throw a pile clothes into a machine and push the button. The problem with laundry is that gets in the way of your schedule. Its so much easier to take the kids to a park or a mall all morning. They run around more and then sleep so much longer in the afternoon. If you have laundry to do you have to entertain the kids in or near the house to switch from wash to dryer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with laundry isn't that it is gross. Its just clothes. Its not hard to throw a pile clothes into a machine and push the button. The problem with laundry is that gets in the way of your schedule. Its so much easier to take the kids to a park or a mall all morning. They run around more and then sleep so much longer in the afternoon. If you have laundry to do you have to entertain the kids in or near the house to switch from wash to dryer.

I wouldn't necessarily say it affects a schedule too much. You can easily get home for lunch and throw something in. Then switch it over at nap-time (or quiet time) and put in another load. You can get that first load folded and ready to put away (if not actually put away) by the end of nap with second load in dryer. Once kids are awake, if it is too hard to do anymore, you have at least gotten one load ready to put away and another dried and ready to take out. I have an MB that will wash something and 6-12 hours later go to put it into the dryer. I am sure if she is already doing that herself, she wouldn't care if I did that as well. Sometimes her laundry stays in the dryer 3 days before it makes it out, and another few days before it is folded. If I were to even just get one load slowly washed and folded over a couple days she would be grateful for it being done.

Also, if the kids are older and go to school, there is time while they are gone. Or sometimes you only do PT childcare and part cleaning during the day, which means you don't even have kids to focus on at that time. If you get paid more for doing more duties, either understanding that you will try to get as much done as you can with kids around OR have time away from kids to do it, and are willing to take on the duty in the first place, then there is nothing no problem. It comes down to whether you are flexible to take on other duties (while being properly compensated for it) or you are too rigid and feel above touching someone else's dirty laundry. Those that say they don't feel above it are fooling themselves. If it is truly a time issue, which I can see in some cases (if dealing with twins or 3+ kids at once), then that is one thing. But generally the ones that say they would never do it even if paid $5 more an hour (all day, everyday) and it were to only take an extra 30 minutes to do once a week, obviously have some issues. Their pride seems to be getting into the way of doing a simple job. Much different story if you are being taken advantage of and not being compensated fairly for your work or have several other duties that being asked to be done and were not part of original job description.

[Anonymous]

You all who have no problem doing parent laundry, and keep saying a nanny who is unwilling to do so is just proud or lazy, do you also scrubbed toilets if your boss asks? Do you cook all meals if they ask? Just how far will you go outside of childcare before you draw the line? I'm genuinely curious, because I draw the line at parental laundry. I do not want my job to morph into some kind of housekeeper/sometimes nanny hybrid. Yes this means I don't stay very long beyond preschool age, and I'm absolutely fine with that. This is not my career, I like taking care of children, and no I a, not willing to do parental laundry. I see how my bosses regard their housekeeper(polite but not friendly) and if she were to come to them with a suggestion about something or a piece of advice, it would not be taken seriously. I would have a similar relationship with someone doing my dirty work, and I don't want that kind of relationship with my bosses. I don't want to know what their underwear look like, and I'd rather not be in their bedroom at all. It crosses a personal boundary for me, and I'd like to keep things professional, mutually respectful, and about the children I care for.

[Anonymous]

Do you cook all meals if they ask? Just how far will you go outside of childcare before you draw the line? I'm genuinely curious, because I draw the line at parental laundry. I do not want my job to morph into some kind of housekeeper/sometimes nanny hybrid. Yes this means I don't stay very long beyond preschool age, and I'm absolutely fine with that. This is not my career, I like taking care of children, and no I a, not willing to do parental laundry. I see how my bosses regard their housekeeper(polite but not friendly) and if she were to come to them with a suggestion about something or a piece of advice, it would not be taken seriously.

Your attitude is really off IMO. Being more valuable to the family by doing cooking and laundry, makes them MORE likely to take you seriously and pay attention to your advice. You sound like one of the people who is insecure about being a nanny. Taking care of reasonable tasks like laundry or even cooking is part of making the home environment run smoothly.