Nanny "down time"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, we've had shares and employed full time nannies. Our expectation was and is that our nannies should have an hour of downtime during her work day. The rest of the time, they should expect to be working. That's what we always told them and it seems to go over well.

Also - and this probably needs to be talked over while you discuss the contract - certain housekeeping duties are squarely a part of the standard nanny duties. Baby laundry, clean-up of play areas and the baby's room, for instance, are standard nanny duties. They aren't part of the "light housekeeping". They are what nannies ought to be doing as part of the childcare services.

What about the days where she gets less than an hour? Do you pay her extra, or is she allowed to ignore the kids for a while?? What about when they stop napping? You cannot mange every moment of down time, to think you can is ridiculous. Im sure your bosses would love to figure how to keep you off DCUM, talking on your phone, and blabbing with your coworkers. Your nannies are likely nodding to your face and doing their own thing during the day, so long as it gets done, as they very well should.

Days where she gets less than an hour are simply part of the job, just like I have days at the office where I have to be glued to my desk working at breakneck speed. On days that aren't that crazy, I am expected to take no more than an hour for my midday break. We are professionals and we are expected to fill our days with productive work.

Children nap for quite some time, you know.

SOME children nap for some time. That's my point. In a share, the amount of down time is even more unpredictable than normal because you have two children with their own idiosyncrasies. If you start piling on a bunch of tasks to fill the down time you *think* she has, on those days where naps aren't what you expect, for one child, the other, or both, she will not get a break. You may say its part of the job, but then your job suddenly sucks, and it wouldn't be too hard for her to find one that doesn't. I've never, in my ten years of nannying, had an employer try to dictate what I do during nap time. They're usually just so happy with my performance, they really could care less what goes on while their child sleeps better than they ever do for them.

I'm sure there are days when children don't sleep well, but generally speaking, young children have predictable nap times. The days they don't are exceptions, not rules. Just like you never had employers dictate what you do with nap time, I've never had nannies that objected to my expectation of their downtime vs. work time ratios. It's not hard to find nannies who agree to work with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some ridiculous responses on this thread, OP. If there are several hours of downtime in the day, you should absolutely have the nanny do other things, as long as they are child related, and you do allow for a free hour for lunch and relaxation.

You should not be paying a nanny to do her homework. That's crazy.

Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some ridiculous responses on this thread, OP. If there are several hours of downtime in the day, you should absolutely have the nanny do other things, as long as they are child related, and you do allow for a free hour for lunch and relaxation.

You should not be paying a nanny to do her homework. That's crazy.

Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.

That is NOT one of the perks of hosting a share. There are sacrifices you make when choosing to share, and responsibilities outside of childcare are one of the things you give up. One, because there are simply too many needs to be met (of the children and for both families), and two, attempts should be made to keep the share as egalitarian as possible. This means nanny should not be doing your child's laundry and not the other. She should not be doing any meal prep aside from lunch for both kids, she should not be cleaning up after anyone but herself and the kids in the kitchen and play areas. The perks of hosting a share are not having to schlep your kid in the morning, and your kid gets to spend their days at home and sleep in their own bed. That's where it ends. Everything else should be equal.

Also, I'm one of the nannies that uses nap time for school work. You can call me what you like, but I do much more for my day time families than my evening sitting families. I'm also a college student and that comes first. It just does and I won't apologize. I get paid in accordance with this fact. $16/hour for my share, and if my families started piling on duties and taking away my more work time, you bet I'd be out of there. If you're paying top dollar, go for it OP. If you hired a college student, at college student rates, be sure that your expectations reflect that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you're paying top dollar, go for it OP. If you hired a college student, at college student rates, be sure that your expectations reflect that.

This is the key thing, though, right? It sounded like most of the student nannies who posted here said that THEY chose the JOB because of the built-in downtime, and they would be angry if the downtime disappeared. I assume those nannies are charging regular nanny rates, not student-nanny rates. Those are the nannies I think will quite when the kids get older because there won't be studying time.

[Anonymous]

If a nanny can manage to be upfront and clear that she expects downtime to do her homework, she definitely deserves a lower rate than a professional nanny.

Otherwise, it's unfair to the parents for them to pay someone to do their own side work on the job. I'm a student too, and there is no way I would be able to do homework on the clock.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.

+2 I considered a share once. I have several friends in shares and they said the same thing above. Hosting has some drawbacks in terms of wear and tear on your home, expense of using time controlled heat/A/C, and needing to keep extra stuff around but the benefit is that the nanny does do house related tasks. I opted for our own nanny. I was upfront in the interview about what child related and non child related household tasks were including. None of the candidates had a problem with this. All the reference checks confirmed that the candidates did a good job on these things in their previous jobs.

There seems to be a small group of crazy nannies on DCUM who believe they should get 3-4 hours downtime in an 8-10 hour day. This just isn't the norm in the actual world.

[Anonymous]

Why the hell does a 6-month old need an "activity board"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.

+2 I considered a share once. I have several friends in shares and they said the same thing above. Hosting has some drawbacks in terms of wear and tear on your home, expense of using time controlled heat/A/C, and needing to keep extra stuff around but the benefit is that the nanny does do house related tasks. I opted for our own nanny. I was upfront in the interview about what child related and non child related household tasks were including. None of the candidates had a problem with this. All the reference checks confirmed that the candidates did a good job on these things in their previous jobs.

There seems to be a small group of crazy nannies on DCUM who believe they should get 3-4 hours downtime in an 8-10 hour day. This just isn't the norm in the actual world.

Most nannies expect 1-2 hours not 3-4. Nice try though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.

+2 I considered a share once. I have several friends in shares and they said the same thing above. Hosting has some drawbacks in terms of wear and tear on your home, expense of using time controlled heat/A/C, and needing to keep extra stuff around but the benefit is that the nanny does do house related tasks. I opted for our own nanny. I was upfront in the interview about what child related and non child related household tasks were including. None of the candidates had a problem with this. All the reference checks confirmed that the candidates did a good job on these things in their previous jobs.

There seems to be a small group of crazy nannies on DCUM who believe they should get 3-4 hours downtime in an 8-10 hour day. This just isn't the norm in the actual world.

If it makes that big of a difference to run your heat/AC during the day, you need to invest in better windows for your home.
I have NEVER seen a nanny on here complaining because she doesn't get 3-4 hours of downtime. Never. Not even once. But an hour of downtime? Possibly even two hours if the nanny isn't feeling 100% but still comes to work because that's what the parents want? Yes. It's very nice to have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. In a share, one of the perks of hosting (and thus taking on extra wear and tear and cleaning responsibility) is being able to utilize the nanny's down time for child-related cleaning (including vacuuming and kitchen floor care), laundry, meal prep, researching kid gear and activities, and other tasks. All these things are part and parcel to nanny work. The "nannies" who expect to get paid to do their homework are really just babysitters.

+2 I considered a share once. I have several friends in shares and they said the same thing above. Hosting has some drawbacks in terms of wear and tear on your home, expense of using time controlled heat/A/C, and needing to keep extra stuff around but the benefit is that the nanny does do house related tasks. I opted for our own nanny. I was upfront in the interview about what child related and non child related household tasks were including. None of the candidates had a problem with this. All the reference checks confirmed that the candidates did a good job on these things in their previous jobs.

There seems to be a small group of crazy nannies on DCUM who believe they should get 3-4 hours downtime in an 8-10 hour day. This just isn't the norm in the actual world.

If it makes that big of a difference to run your heat/AC during the day, you need to invest in better windows for your home.
I have NEVER seen a nanny on here complaining because she doesn't get 3-4 hours of downtime. Never. Not even once. But an hour of downtime? Possibly even two hours if the nanny isn't feeling 100% but still comes to work because that's what the parents want? Yes. It's very nice to have.

This. No nanny on here is asking for hours on end to sit and stare at the wall. There are college students who are saying they get paid less than other nannies, so their employers should not expect a whole bunch of extra stuff during nap time. They use that time for homework. That's what you get when you hire a cheaper student. Other nannies are saying that nap times are not set in stone, ESPECIALLY in a share. There are too many variables, and in the end nanny doesn't get much more than an hour maybe 2 on a good day, and loading a bunch of extra tasks that weren't discussed at hiring onto her isn't "getting your money's worth", its nickel and diming your nanny, which I'm sure you'd hate for her to do to you, and it eats into the actual small amout of very much needed downtime she gets.

I posted earlier as a share nanny with charges that take a predictable 2 hour nap daily, and I illustrated how that time gets whittled down to an hour on a day where everything goes perfectly(maybe 3 times a week). If my employers added tasks to my day, I wouldn't get to eat my lunch in peace, and not having time to decompress would greatly decrease how happy I was in my position. When that happens, I leave. If getting everything you can from your nanny is worth that much to you, it better be worth losing her. You should also ask yourself if you're prepared to pay for every single minute you're ever late, or leave before her start time in the morning. I did the math once (my employers frequently leave 5 minutes before my actual start time, and are often 10 minutes late in the evening) and they'd owe me almost a week and a half's pay each year (that week's salary bonus *ahem* that "isn't necessary" *ahem*). Don't nickel and dime your nanny unless you're just as strict with yourself, and if not, be prepared to lose her.

[Anonymous]

Looking after babies and young kids is absolutely exhausting work. I know when I was home with the kids when they both slept at the same time, I breathed a sigh of relief and needed that time to decompress, relax and re-energize for the next few hours. I don't actually want a nanny that works 10 hours without a break. I really don't think that is what is best for the kids at all - to have someone who is exhausted, overworked, frustrated, tired, hungry, and grumpy. The little clean up things (kitchen, food prep, bottles etc ) take time too. I really doubt many nannies have 3-4 hours where they aren't doing anything at all.

I think when parents give a long list of expectations and show no understanding as to why the nanny needs a break or why not everything on the list gets down, that htis usually a sign that those parents haven't actually spent many stretches of time with their kids. they imagine in their heads that if they were home they would be doing all the childcare while at the same time doing all the housework and as soon as the kids go to sleep they would jump into action doing household projects, activity boards, cooking dinners from scratch etc... that actually isn't how days go. Go read on the regular board about parents that are barely holding it together...

I think there has to be a balance. If an hour of homework a day is how my nanny wants to use her downtime and it means that she is happy and enjoying the kids when they are awake - great. I don't think it is healthy for anyone, kids included, for a nanny to be run off her feet for 10 hours straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking after babies and young kids is absolutely exhausting work. I know when I was home with the kids when they both slept at the same time, I breathed a sigh of relief and needed that time to decompress, relax and re-energize for the next few hours. I don't actually want a nanny that works 10 hours without a break. I really don't think that is what is best for the kids at all - to have someone who is exhausted, overworked, frustrated, tired, hungry, and grumpy. The little clean up things (kitchen, food prep, bottles etc ) take time too. I really doubt many nannies have 3-4 hours where they aren't doing anything at all.

I think when parents give a long list of expectations and show no understanding as to why the nanny needs a break or why not everything on the list gets down, that htis usually a sign that those parents haven't actually spent many stretches of time with their kids. they imagine in their heads that if they were home they would be doing all the childcare while at the same time doing all the housework and as soon as the kids go to sleep they would jump into action doing household projects, activity boards, cooking dinners from scratch etc... that actually isn't how days go. Go read on the regular board about parents that are barely holding it together...

I think there has to be a balance. If an hour of homework a day is how my nanny wants to use her downtime and it means that she is happy and enjoying the kids when they are awake - great. I don't think it is healthy for anyone, kids included, for a nanny to be run off her feet for 10 hours straight.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking after babies and young kids is absolutely exhausting work. I know when I was home with the kids when they both slept at the same time, I breathed a sigh of relief and needed that time to decompress, relax and re-energize for the next few hours. I don't actually want a nanny that works 10 hours without a break. I really don't think that is what is best for the kids at all - to have someone who is exhausted, overworked, frustrated, tired, hungry, and grumpy. The little clean up things (kitchen, food prep, bottles etc ) take time too. I really doubt many nannies have 3-4 hours where they aren't doing anything at all.

I think when parents give a long list of expectations and show no understanding as to why the nanny needs a break or why not everything on the list gets down, that htis usually a sign that those parents haven't actually spent many stretches of time with their kids. they imagine in their heads that if they were home they would be doing all the childcare while at the same time doing all the housework and as soon as the kids go to sleep they would jump into action doing household projects, activity boards, cooking dinners from scratch etc... that actually isn't how days go. Go read on the regular board about parents that are barely holding it together...

I think there has to be a balance. If an hour of homework a day is how my nanny wants to use her downtime and it means that she is happy and enjoying the kids when they are awake - great. I don't think it is healthy for anyone, kids included, for a nanny to be run off her feet for 10 hours straight.

+2....my past clients encouraged me to take a nap. I of course was only able to take a 30-45 minute nap, because my nanny clock wouldn't allow more than that.

[Anonymous]

If you're insistent upon arguing that your job is so much more tiring than your MB's job and that you need time to do your homework/take a nap/whatever, then just be aware of the message that sends. She might be perfectly happy with you and maybe all she wants is someone at your level.

But I think most MBs would (for obvious reasons) prefer a nanny that was able to at least mostly spend her time on the job she's getting paid for. I've had both of these nannies. There was the one who did exactly what she was asked to do (though she did it so quickly that she didn't do a thorough job because she was focused on getting to her free time) and then sat down on her iPhone for any second of free time she got. Then there was the one who spent her time doing a great thorough job on the tasks I had asked her to do and then used any free time to add value in other places. Guess who was kept longer and was better compensated and left with a fantastic review?

[Anonymous]

My charge naps anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half per day. It's hit or miss. I usually eat lunch, clean up the toys, wash any dishes he used and prepare his milk cups. I usually have a 30-45 min. window left and I will use that time to lay down and close my eyes. The guest room is right next to his room so a baby monitor is unnecessary and once he cries, I am right there immediately. Even if I do not fall asleep, just that period of getting off of my feel and resting, is a Godsend. My days are usually 10 hours straight and I NEED that break. My bosses totally get that too. I would hate to have the type of bosses who had a list of chores for me to complete during nap time. I actually had bosses who had lists Mon-Fri for me taped on the fridge. For example, Monday was vacuum the house during nap time, Tuesday was dust the living room, Wednesday was mop the kitchen floor, etc. I guess they felt since I was on their time, on the clock, I had to be always doing something productive. What they didn't get was that they were burning me out and that their child would be the one getting the short end of the stick in the end. Sad, but true.

There were times that their child just didn't nap for the typical hour or so, and I couldn't complete the chore I was supposed to complete. Then they would come home and ask why I didn't fold a load of laundry and I would respond that little Sally took a shorter than usual nap that afternoon and they would respond, "Well, that is highly unusual..She ALWAYS naps 2 hours a day when I am here.." as if I was trying to get out of doing my chores.