Can I ask my nanny to handle housekeeping?

[Anonymous]

We are looking to hire a nanny for our infant. We need a nanny 3 days a week for 33 hours. We will be offering $23 hour net, 4 weeks paid vacation, 5 paid sick days, paid holidays, guaranteed hours, and a stipend for health insurance. We expect the nanny to handle baby housekeeping but also want her to handle emptying the dishwasher, receiving groceries and packages, and throwing a recipe in the crock pot 1-2 times a week. Is it unreasonable to ask?

[Anonymous]

Very reasonable, just be conscientious of job creep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very reasonable, just be conscientious of job creep.

I here. I would never add on other duties expect pertaining to child as his needs change. We are very clean people who keep a clean home. We also have a weekly housekeeper who does all of the laundry ( including babys).

[Anonymous]

Sure you can ask but you should unload your own dishwasher. Most nannies will be resentful.

[Anonymous]

She's a nanny, not your maid or cleaning lady.

Receiving packages is ok, since it's not something you get everyday.
Groceries : NO. Then SHE will have to put the food away.
Cooking for you is NOT ok either.

[Anonymous]

Everything except the dishwasher part seems fine. She could have your child "help" her put away these things. My toddler loves this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everything except the dishwasher part seems fine. She could have your child "help" her put away these things. My toddler loves this!

Op here. He’s 3 months old.

[Anonymous]

I think asking her to cook for you is way outside a nanny's job description. Emptying the dishwasher is really pushing it. I don't see anything wrong with accepting packages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything except the dishwasher part seems fine. She could have your child "help" her put away these things. My toddler loves this!

Op here. He’s 3 months old.

As long as everything is already in the crock pot I think it's fine! She can make homemade baby food for your son soon. I used to LOVE making healthy meals for my charges. The parents would let me take dinner home or and it was a win-win. I only had to worry about breakfast and weekend food.

[Anonymous]

OP, everything you are asking for is fine but it all depends on the nanny. I've only employed one nanny but have used several backup nannies (for when our main nanny is on vacation) and none of them seemed to have a problem with emptying out the dishwasher, throwing a load into the washer, or even throwing some food into the crock pot. I even get those meal delivery things and my nanny has no issue putting the food away. It literally takes 5 minutes to put groceries away...not a big deal.

Don't listen to 99% of the posters here, with what you're offering you'll have a lot of applicants to choose from.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. The only thing I would probably worry about is the cooking part. I know some nannies may not mind but that’s just me.

I don’t see anything wrong with loading and unloading the dishwasher and “baby” housekeeping (i.e., washing clothes, restocking diapers & wipes, straightening up the nursery, switching out clothes etc.).

Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

NP. Our nanny empties the dishwasher every day. She just started doing this on her own- we never asked her to. Now I'm starting to think perhaps I should empty it before I leave for work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think asking her to cook for you is way outside a nanny's job description. Emptying the dishwasher is really pushing it. I don't see anything wrong with accepting packages.

Are you a nanny? Our nanny does our grocery shopping, cooks, and will empty the dishwasher if it gets run while she's there. That wasn't part of her job when the kids were babies, but became part of it once they got older and started going to preschool (so she was alone for part of the day). She only cooked for the kids before they went to school, now she'll cook things for all of us. She does like to cook, and we discussed whether this was something she'd be willing to do, but to say that emptying the dishwasher is outside the scope of things a nanny could do is crazy to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think asking her to cook for you is way outside a nanny's job description. Emptying the dishwasher is really pushing it. I don't see anything wrong with accepting packages.

Are you a nanny? Our nanny does our grocery shopping, cooks, and will empty the dishwasher if it gets run while she's there. That wasn't part of her job when the kids were babies, but became part of it once they got older and started going to preschool (so she was alone for part of the day). She only cooked for the kids before they went to school, now she'll cook things for all of us. She does like to cook, and we discussed whether this was something she'd be willing to do, but to say that emptying the dishwasher is outside the scope of things a nanny could do is crazy to me.

Her job scope changed after your kids went to school. Huge difference from this original post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think asking her to cook for you is way outside a nanny's job description. Emptying the dishwasher is really pushing it. I don't see anything wrong with accepting packages.

Are you a nanny? Our nanny does our grocery shopping, cooks, and will empty the dishwasher if it gets run while she's there. That wasn't part of her job when the kids were babies, but became part of it once they got older and started going to preschool (so she was alone for part of the day). She only cooked for the kids before they went to school, now she'll cook things for all of us. She does like to cook, and we discussed whether this was something she'd be willing to do, but to say that emptying the dishwasher is outside the scope of things a nanny could do is crazy to me.

+1 Everything is negotiable and the hourly rate stated here is very generous, especially for one infant. I doubt many of the nannies who advise against emptying the dishwasher are getting $23 NET (recommend you set the rate at the gross amount because you can't really know what the nanny's taxes will be.). What's the deal with emptying the dishwasher? It takes me 2 minutes; I've timed it. I think the important thing is to hire a nanny who is a team player, flexible enough to deal with changes, sans attitude. Right now, the infant is probably sleeping 8+ during her shift, so not too tough a gig.