It’s hard to do any house work with my charges

[Anonymous]

My youngest charge is 7 months and a really bad sleeper, IMO. He takes 3 naps that range between 25-45 minutes. Oldest is 3 and in preschool half day and I drop off and pick up. When I was offered the position, some household chores included doing everyone’s laundry (including changing 4 beds and towels every week) loading/running dishwasher, vacuuming, taking trash out, and sweeping and mopping. However, in the last few weeks or so I have found it extremely difficult to do all the housework. 1. The baby is crawling and no room is baby proofed so they bought a play pen that he hates being in and screams at the top of his lungs. So, I can’t leave baby outside play pen because he’ll crawl and inevitability get hurt. 2. Recently older charge has been very naughty and destroying the play room (purposely leaving food to rot in his toy boxes, drawing on walls and floors, throwing chalk everywhere). In short, I cannot leave the kids unattended for even a split second. If I really need to do something I’ll put baby in the exersaucer or his bouncer or jumper but he only lasts about 5-10 minutes. As I mentioned above, baby doesn’t nap long and when he does I eat lunch and take a break bc I don’t get to do that when older charge is home from preschool. I just feel that at the moment it is more important for me to focus on the kids as oppose to changing MB/DB bed or doing their laundry Of course anything child related for cleaning I’ll do (like their dishes and laundry). How can I approach this to MB without sounding lazy or complaining?

[Anonymous]

You were a good for agreeing yo do laundry other than children and for doing any housework inrelayed to cleaning up after you and children. Nannies are not housecleaners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You were a good for agreeing yo do laundry other than children and for doing any housework inrelayed to cleaning up after you and children. Nannies are not housecleaners.

Fool not good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You were a good for agreeing yo do laundry other than children and for doing any housework inrelayed to cleaning up after you and children. Nannies are not housecleaners.

Op here. Please do not respond to my post unless you have advice on how I can address this issue/ talk about it with MB. I don’t want none of this “nannies are not housekeepers” BS. If you want to talk about that, go start your own theead.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP.

Sit down and talk to your MB and DB. It's that simple. If you are afraid of them then maybe it's not a good match. This is real advice... if you asked me at the playground I would tell you the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You were a good for agreeing yo do laundry other than children and for doing any housework inrelayed to cleaning up after you and children. Nannies are not housecleaners.

Op here. Please do not respond to my post unless you have advice on how I can address this issue/ talk about it with MB. I don’t want none of this “nannies are not housekeepers” BS. If you want to talk about that, go start your own theead.

Okay. You made your bed, OP, now lie in it. Nannies are not house cleaners. Post on a house cleaner forum.

[Anonymous]

You agreed to make your employer’s bed?!! Gross!!

[Anonymous]

I was a SAHM when DD was an infant. A very challenging infant who needed near constant attention. Some kids are just like that. If the parents are good parents, they want you to prioritize the kids. Sit down and let them know that your days right now aren’t working and you need to revisit the current schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You were a good for agreeing yo do laundry other than children and for doing any housework inrelayed to cleaning up after you and children. Nannies are not housecleaners.

Op here. Please do not respond to my post unless you have advice on how I can address this issue/ talk about it with MB. I don’t want none of this “nannies are not housekeepers” BS. If you want to talk about that, go start your own theead.

NP here. Don’t come here complaining about how hard it is to wash your boss’s sex soaked sheets, mop their floors, wash their panties, etc. while taking care of two children. If you had any experience, you would have known that this was too much to ask, unless neither you nor the parents value educational activities and interaction with the children. You were a fool to agree to this, plain and simple.

Sit down and talk with MB. Tell her that the care you are able to provide her children is greatly jeopardized by your immense chore list and that typically families hire a housekeeper to do non-child related tasks. Look for a new job, either as a housekeeper or nanny, but not as big.

[Anonymous]

You can also write out a schedule of your current day and a schedule of your proposed day.

[Anonymous]

You need to talk to your bosses like yesterday.

Explain to them how tough it is for you to perform household tasks for them while caring for their children.
The fact that they even require doing so shows they could care less about the quality of care provided to their children + more about how to get the most from their money.
They never should have had kids....

But that is water under the proverbial bridge now I suppose.

Renegotiate your position NOW.
Let them know in no uncertain terms will you be doing anything other than providing childcare for their two kiddos.

You will of course, wash up any dishes used during your shift as well as have all the toys, books, puzzles, etc. picked up as well.

But due to the infant’s odd sleeping patterns, it is nearly impossible for you to be the family’s Personal Laundress, even for just the kids.

They can take their laundry to a drop-off laundromat or dry cleaning business.

And you should not be mopping their floors - this is just ludicrous.

If they do not agree, then issue them your walking papers & move on.
Tell them to hire an au pair of chambermaid.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

*or

[Anonymous]

As a working, full-time Nanny I hate the distraction of chores.

I hate stressing if I can get the children’s laundry washed, dried + folded/put away before the parents arrive home 2x/wk.

Or making sure all the dishes are loaded/unloaded in the dishwasher daily.

Caring for a young child is enough.
Assigning me chores like I am someone’s child is outrageous.

Are the parents also going to make a chore chart for me as well + give me little stickers after each chore is completed.....??!

[Anonymous]

You are a housekeeper who babysits, OP. You are not a nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You were a good for agreeing yo do laundry other than children and for doing any housework inrelayed to cleaning up after you and children. Nannies are not housecleaners.

Op here. Please do not respond to my post unless you have advice on how I can address this issue/ talk about it with MB. I don’t want none of this “nannies are not housekeepers” BS. If you want to talk about that, go start your own theead.

And of course people continue to make unhelpful posts re: nanny vs housekeeper. Ugh.

MB here. Agree w earlier poster that you need to talk w MB and DB. I would explain it basically how you did in your post. You can say you are generally comfortable with the scope of your agreed upon duties (which is why you agreed to them!) but during this phase in the children’s lives, you find that they keep you really busy for your entire shift just with their needs, and you can’t see a way to carve out time for the additional duties that would not involve giving one or both children less attention than they need. As an MB who stayed home for 4 months w my baby, I would understand bc I’ve been there myself!