When cleaning up after the kids becomes cleaning up after the adults.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem here is one of degree and it may be that the various posters are closer to consensus than they think. I really can't imagine that many parents do no cleanup all weekend, leaving two days worth of dirty dishes and trash and toys strewn about and staring at overflowing diaper pails because "the nanny will do it" on Monday. On the other hand, some of you nannies seem a bit insecure about your chosen professional and are waaay quick to outrage when you think a fellow nanny might be getting treated like "the help."

The fact that a parent does not spend Sunday night getting the house in whatever condition the nanny is expected to leave it on Friday does not make him or her lazy or a poor parent, any more than your failure to take your charges shoe shopping and research school options and purge their closets makes you a bad nanny. Parents get their fair share of the "not fun" aspects of parenting, and then some. But if they are efficient about using their time, it will likely be a different set of "not fun" tasks than what the nanny is charged with doing. This is reality and the norm, as is clear from the other gripe thread about how much you all hate Mondays.

Parents are not all entitled slobs looking to take advantage of nannies. We're busy, and that is why we pay you to take over some of the more delegable aspects of raising children, including the extra cleanup on Mondays.

[Anonymous]

Some, not all, parents are slobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the problem here is one of degree and it may be that the various posters are closer to consensus than they think. I really can't imagine that many parents do no cleanup all weekend, leaving two days worth of dirty dishes and trash and toys strewn about and staring at overflowing diaper pails because "the nanny will do it" on Monday. On the other hand, some of you nannies seem a bit insecure about your chosen professional and are waaay quick to outrage when you think a fellow nanny might be getting treated like "the help."

The fact that a parent does not spend Sunday night getting the house in whatever condition the nanny is expected to leave it on Friday does not make him or her lazy or a poor parent, any more than your failure to take your charges shoe shopping and research school options and purge their closets makes you a bad nanny. Parents get their fair share of the "not fun" aspects of parenting, and then some. But if they are efficient about using their time, it will likely be a different set of "not fun" tasks than what the nanny is charged with doing. This is reality and the norm, as is clear from the other gripe thread about how much you all hate Mondays.

Parents are not all entitled slobs looking to take advantage of nannies. We're busy, and that is why we pay you to take over some of the more delegable aspects of raising children, including the extra cleanup on Mondays.

No one said that its ALL parents. OP said HER employers do this, and I know I've had employers do it, and I think just about every nanny on here can say the same. No one likes emptying the diaper pail. If its the weekend, you're busy/tired, and you have a dedicated nanny that you know will take care of it, its easy to fall into the [lazy] habit of simply leaving it for her. It happens slowly, at first, and then you begin to rationalize it; its her job right? I shouldn't have to do this! Before you know it, you're routinely leaving a giant mess from the weekend because its easier to have her do it, and you've convinced yourself its what you're paying for. Your nanny becomes resentful, and feels unappreciated and is no longer the wonderful dedicated nanny you started out with.

Also as an aside, what makes you all think that you're so much more busy than the rest of the world?? I'm busy. If I leave a mess around my house all weekend no one comes to clean after me. I'd be ashamed to leave my house a mess for someone else to clean, unless their job explicitly was to clean my home. If you have a gardener, do you leave garbage from your weekend yard party to sit until he comes, since you're so busy?? Grow up ladies.

[nannydebsays]

Anonymous wrote:I think the problem here is one of degree and it may be that the various posters are closer to consensus than they think. I really can't imagine that many parents do no cleanup all weekend, leaving two days worth of dirty dishes and trash and toys strewn about and staring at overflowing diaper pails because "the nanny will do it" on Monday. On the other hand, some of you nannies seem a bit insecure about your chosen professional and are waaay quick to outrage when you think a fellow nanny might be getting treated like "the help."

The fact that a parent does not spend Sunday night getting the house in whatever condition the nanny is expected to leave it on Friday does not make him or her lazy or a poor parent, any more than your failure to take your charges shoe shopping and research school options and purge their closets makes you a bad nanny. Parents get their fair share of the "not fun" aspects of parenting, and then some. But if they are efficient about using their time, it will likely be a different set of "not fun" tasks than what the nanny is charged with doing. This is reality and the norm, as is clear from the other gripe thread about how much you all hate Mondays.

Parents are not all entitled slobs looking to take advantage of nannies. We're busy, and that is why we pay you to take over some of the more delegable aspects of raising children, including the extra cleanup on Mondays.

Odd, I also do the shoe shopping, the closet purging, and the school option researching. Guess I am not in any way shape or form a "bad nanny", huh?

No one is saying all parents are slobs. What people are saying is that parents who take on the "yucky" stuff when they are in charge of their children are much more likely to RETAIN their super nanny. Parents who don't? They'll be replacing nanny every year or so, when the annoyance and burn-out get to be too much for any nanny.

[Anonymous]

nannydebsays wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the problem here is one of degree and it may be that the various posters are closer to consensus than they think. I really can't imagine that many parents do no cleanup all weekend, leaving two days worth of dirty dishes and trash and toys strewn about and staring at overflowing diaper pails because "the nanny will do it" on Monday. On the other hand, some of you nannies seem a bit insecure about your chosen professional and are waaay quick to outrage when you think a fellow nanny might be getting treated like "the help."

The fact that a parent does not spend Sunday night getting the house in whatever condition the nanny is expected to leave it on Friday does not make him or her lazy or a poor parent, any more than your failure to take your charges shoe shopping and research school options and purge their closets makes you a bad nanny. Parents get their fair share of the "not fun" aspects of parenting, and then some. But if they are efficient about using their time, it will likely be a different set of "not fun" tasks than what the nanny is charged with doing. This is reality and the norm, as is clear from the other gripe thread about how much you all hate Mondays.

Parents are not all entitled slobs looking to take advantage of nannies. We're busy, and that is why we pay you to take over some of the more delegable aspects of raising children, including the extra cleanup on Mondays.

Odd, I also do the shoe shopping, the closet purging, and the school option researching. Guess I am not in any way shape or form a "bad nanny", huh?

No one is saying all parents are slobs. What people are saying is that parents who take on the "yucky" stuff when they are in charge of their children are much more likely to RETAIN their super nanny. Parents who don't? They'll be replacing nanny every year or so, when the annoyance and burn-out get to be too much for any nanny.

As an MB, I feel like I do my share of "yucky" stuff when I am with the kids, but I also leave plenty of less urgent "yucky" stuff that I could do for my truly great, experienced, college-educated nanny to handle on Monday. For example, I will empty a diaper pail that is overflowing or stinky, but I don't routinely empty it on Sundays, though I do expect the nanny to routinely empty it on Friday afternoons. That's just one of many similar examples. Judging by how long our fabulous, college-educated, experienced nanny has stuck around, it is not an arrangement that she has a problem with. However, if she ever developed the attitude I hear on this board, I don't think I would mind losing her, because as talented as she is, she would no longer be meeting my needs as an employer.

[Anonymous]

Also as an aside, what makes you all think that you're so much more busy than the rest of the world?? I'm busy.

While you are on the clock for the employer you aren't supposed to be "busy" doing your own thing. Your employer is paying you for set hours. Your employer can change the % of time spent on tasks. Your employer may decide that its fine if you and the kids don't go on an outing every single day so you can do the laundry or clean up the toys from the weekend. Frankly, I doubt any of you give a second thought about missing out on engaging the kids every single second while you are on the clock. You simply don't want to do things that aren't fun but work isn't always fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also as an aside, what makes you all think that you're so much more busy than the rest of the world?? I'm busy.

While you are on the clock for the employer you aren't supposed to be "busy" doing your own thing. Your employer is paying you for set hours. Your employer can change the % of time spent on tasks. Your employer may decide that its fine if you and the kids don't go on an outing every single day so you can do the laundry or clean up the toys from the weekend. Frankly, I doubt any of you give a second thought about missing out on engaging the kids every single second while you are on the clock. You simply don't want to do things that aren't fun but work isn't always fun.

You are an idiot. The person you quoted was talking about their weekends. The person they were talking about was an MB saying they were busy on the weekends. The PP quoted above said they are busy on weekends as well. Busy has nothing to do with it. I can be busy all weekend long, but any mess I make will sit there until I get around to doing it, whether it be Saturday, Sunday night, or next Thursday.

Parents need to realize that it's not like they have hired a housekeeper whose job duties include picking up after their bosses weekends, that it is not the nannies duty to do so. Asking the nanny to do a few little things occasionally that are not child related, or was from the weekend during their off hours is one thing, expecting the nanny to start being a household manager/family assistant/housekeeper in addition to her actual job duties specified during interviews and contract, is not ok! If you want someone that does all that extra stuff, ASK FOR IT before you hire them. Then you will find the ones that are willing to do it, but also will find that many will expect more money for their pay rate, since you are asking for job duties that are not standard to a nanny position.

If I am hired to help tidy up the kitchen, I will occasionally empty the dishwasher and put my stuff and kids into it, but I will not load your nasty dishes from the whole weekend, wash the pots and pans by hand, and do this every freaking Monday morning. I will help the kids clean up all week long, but I also expect that the parents should be able to handle cleaning up during the weekends the majority of the time. You clean as you go. If you don't end up spending much time at home, less time playing with the toys, then there will be less of a mess and easier to clean. If you spend all weekend at home and they have the time to take out all the toys, then you have plenty of time to go and pick up some of them throughout the day.

The people talking about nannies being lazy and not wanting to do something that is not fun are trying to lie to themselves that they aren't lazy asses themselves. If a nanny does it willingly all week long, she is not lazy. But it IS understandable that she doesn't want to clean up after your kids weekend, when it looks like a tornado hit the house sometime after they left on Friday. That is your duty, stop shirking it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also as an aside, what makes you all think that you're so much more busy than the rest of the world?? I'm busy.

While you are on the clock for the employer you aren't supposed to be "busy" doing your own thing. Your employer is paying you for set hours. Your employer can change the % of time spent on tasks. Your employer may decide that its fine if you and the kids don't go on an outing every single day so you can do the laundry or clean up the toys from the weekend. Frankly, I doubt any of you give a second thought about missing out on engaging the kids every single second while you are on the clock. You simply don't want to do things that aren't fun but work isn't always fun.

That's just the thing dipshit. In said scenario, nanny is OFF the clock. It's the weekend.

[Anonymous]

No the nanny is doing the cleaning while she is on the clock. You really are an incredibly lazy worker.

[Anonymous]

The people talking about nannies being lazy and not wanting to do something that is not fun are trying to lie to themselves that they aren't lazy asses themselves. If a nanny does it willingly all week long, she is not lazy. But it IS understandable that she doesn't want to clean up after your kids weekend, when it looks like a tornado hit the house sometime after they left on Friday. That is your duty, stop shirking it!

You seem to lack understanding that you were hired to do a job. The employer can choose to outsource whatever she wants. Its not her duty to launder the clothes the kids wore them on the weekend if she decided to hire a nanny to do laundry.

If you don't want the job, you are free to quit. The reason so many of you are angry is that you have this fantasy of a job that requires no work. You don't quit because you know that its difficult to find another job and even harder to find one that requires little work. This should tell you that work is actually work. As a nanny, your job is to make the families life easier not expect the family to do whatever they can to minimize your workload while they are paying you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No the nanny is doing the cleaning while she is on the clock. You really are an incredibly lazy worker.

Omg did you even read the OP?? She's cleaning the mess on the clock yes, but she's cleaning on Monday morning all the mess from the weekend. We aren't talking a few dishes, and some toys left out. The parents don't clean ANYTHING on the weekend and leave it for the nanny. If you think that's acceptable, please say so in your interviews, so that we can all run far far away! Not wanting to be your family's wife/mother while you run around calling yourself that 'cause you think it makes you sound cool but you're far too busy and important to actually be, does not make me a lazy worker. It makes you a sorry excuse for a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The people talking about nannies being lazy and not wanting to do something that is not fun are trying to lie to themselves that they aren't lazy asses themselves. If a nanny does it willingly all week long, she is not lazy. But it IS understandable that she doesn't want to clean up after your kids weekend, when it looks like a tornado hit the house sometime after they left on Friday. That is your duty, stop shirking it!

You seem to lack understanding that you were hired to do a job. The employer can choose to outsource whatever she wants. Its not her duty to launder the clothes the kids wore them on the weekend if she decided to hire a nanny to do laundry.

If you don't want the job, you are free to quit. The reason so many of you are angry is that you have this fantasy of a job that requires no work. You don't quit because you know that its difficult to find another job and even harder to find one that requires little work. This should tell you that work is actually work. As a nanny, your job is to make the families life easier not expect the family to do whatever they can to minimize your workload while they are paying you.

Not talking about laundry(which is done 1-2 times a week on set days most likely). Dishes should be done daily. The diaper pail should be emptied whenever and as soon as its full. Same for trash bags. Toys should be out away throughout the day if you're raising responsible children. If you act like a responsible adult, and teach your children to act in same, there should not be a mess on Monday any bigger than any other morning of the week. The reason so many of you are indignant is because you have a fantasy of being supermom,career woman, and socialite in your mind, but in reality you'd like someone to do the real work while you just do the stuff you like but you also don't want to pay/can't afford the people who actually do those things for you, so you hire a nanny(childcare) and try to assign her everything under the sun that isn't fun for you. Your inflated elitist ego thinks that because you are employer you can define your job as whatever you like, and that's true to an extent, but only as much as the market will bear. If your family is pay $15/hour and wants me to do whatever the eff you want at your whim, but another(most) families want me to provide great childcare and leave the house like I found it, also for $15/hour, who do you think I choose to work for? Please put in your next ad explicitly that once hired all duties will be your nanny's SOLE responsibility and that you contribute nothing, and see how many acceptable candidates you get, then see the ungodly rates they quote you.

[Anonymous]

MB here. I am quasi-compulsive about keeping the house neat and organized. It is true that in our house, at least, I would never leave a weekend's worth of dirty dishes piled in the sink, or large messes on the floor. If OP's family does that, then they are not very considerate (or clean).

However, it is also true that I do not always fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher; and that I sometimes do not get to making the beds, or putting away clothes from the night before.

Our nannies (two in twelve years) have always done this light housekeeping (make the beds, fold everyone's laundry and put it away, do the prep work for meals, vacuum dust or dirt off the kitchen/living room floor, work in tandem with me to organize drawers and closets, bookshelves and cabinets). I greatly appreciate the nanny's help with all of these tasks.

I think that other posters have it right, there is a difference between asking and expecting your nanny to do relatively "normal" (but perhaps still time-consuming and difficult) work around the house, and showing no consideration by leaving piles of dirty dishes and household items strewn everywhere like a slob.

After all, would you like to pick up after MB's used tampons (not done here, but the same slippery slope)?

[Anonymous]

Our nannies (two in twelve years) have always done this light housekeeping (make the beds, fold everyone's laundry and put it away, do the prep work for meals, vacuum dust or dirt off the kitchen/living room floor, work in tandem with me to organize drawers and closets, bookshelves and cabinets). I greatly appreciate the nanny's help with all of these tasks.

I think that other posters have it right, there is a difference between asking and expecting your nanny to do relatively "normal" (but perhaps still time-consuming and difficult) work around the house, and showing no consideration by leaving piles of dirty dishes and household items strewn everywhere like a slob.

We are similar but I don't view our nanny doing light housekeeping (including unloading dishes that were done the night before, doing or folding laundry from the weekend, making beds, or organizing toys that were left out) as a favor. This is part of her job. I appreciate that she does a good job but its not an optional thing. Our job involves light housekeeping and this includes doing things that occurred over the weekend.

[Anonymous]

I completely understand what the OP is saying. There are some parents that leave everything they've used on the weekend for the nanny to clean up on Monday. I mean underwear on the floor, clothes laying around everywhere, all the toys (that i was required to organize and put away during the week) out on the den, living room or kitchen floor. Dirty dishes from Friday or Saturday night still in the sink. Most nannies know there is light housekeeping during the week when we are on the CLOCK. On the weekend its your turn. Parents only deal with this type of work for 2 days and 3 nights and its not hard to do.
Loading up the dishwasher, taking out trash from the weekend (if MB can't do it then maybe DB can help if you're both home) putting toys away just takes a few minutes at a time. Plus I find if kids are taught to be responsible it become a habit and will not be such a struggle later. If you really don't have time please, please let your requirements known and compensate accordingly or have some type of incentive attractive for your nanny to be able to decide you are worth working for. I'm telling you this makes a big difference. If you cant afford it please help out.