Nanny venting on lice situation

[Anonymous]

OP here..thanks everyone for letting me vent...
After the last post I realize I have to move past this or I would not be doing a great service to my job of caring for these children...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here..I started getting annoyed because it wasn t just the infested children I had to deal with stripping beds..doing 3 loads of laundry..bagging stuff animals...while children screamed and misbehave..bathed and then shampoo hair..Trying to settle them while I painstakingly comb out nits..
What do you think happened when the parent came home..NOTHING...all that was left to do I told them was vacuum..I came in th e next day and it was not done...

I do get aggravated when I hear nannies say they do all those things to make mb's/db life better because they work and come home and care for their kids..Those of us who have families also go to work and work longer hours because we're on the job before they leave for work and after they're home..We also have husbands and children to care for after we enter our door..Some of don't go home a nd put our feet up like our work is done..

After I left their home where they had nothing left really to do to espouse their house I had the task of going home and doing t he same to mine. That night I finished my cleaning at a almost 12...
Do you want to guest what my employers were doing at that time..Sleeping..She said they were asleep about 9

Any guesses why I'm passed...

And this is where I call troll. Or stupid.

You work part time and apparently don't want to do childcare. You whine and whine about nothing and have nothing but resentment for your employers.

Please. Get a new job that doesn't require childcare. You are tiresome.

And you live in Florida.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny. I hate confrontation and I’m very shy. But this is one thing I’d have to stand up for myself for if this happended to me. I hope you communicate with the parents That this isn’t something you should be doing. If I only had one word of advice for you it would be BOUNDARIES. best of luck!

[Anonymous]

I would refuse. This is not part of a nanny's job! Absolutely disgusting.

[Anonymous]

When my child contracted lice once during elementary school, the school nurse called immediately because the person who brought them in was noticed immediately, so the entire class was checked. I was at the school picking up my child (and getting a crash course on what I was looking for since I had never seen them before) within 5 minutes. I took her home, treated her, washed her bedding, bagged up all stuffed animals and put them outside, sprayed everything down, including my car, and took her back to the school nurse for her to check her out (after I changed my clothes). The nurse proclaimed her good to go, we followed up twice according to the instructions, and no one else got them. I had my hair pulled back and under a ball cap during the treatment, and promptly washed the hat along with everything else. That was my only experience with it in my 25 years of parenting. It needs to be taken care of asap

[Anonymous]

We just went through this w/ our kids.

We got a letter from the school that there was lice in a classroom and our nanny checked the kids. She found the lice. She notified me, I went immediately to the drug store to buy the stuff and she and I treated the kids that afternoon (a Friday). I combed and picked over the weekend and the nanny kept that up during the week.

It took us the better part of two weeks to fully eradicate everything, inclusive of 2 shampoos and many hours of combing and picking. It turns out that our nanny (having experienced this before) is infinitely better than me AND the school nurse at spotting nits.

It was a colossal pain for all of us. The nanny and i worked together but she ended up bearing the brunt of it simply by virtue of time, availability, experience and expertise.

We gave her $150 as a bonus at the end of the first (and hardest) week.

I'm extremely grateful for her skill and willingness to be so diligent, but I also consider it part of her job. Ultimate responsibility rests w/ the parents of course, but if she had refused to participate, comb, pick, shampoo, launder, etc... it would not have sat well with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm extremely grateful for her skill and willingness to be so diligent, but I also consider it part of her job. Ultimate responsibility rests w/ the parents of course, but if she had refused to participate, comb, pick, shampoo, launder, etc... it would not have sat well with me.

I think the difference is you worked together to get the kids lice free. There's a huge difference between helping your nanny family out with something like that versus being expected to everything by yourself, usually without as much as a thank you. I'm sure your nanny was happy to help since it was a team effort. I wouldn't feel great in a situation if the parents left me literally everything to do and refused to vacuum themselves when they came home, ya know? Come to think of it the only time I ever feel negatively about the family's I work for is when I get the distinct impression standard tasks have been left for me to deal with (like coming in three days a week to overflowing trash in the kitchen, I did it once to be helpful and now DB suddenly refuses to do it at all. Mondays are a gross nightmare). I'd help with lice but if the family got bed bugs or something there'd be a me shaped hole in the door from how fast I ran away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just went through this w/ our kids.

We got a letter from the school that there was lice in a classroom and our nanny checked the kids. She found the lice. She notified me, I went immediately to the drug store to buy the stuff and she and I treated the kids that afternoon (a Friday). I combed and picked over the weekend and the nanny kept that up during the week.

It took us the better part of two weeks to fully eradicate everything, inclusive of 2 shampoos and many hours of combing and picking. It turns out that our nanny (having experienced this before) is infinitely better than me AND the school nurse at spotting nits.

It was a colossal pain for all of us. The nanny and i worked together but she ended up bearing the brunt of it simply by virtue of time, availability, experience and expertise.

We gave her $150 as a bonus at the end of the first (and hardest) week.

I'm extremely grateful for her skill and willingness to be so diligent, but I also consider it part of her job. Ultimate responsibility rests w/ the parents of course, but if she had refused to participate, comb, pick, shampoo, launder, etc... it would not have sat well with me.

You should have given her $15,000 bonus. Picking lice out of your kids hair is not a nanny's duty!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just went through this w/ our kids.

We got a letter from the school that there was lice in a classroom and our nanny checked the kids. She found the lice. She notified me, I went immediately to the drug store to buy the stuff and she and I treated the kids that afternoon (a Friday). I combed and picked over the weekend and the nanny kept that up during the week.

It took us the better part of two weeks to fully eradicate everything, inclusive of 2 shampoos and many hours of combing and picking. It turns out that our nanny (having experienced this before) is infinitely better than me AND the school nurse at spotting nits.

It was a colossal pain for all of us. The nanny and i worked together but she ended up bearing the brunt of it simply by virtue of time, availability, experience and expertise.

We gave her $150 as a bonus at the end of the first (and hardest) week.

I'm extremely grateful for her skill and willingness to be so diligent, but I also consider it part of her job. Ultimate responsibility rests w/ the parents of course, but if she had refused to participate, comb, pick, shampoo, launder, etc... it would not have sat well with me.

+1 And frankly, it takes the whole household to eradicate the lice. We too had this happen once. We parents were definitely involved in the washing, shampoo buying and nit-picking, but our AP was too. So glad we didn't have one of these no-nit nannies then. Not great in a foxhole!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an employer... I can totally understand that this wouldn't be fun, but assuming it's in your job description to take care of the kids, it seems like this would be included...

Also lice isn't transmitted typically except head-to-head contact, so unless you are rubbing your scalp against he children or their bedclothes you shold be okay

I’ve never seen a job description which includes delousing children. Taking care of them, sure. But shampooing their hair and picking out lice? No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an employer... I can totally understand that this wouldn't be fun, but assuming it's in your job description to take care of the kids, it seems like this would be included...

Also lice isn't transmitted typically except head-to-head contact, so unless you are rubbing your scalp against he children or their bedclothes you shold be okay

I’ve never seen a job description which includes delousing children. Taking care of them, sure. But shampooing their hair and picking out lice? No way.

Bathing kids has always been expected, at least for me. And if I don’t want a child to scratch, complain and spread the lice? Then, I need to help get rid of them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an employer... I can totally understand that this wouldn't be fun, but assuming it's in your job description to take care of the kids, it seems like this would be included...

Also lice isn't transmitted typically except head-to-head contact, so unless you are rubbing your scalp against he children or their bedclothes you shold be okay

I’ve never seen a job description which includes delousing children. Taking care of them, sure. But shampooing their hair and picking out lice? No way.

Bathing kids has always been expected, at least for me. And if I don’t want a child to scratch, complain and spread the lice? Then, I need to help get rid of them!

Then you take time off from work and do the dirty work. Absolutely disgraceful to expect a nanny to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an employer... I can totally understand that this wouldn't be fun, but assuming it's in your job description to take care of the kids, it seems like this would be included...

Also lice isn't transmitted typically except head-to-head contact, so unless you are rubbing your scalp against he children or their bedclothes you shold be okay

I’ve never seen a job description which includes delousing children. Taking care of them, sure. But shampooing their hair and picking out lice? No way.

Bathing kids has always been expected, at least for me. And if I don’t want a child to scratch, complain and spread the lice? Then, I need to help get rid of them!

Then you take time off from work and do the dirty work. Absolutely disgraceful to expect a nanny to do this.

I’m a nanny... and bathing kids has always been a part of my duties, as has dealing with injuries and illnesses. I’ve dealt with warts, pinworms, why would lice be any different? As I said, if I want kids to be comfortable and not complaining... then obviously I need to help.

[Anonymous]

Going through something similar. The children have been consistently getting lice for about 7 months now. Initially they paid a service for treatment while I helped bag and wash sheets/pillow/teddies etc. After the third contamination, all the heavy duty and delousing has been left for me to do. I’m quite exhausted and at my wits end. Im trying to figure out the best way to handle this but it’s hard when I feel alone in this. The kids lash out during treatments because they too are tired of the situation. It’s overall very draining and frustrating.

[Anonymous]

The employer is having you do the treatments?!? When my kids got lice, I did everything. I can’t imagine requiring my nanny to do any of that! I bought her some vamousse and fairy tales to take home with her and made sure I buttoned up the lice situation in my home asap. My nanny thankfully did not get lice. I told her if she did get it from us, I’d of course pay for her treatment.

I am shocked an employer would require this of you, unless they are paying you really really well. To me, this is the type of stuff that falls squarely on parents.