Do I need to have a talk about being wasteful with my nanny?
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Anonymous
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So, I just found out my nanny drank all the bottled water I had bought for Sandy and future storms this winter.
It's not a big deal and if you ask me if I can afford it, yes. I noticed it was only 3.99 when it is on sale for a pack of 24. Assuming she goes through 1.5 a day, a pack of 24 will last 2-3 weeks and ten dollars a month is not a huge deal. Bigger deal is trying to keep it stocked and hauling it home. (My nanny doesn't do grocery shopping so I have to do it. She says she doesn't think she can handle that and watching my child at the same time but she will go get a few things once in a while). Her attitude that because we are employers we must be rich and all her spending is a drop in the bucket is what bothers me. Yes, we can afford the water as well as a lot of other things she is extremely wasteful with at our house. But we have values about money and drink filtered water at home ourselves. We don't say "let's make homemade bubble solution" and go through a whole bottle of dish detergent. Sure, we can afford that $4 bottle of dish detergent too and she doesn't do it every day but a bottle of bubble solution at CVS is sooo much cheaper than my dish soap. Does this warrant a talk? |
Anonymous
OP here. I won't list everything but those are not the only examples of wastefulness. |
Anonymous
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OP here again.
Another example? I bought some scrapbooking materials of varying quality to do arts and crafts. She uses up all the nice stickers and things the first week then tells me I need to buy more next time I'm out. I check the box and there are plenty of other things left but I guess she doesn't even see them or something because they aren't as nice. They still sit there to this day. |
Anonymous
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I think that this is something you and nanny are just not on the same page with. You can sit down with her and talk about wanting to conserve things, etc., but ultimately, the difference between going to crazy lengths and being insanely cheap and simply trying to practice basic frugality is a judgement call, and she doesn't seem to share your judgement. If it's to the point where this is an ongoing problem, then you should probably replace her.
Unrelatedly, if she is only caring for one child and the child doesn't have any special needs or major behavior issues, she should be able to run to the store now and then. It's not in a typical nanny description to do major grocery shopping, but she should at least be willing to replenish things that she has used herself (although, frankly, I wouldn't trust her with much money with her attitude). |
Anonymous
I would care more about this than her drinking the water. What kind of nanny can't handle one child and doing a grocery trip?? OP it sounds like you have a lazy and entitled nanny (not because of the water but because of other wasteful things). You should hire a new nanny who will perform reasonable tasks. Most nannies actually like doing the grocery store errand. It gets them out of the house. They can add things in that they like if you provide lunch and snacks. They can pick up things for themselves and get their shopping done at the same time. |
Anonymous
| I hate this attitude. I'm as well off as I am because I am thrifty and NOT wasteful. So I think you should have a talk with her about "Please feel free to help yourself to the filtered water rather than plain sink water, but these cases of bottled water are us in case of storms or power outages." "Please use up all the art supplies before asking me to spend money on more. You're so creative I'll bet you can think up something wonderful!" "DH and I would appreciate if you would be mindful of costs when using supplies and playing with the kids. It's a skill we feel is important to learn and we'd like you to enforce that with them." |
Anonymous
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I'd say just don't buy what you don't want her to use.
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Anonymous
| 1.5 bottles a day? That's wasteful? That's not even as much as she needs to drink a day. If you're really that concerned with her excessive water drinking buy her a reusable water bottle and a Brita pitcher. |
Anonymous
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She might not realize you're saving the water for a storm. Don't expect her to be a mind reader.
If you see that she's been making bubble solution then buy some so she has bubbles! This has to be a troll. |
Anonymous
She gets a budget each month so she can buy her own bubbles out of her budget. She has been with us long enough to know eveeyone drinks out of the brita filter in the fridge. I am so sick of her being a princess and having us fund her lifestyle. Small things yes, but I know she is not that way with her things. She is entirely opposite with her own money budgeting to the cent. And before you feel sorry for her, she is a student still living with her parents and they pay for her housing, food so her thrift with her own money is not out of necessity. I just found something else she did not related to money this time but doing something with ours that she wouldn't do with her own things. I am tempted to fire her monday but probably should and will find replacement first. |
Anonymous
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What did she do?
I probably use to many paper towels than I should. |
Anonymous
I agree with this. However, you just sound fed up with her and like you don't really want to resolve the problem. You should part ways. With the next nanny, make sure all the house policies etc are clear. Our nanny is great and we couldn't be happier with her but she was leaving all the lights on all the time when going out with the kids, even though this is actually something that is mentioned in the contract (i.e. that we try to conserve energy and that includes turning off lights - sounds picky I know, but it is in the contract because we have had this issue before - we even had a live-in nanny who would leave the TV on in her suite all day when she was working). When the lights were still being left on, I asked her to get the kids involved in turning out the lights every time they go out, which works really well. |
Anonymous
Then fire her! There seems to be some underlying issues that you aren't mentioning. But really, if you're so unhappy with her, then find a new nanny. |
thewildbaby
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Everything else you've posted is irrelevant - you are not happy with your nanny, so you should find someone else. She sounds too comfortable in your home and in her ways to make substantial changes to her behavior, so begin looking for a new nanny and give your current one her appropriate notice when you have someone else lined up. Be sure to discuss your approach to spending with the new candidates, as well as your desire for her to do grocery shopping or anything else - I don't think you'll have trouble finding someone wonderful who shares your thrifty approach AND is happy to take your DC to the store once a week. A nanny should make your life easier, not add to your stress! |
Anonymous
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OP I'm a nanny and I'm totally with you. She should be drinking it of a glass our a kleen kanteen our something, not adding more plastic bottles to the land fill. Argh, this kind of thing makes me crazy. I don't but plastic bags anymore except for freezer items..I used reusable cloth our wax paper bags. usually homemade bubbles are cheaper and nearly always better quality. If she's going thru that much dish soap then she's not doing it right and maybe she needs to spend 30 seconds on google to get a recipe that works. It's usually 1/4 c, water, sugar, done. Pretty easy and cheap and MUCH MUCH better than any store bought crap except gymboree. There's a reason cheap bubbles are cheap...they don't work.
But anyway, I definitely think you have a right to expect her to conserve. Tell her the budget for craft supplies is X every X weeks and she can get the supplies she wants but you won't replace them until X amount of time it until X amount if used out whatever. |