Questions from a newbie
![[Post New]](/nanny-forum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
We are in the process of hiring an experienced nanny who seems just wonderful to care for our twin babies. I have a couple of dumb questions I thought I'd bring up here.
-Food: our babies aren't eating solids yet, so nanny only needs to give bottles. Do we provide food/lunch for nanny, or does she bring her own? -Chaos: our house can be kind of a mess sometimes. We have cleaners in regularly and we make an effort to pick up, but we have a small house that gets cluttered easily, esp with all the baby gear. We'll make an extra effort with the nanny starting, but should I feel guilty if things are a bit sloppy sometimes? We don't expect her to pick up after us. Thanks for any advice! |
Anonymous
|
MB with twins.
Re food - what you provide or not is up to you. We stated in our contract that we will not provide food for the nanny but he/she is free to bring whatever she likes and we provide cabinet space for her to keep food at our place. (We also provide some space for toiletries and a change of clothing, etc...) As the relationship has evolved it frequently happens that I cook food so that there are leftovers for the kids, ample for the nanny to have if she wishes, I'll sometimes buy things I know she enjoys when I do the shopping, she'll sometimes make a big meal and leave dinner for us, etc... But it's good to start off with some clarity and I preferred not to add another person's needs to my routine shopping. Chaos - get used to it.  Any experienced nanny has probably seen a wide range of things in people's home. Your sensitivity to keeping things under control is great - and hopefully you'll find the nanny to be an asset in managing that as well. (If she keeps order to all the kid areas during the day it will be easier for you to maintain that the rest of the time.) Try never to leave your messes for her and try to let her come into a reasonably calm, ordered environment at the start of her workday. If you picked the right nanny for your family you and she will become a team in managing your kids' environment and needs.
If your nanny has twin experience that will be a huge help to you also. Good luck and congrats on the twins!! (Have you joined your local parents of multiples group yet? I have found that network to be incredibly helpful, especially in the first couple of years.) |
Anonymous
| How many hours a week will the nanny work? |
Anonymous
Irrelevant and non-responsive. |
Anonymous
I disagree. If she's PT, she might not be expecting to need to eat at work, no? |
Anonymous
Ok, fair enough - that's an instance where hours might change an answer. But I still don't think your response was helpful to the OP. Put it in context - "number of hours per day might change my expectations about whether you would provide food, or the level of maintenance of play space I'd be expected to provide..." would be more helpful. It's a sign I've been on DCUM too long- I see the same old fights coming before they've even started! 
|
Anonymous
| OP here---standard 8-5, so lunchtime here. |
nannydebsays
Member Offline
Member Offline
|
The answer does depend on the hours the nanny is working. I'm assuming she's working the typical 7 - 6 shift.
OP, for now, I would ask your nanny to bring her meals, and offer to keep simple breakfast/lunch food on hand for her. Cereal and milk, fruit, frozen meals, sandwich fixings - nothing fancy, just basic supplies, as well as any favorite drinks. In my experience, life is much simpler once my charges are eating table foods if I eat what they eat. Kids always want the food they don't have, and if there is nothing to beg nanny to share, meals are much more pleasant, IMO. In addition, since I am pleasing my palate and the kids palates too, they get more variety on their plates, which makes for better nutrition. Congrats and good luck! |
Anonymous
| OP here---standard 8-5, so lunchtime here. |
Anonymous
| It's really best to discuss this directly with the nanny. Some will automatically not want to eat whatever food you may have, while others will expect you to invite them to add run-of-the-mill things to your grocery list. Really depends what they're accustomed to, and what they prefer. You don't want this sort of thing to turn into a big issue. |
Anonymous
|
Nanny here (with twin experience too! Congratulations, twins are a blast!), and I agree that the simplest thing with regards to food is to tell Nanny that you will not be providing food for her, but set-aside and identify for her a bit of cupboard and fridge space where she can keep her things when she comes. You are welcome to provide food, but I do know that some nannies tend to take advantage, and I think it is always better to start off strict and then be more generous later rather than to start off generous and have to rein something in after-the-fact.
I agree with a previous poster that the best case scenario for kids who are eating solids is to have a nanny who is going to prepare them a wide variety of healthy foods from scratch and is interested in eating the same foods herself, since the kids will be much more likely to actually eat healthy food when they see the adults in front of them eating the same. The efficacity of this approach of course depends upon the individual nanny and whether she herself is eating things that are in line with what you want for your children (e.g. if you were a vegetarian household and she was bringing hotdogs for lunch, or if you prefer whole foods and she packs Lean Cuisine each day). As far as the mess, I would simply think through which parts of the house she will need to use as her "office." If the sink is full of dishes, then she may feel that she is expected to wash them as she is cleaning the bottles. If you share a bathroom with the babies and your make up is all over the counter, it may make it more difficult for her to give them a bath. If your laundry is interspersed with the babies' laundry and left in piles in the playroom, she may feel that you expect her to fold your clothes as well. I am actually a nanny who would gladly help with any of those situations, but I also know many nannies who would quickly grow frustrated with that sort of environment. Until you know what kind of nanny you have and what her attitude is with regards to helping around the house, I would pay close attention to the areas of the house that she will be using and guarantee that the messes there are at least baby-related messes. That said, I think most nannies get that having twin infants is pretty chaotic. |
Anonymous
This is great advice, OP. An excellent post. |
Anonymous
|
I know the chaos of having twins but I really don't like working in a messy house. If you and your DH could just make sure that the areas the nanny with use - kitchen, babies room and play area are clean and picked up - that would be most helpful. I'll clean, do bottles, babies' laundry, make their baby food and clean up afterwards, clean toys and leave your house exactly as it was when I arrived but with twins there is no time to pick up after the parents.
I prefer to bring my own lunch but that issue is something you could bring up with your new nanny. |
Anonymous
What a fool this irrelevant poster is. |