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[quote=Anonymous]When we hired nanny, I told her that I really wanted her to set up regular playdates for DD with a few girls close in age to her.  Nanny was very enthusiastic about the idea and in her first month, she told me about several nannies with similarly aged girls she met, they exchanged #s etc.  Fast forward six months and pretty much no playdates.  Well, they have one with a good friend of nanny and her charge who is 12 months old.  DD is 2.  This disconcerts me for the following reasons:

1. Nanny is not fulfilling a job duty that was disclosed from the beginning.  Nanny has acknowledged that her friend's charge is too young for DD so it's not like she mistakenly thinks that this qualifies as a playdate with a girl 'close in age.'

2. Nanny meeting up with her nanny friend in itself doesn't bother me.  Our old nanny every once in a while would meet up with her sister (who occasionally sits for us) and sometimes when the sister watches DD, she brings along one of her kids.  I think it's good for DD to get different kinds of socialization.  Having said that, nanny has met up with her friend three times in the past 10 days.  It makes me feel like I'm paying nanny to hang out with her friend.  I also feel that by hanging out with her good friend, she's not paying attention to other nannies at the playground with whom she could connect.

I feel comfortable speaking with nanny about #1, but not so sure about #2 and wondering what other people think about this.  I personally think it is not okay for them to meet so frequently in light of #1.  But even if nanny was having other playdates, it still seems weird to me that they meet up so frequently with her friend.  Would this be an issue for other MBs?  I know that working as a nanny is inherently a mix of personal and professional, e.g., nannies making friends with other nannies, but their meeting up so often makes me wonder about her professionalism.  Nanny has shown a lack of  professionalism in other ways so this nanny friend thing is striking a chord that it otherwise wouldn't.

One thing I want to add: I KNOW that DD is just parallel playing and some people scoff at the idea of playdates at this age.  Having said that, I do think that DD gets something out of spending time with kids around her age.  DD and I have a regular playdate with one kid and they are constantly observing what the other one is doing, mimicking and learning from each other, and besides, they enjoy each other's company (they get really excited when they see each other and cry when we part ways).  [/quote]

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