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[quote=Anonymous] Nanny here. It is definitely fair and reasonable for you to expect her to come in and do a few kid related tasks while you are out of town. My current nanny family has taken 4 trips this year; three of them were long weekends and I worked until noon on Friday (normal end time is 6pm) and then had Monday off and resumed work on Tuesday morning; one trip was a week long.

Every long weekend they left me with a short list of child related tasks to finish; things like reorganizing the play area in the basement, going through the kids closets and getting out or putting away seasonal clothing, etc. Every time the family left around noon and I was able to complete the tasks and leave between 4 and 5pm, so I still got off a little early for the day, plus I had a nice 3 day weekend ahead of me, which was lovely.

Most of my nanny families who have guaranteed my hours were rather... frugal about their vacations, specifically waiting until I'd decided my week off and coordinating their vacation with mine, or timing their weekend trips with holidays that I already had off with pay. I have been so excited that my current NF actually travels and gives me a little extra paid time off, that I have been more than happy to do a few extra tasks while they're gone.

Having said that, the one thing that does occur to me is this: if you told your nanny "we will be out of town on these dates...." and did not tell her at that same time "while we are gone we will be asking you to work one or two days taking care of things at home...." Because, if nanny was told that you would be gone, but had not specifically been told at the same time that you did still expect her to do some work, I could see that she might be disappointed to find that out later. Maybe her last nanny family traveled often and never asked her to do tasks in their absence. Maybe she made plans of her own for that time, not realizing you'd ask her to do some work.

I'm not saying it was okay for her to assume you didn't expect any work to get done while you're gone, nor does it excuse the push back you describe, but, if that is how it went (she knew the dates you'd be out of town before she knew you still expected her to work a little during that time), then I'd try to talk to her and say something like "I'm sorry we didn't explain to you from the beginning that you are still expected to do some work while we're gone, I can see why that would be disappointing to hear about after you were expecting to have this time off. Ultimately you'll be getting the one week off of our choosing over this trip, but you are also getting extra time off, beyond what we'd agreed to in our contact, because our trip is longer than one week and you have guaranteed hours. Part of having guaranteed hours is providing guaranteed availability during those hours; you are guaranteeing to us that you are available to work during that time. These tasks are ones that need to get done, and are easiest to do when the kids are out of the house, which is why we're asking you to do them at this time. Even if the tasks take you 14 hours (which they probably won't), you're still getting paid for 26 other hours that week that you won't be working, on top of the 40 hours paid the following week that we will be out of town [or whatever number of hours she usually works in a week]. Part of having a good nanny and nanny family relationship is a little compromise; we're paying you for extra time off beyond what was agreed to in the contract, can you compromise and spend just 2 short days doing these child related tasks in our absence?"

And in the future of course always tell nanny from the very beginning that she is still expected to do some work during your trip.

Now if you DID tell her from square one that you were expecting her to do chores during your trip and she's still "pushing back" honestly I would take it as a sign that she is expecting a lot of you while being generally unwilling to help you out when needed, and that would make me consider looking for another nanny. Good luck![/quote]

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