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[quote=Anonymous]Hello! We just employed out first nanny, as I'm starting graduate school and currently studying for the GRE/ volunteering and doing network related stuff for my field of interest. We have a nanny who has years of experience with kids, and while she is great with our DD, I have noticed that sometimes she's a big lack luster depending on the job tasks. My husband works crazy hours and she knows this. When we hired her we went through an agency, we pay her top dollar and we want to have a team approach.

What I have noticed though she that she doesn't think outside the box in terms of her job. When DD naps, and on average naps 2-3 plus hours, the nanny will sit all day and not do any child related things, unless I ask. In her contract she is only required to take care of DD things, and she knows this. Yet, stuff like disinfecting toys, or throwing away broken toys, or vaccumming DD's playroom is not something she will do. Part of her job is to load and unload dishwasher, and she will put dishes in dishwasher with crumbs. It seems to me that when it comes to the fun stuff, she is great, yet when it comes to doing the mundane tasks, she does the bare minimum and I find myself fixing what she didn't do. Lately she's been coming back from outings later than 1, and then she says she doesn't have time to cook or bake chicken for DD that takes 20 minutes to heat up in oven. Also, she acted like she couldn't bother to get creative with meals for DD. So I got tips from a friend who's a nutritionist and we're making an "option" list so DD can pick stuff from different categories for variety. When she started she did not properly buckle DD into the carseat, so I had to show her how to. The seat belt was loose. This is not the type of thing I would expect from a season nannied. She came highly recommended with glowing references and is considered a career nanny, but sometimes I find she lacks common sense-the car seat issue being the most noticeable one. She also left towels that were not all the way dried in a bag, "ready" for swim and I went and re-loaded them to fully dry. The main reason we wanted someone of her caliber was so she could be a step ahead and take initiative, but I'm finding that she doesn't.

We don't mind if she takes an hour break, but how can we tell her we'd like for her to really make it a priority to full engage in her job-even with things she doesn't care for, like checking DD inventory, sanitizing toys? If on the occasion she really has nothing to do all the hours DD naps, that's fine but it seems more often than not I can find stuff that need done related to DD, and she doesn't take the initiative to do it, so I mention that if she gets time, if she could do X, but I don't always want to check in on her like this. We’ve sat down and I’ve told her our expectations I’m thinking that maybe we misconstrued something.

Nannies, any suggestions or tips? Am I missing something here? We give her a credit card to use, she goes on playdates, we buy her food and drinks that she likes. We want her to know we appreciate her. We also give her a health stipend and for Valentine's gave her a gift. She is also on guaranteed hours and does receive OT, if we go over, but we haven't yet. Taxes are also taken out. We want a good and respectful, and professional relationship. We understand she a really important job to do. She did make it a point to say she is here to make our lives easier, but sometimes I'm not sure that's the case. In years to come, we did talk about transitioning to house manager, but that is when DD gets older. [/quote]

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