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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You're completely entitled to that opinion, and no one is saying you aren't. I am also entitled to lower my rate from that of a professional nanny and to seek out families that will be SUPPORTIVE of my academic endeavors. They aren't hard to find, but I'm not surprised to see its a rare quality of a DCUM MB. You all are notoriously awful, just like the nannies you hate on. None of my employers have ever expressed being butt hurt that I don't do a whole bunch of extra BS (not in my contract) during nap simply because the time exists. I do my homework, and I do my job. That's all that matters to them. [/quote]

Hey come on now.  I think the difference is that the MBs are arguing theoretical black and white and the nannies are arguing actual situations.  We're talking about different things.  I agree that if you say to a perspective employer - "I am offering my services at X lower rate because I am planning to spend my free time doing my homework" and they agree, then good for you.  No one has an issue with that, I'm sure.  No one has said on here "I agreed with my nanny that I would offer her a lower rate and she would do her homework, and now I think that's lazy."  That's not the situation any of the MBs have been talking about.

And we all also only have our own perspectives in mind.  So when I read that your employers never expressed any..."butt hurt"...my first reaction is - did they know you were spending so much time doing homework?  Was that part of the agreement?  Did they care and just never say anything?  My reaction is that way because I would personally never hire a nanny with the agreement that she could do two hours of homework during the day.  If I found out that she was routinely spending two hours a day on homework, and she wasn't otherwise amazing, I most certainly wouldn't be happy.  I can see many a situation where an MB is seeing something she wouldn’t prefer is happening, but just lets it go.  Again, YMMV based on your particular situation.

If I personally had a nanny candidate ask me at an interview if I would mind that she did homework during her downtime, I would definitely want to explore that line of thinking more.  What would happen if she had homework to do and my kid didn't nap?  Was she going to be worrying about her homework and not be able to be engaged with the kids?  Is she going to be mature enough to know that the job I'm paying her for comes first?  Etc.  It's not that I necessarily have an issue with the way my nanny would be spending her downtime, it just raises red flags about how committed she would be to the job.  And let's face it - MBs want to at least feel like they are paying someone for whom their kid is the #1 priority during work time.

In black and white world, I would want a nanny that would have a little break, sure, but otherwise be spending time finding ways to add value.  I'm not saying clean the whole house, but if my nanny has two hours of nap time every day, I'd want her to be amazing - engaged with the kids, messes she's made cleaned up, activities planned for the next day, etc.  If I had a nanny with a two-hour naptime and she was tired at the end of the day, toys everywhere, and she didn’t seem to be planning ahead at all – because she was spending that two hours doing homework – that wouldn’t work for me.

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