Do not cheapen your services by offering a free evening of babysitting.

If you worked in an office, you would never offer to work even a couple of hours free of charge and off the clock would you?

Being a nanny is a profession and should be treated accordingly so.

Have the laundry caught up and put away, dishes done or running through the dishwasher, toys picked up and maybe make dinner...have a chicken just pulled from the oven or make some pesto sauce and pasta or some fresh bread...something different that she might like and wouldn't necessarily do for herself.

I agree that you shouldn't give her a gift. It seems strange to give anyone a random gift unless they are your romantic partner or very best friend in the entire world.

You should like a really nice person, and it sounds like she's a nice person, too. It's wonderful that you want to help her out and do something nice for her.

Go ahead and do things to really make her day -- rather than give gifts. Do a little extra chore that you see needs to be done -- like folding laundry or putting away the dishes or vacuuming. Or make a casserole and put it in the fridge for her to heat up and family to eat together for dinner -- if you do it on Friday for use over the weekend, perfect! Involve the kids in helping to make it during the day, and it'll be a wonderful experience for everyone.

There are tons of helpful little things you can do all the time, too -- like putting something away if you notice it got thrown down and forgotten about, or having the kids make really nice handmade art projects/cards for to give to her at the end of the day so she knows they and you were thinking about her.

Thanks, all! I make food for them pretty often, but a night out with friends would be perfect.

MB here and I think the obvious thing is one evening of free babysitting. It can be a weeknight if you don't want to give up a precious weekend night -- she will still appreciate it. Put an expiration date on it so she has to use it soon! We have employed two amazing nannies over the last 10 years and one of them did this a few times and we very much appreciated it. Our other nanny never did this, but she often would bake something extra during the day or make a surprise nice dinner once in awhile and these were also very appreciated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just do your job. Show up on time, be somewhat pleasant, clean up after yourself and the kids, don't bring drama to work. I don't want gifts from my nanny.

I do all of this and more by default. I would also like to do something to let her know that I appreciate how hard she works to be an amazing boss to me and an amazing mom to my charges. These things impact me regularly and I want her to know that her effort is noticed and valued.

While I agree with others that you don't need to do anything for your MB, I'm not going to talk you out of it because it sounds like you *want* to do something nice for her. If you want to do something nice for someone, you should, no matter who the person is. The world would be a nicer place if there were more thoughtful people like you, OP.

I think a few hours of babysitting is a nice idea, but it could get expensive if you aren't specific about how many hours and when. For example, maybe offer a 2-3 hour gift certificate for her to go to happy hour with her friends or have a nice dinner out with her DH.

I'm a single mom and my nanny occasionally makes dinner for us and that always is a wonderful gift. It's nothing fancy, just a soup or casserole or simple pasta dish. But it gives me a little extra time with my DD on a random evening and that is the most thoughtful thing I can think of.