Anonymous wrote:As a nanny, I limit tv watching to almost zero. My child is in preschool and he's allowed to watch tv and I hate it. The reason being, when he's at home on the weekend he gets more screen time than I would like just because I'm busy cleaning and preparing us for the upcoming week. I assume the same goes for nanny families. They already feel guilty for how much screen time their kids get on weekends, why should they get a ton of screen time on weekdays as well? Just my two cents...

+1

OP this it a double standard across the board. The families that don't want the kids watching TV with the nanny are the first to be outraged when their use of TV for a "much deserved break/so they can get work done/insert other excuse here" is called out.

I frankly don't work with people anymore who display this. If there is a tv in the home, I need to be "allowed" (Jesus) to put on 20 minutes of PBS here and there, at my discretion, or have the news or some cooking show on as I fold laundry and the kids play independently. No one is being developmentally harmed and I get to remain a sane adult.

If the tv is on during an interview, I'm going to assume that it's ok for me to exercise my judgment and turn it on during my day too.

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. I have no read through the responses. My job is to be productive and engaging with the children. We may watch a movie or a show on occasion, about 3 times a year. The kids do get some tv time, but that is saved for the weekends at the parents discretion.

Great, but that doesn't address OP's situation.

Nanny here. I have no read through the responses. My job is to be productive and engaging with the children. We may watch a movie or a show on occasion, about 3 times a year. The kids do get some tv time, but that is saved for the weekends at the parents discretion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tv was on so that she could focus on the complicated personal matter of conducting an interview. As an employee, you should be conducting your complicated personal matters during off hours. There's really no conflict here.

+1. This all seems reasonable to me. What do you normally see preschool age children doing during an initial interview? Or are most parents okay with nannies watching tv with the kids?

Every family who has said that they minimize television has children playing in another room (in eyesight) or in babyproofed bedrooms with a video monitor. Every family who didn't care about television had the kids sat in front of the electronic babysitter, and they wanted to pay very little because they assumed the caregiver would use it constantly.

Anonymous wrote:The TV was on the news, so it was clear they had it on for them before I got there and never turned it off. It was just strange to me, that's all.

How is this strange? I want to minimize my child's screen time so I don't have to stress about it as much. The reason I send my kids to a screen free preschool instead of a nanny frankly.

The TV was on the news, so it was clear they had it on for them before I got there and never turned it off. It was just strange to me, that's all.