Anonymous wrote:Have you talked to the parents about cutting back on hours/hiring an additional nanny or babysitter?

They already have a backup sitter for date night and for my two short days, but adding more hours will reduce my income, add more grunt work (prepping food and planning activities around her schedule since she can't take them anywhere for active play and making sure everything is laid out for her).

Have you talked to the parents about cutting back on hours/hiring an additional nanny or babysitter?

OP no advice but I have a very similar job, but with triplets.

I work 3 days a week 7:30-7:30/8. Then 2 days a week 7:30-5:30. I also do the laundry, grocery shopping and prepare meals for the weekends.

Luckily my NF has a great house with an awesome playroom and backyard. I love my job, but am also often tired. One thing that has helped is prioritizing me time on my time off. I also hired someone to clean my place every other week and that has been a huge help.

I worked for a family with twins (well this family is the most relevant) - covering from when they asked their previous girl to leave till when the replacement started. They had no baby-proofing. As one of the twins really started to crawl it was a hassle to get anything done. By the time I had wiped one twins face and hands the crawling twin had pulled down a vase/ headed for the fireplace/ destroyed her brothers tower.

In the end we got some baby safety stuff at my gentle insistance. I just said things like ' i can't change a nappy upstairs while twin B crawls towards the stairs.

I think the best way to encourage parents to baby proof is point out what could go wrong and how. good luck!

Anonymous wrote:Mom of twins here. One thing that really helped was my nanny saying things to me directly like, "We really need to figure out how to babyproof the house because they are getting bigger and they need more space, particularly as winter approaches. Can we babyproof the XXX room and put a baby gate or two in the doorways?"

As a mom who was not normally home with them by myself, I didn't get whatever the current challenge was because I wasn't seeing it. The other thing is that as FTPs, you don't really get how quickly needs changed. What worked last winter isn't going to work this winter. It's helpful to have that spelled out.

I'm a mom of younger twins and I'd second this. I am really not aware of what works and what doesn't during a "normal" day as I am just not around and we tend too be out and about or playing man-on-man defense on the weekends. I'd appreciate my nanny telling me what we need to address (whether it's babyproofing or supplies or clothing that is needed) because it might be something I didn't notice or hadn't thought about!

Anonymous wrote:Mom of twins here. One thing that really helped was my nanny saying things to me directly like, "We really need to figure out how to babyproof the house because they are getting bigger and they need more space, particularly as winter approaches. Can we babyproof the XXX room and put a baby gate or two in the doorways?"

As a mom who was not normally home with them by myself, I didn't get whatever the current challenge was because I wasn't seeing it. The other thing is that as FTPs, you don't really get how quickly needs changed. What worked last winter isn't going to work this winter. It's helpful to have that spelled out.

Thanks. It's helpful to have some perspective from a parent who gets the twin challenge. I spoke with one of the parents this week and they will be talking through their options this weekend.