This is too funny..mb is asking if the Nanny should pay for damages her children do to their car...
If so then all of us nannies should just refuse to drive because of the fault liability to ourselves

Anonymous wrote:So, if this happened in a car owned by the parents? Would the nanny then be responsible?

Definitely not! At least, I, as a nanny, would never pay for any repairs in my work car unless it was clearly my fault. Damage by the children is to be expected and to be paid for by the parents. This goes for if the car is owned by me or my boss.

Am I the only one who think that the mulch could have gotten there when the car seat was installed..it could have been placed on the ground next to the car prior to being placed on the seat...so the question is...was the car seat ever placed on the ground before being placed on the seat and strapped?
But regardless I'm really sorry that happened to your new car.
I would never take a job w/o a nanny car or if I needed the job I would purchase a really scrappy car. I would not drive my new car for work

OP, maybe this isn't the best way to go about it but it's honestly what I would do if I were in your situation.

I'd make an appointment to get it fixed and mention to your bosses that you'll need to use an alt. car for a few days because your car will be in the shop, explain why. Then explain that you know that it's no one's fault but that because it's a new car you'll need them to help you ($$) with somehow protecting your (new!) seats*. Then HOPEFULLY they feel bad/awkward and offer to pay for the repair. Like a PP said, nannies using their personal car saves families lots of $$$ so really they shouldn't mind coughing up a bit for the repair.

*If you're thinking of using seat covers make sure they are approved to use with BOTH your car (if airbags come out of the seat they may not be allowed) and the child's car seat. Be careful with those seat protector things sold at kids stores, those often are not crash tested.

sounds more like someone stabbed the seat with something like a pencil or a a stick.

I have had kids damage things in my car all but one paid up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still don't understand how a piece of mulch could have caused a hole in the seat. Sounds a bit crazy.

+1 I am really curious about this too.

I'm guessing it is a deep slash through the leather and then got pulled open a bit from rubbing. Something similar happened to me once (well it was DH's fault) and it was a pretty easy and inexpensive fix. They just sewed it back up since the edges were still there vs a chunk missing.

Anonymous wrote:So, if this happened in a car owned by the parents? Would the nanny then be responsible?

If the nanny was the only one to ever drive the car, then it is basically the same situation. If parents drive it too, no way you can place fault on either party and parents should pay for the damage.