Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PP above. You are not a babysitter. A nanny works whether the parents are home or not. Just do your job and stop sounding like a child. You were commissioned to work from 8 to 6 (or whatever hours were agreed upon) and you work from 8 to 6 regardless of what employer comes back to his/her home.

This is exactly how a person with an inferiority complex speaks.

+1

The only family I have had who made me finish every shift almost to the minute, was a short little man who was super controlling about EVERYTHING. Awful job, experience, and all around terrible person. I felt so bad for his kids.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PP above. You are not a babysitter. A nanny works whether the parents are home or not. Just do your job and stop sounding like a child. You were commissioned to work from 8 to 6 (or whatever hours were agreed upon) and you work from 8 to 6 regardless of what employer comes back to his/her home.

This is exactly how a person with an inferiority complex speaks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

D-ATX wrote:I think you should always expect to work until the end of your shift, even when your boss is home - unless they dismiss you. However, if they come home unexpectedly and give you the rest of the day off, they should still pay you for the hours you were prepared to work since it wasn't discussed before hand. I also think that if you're ever unsure about what you can do when one or both parents are home, ask them directly what they expect of you. If the children are not paying attention to you because the parent is home, you can clean up their toys, their bath toys, fold laundry, load/unload the dishwasher, sweep, vacuum, wipe off tables and counters, etc.

Excuse me, no. I do the child-related tasks before MB or DB get home, like during naps? They're never home that early, ever. And the rest is not my job, I'm been explicitly told that taking on too much would be grounds for a warning. My job is to love, nurture and guide their children, not clean their home.

MB here. While I respect your position but life isn't white and black. Last year my brother and sister in law were visiting from overseas for 15 days. My preschoolers were at home to spend time with their uncle and aunt and technically I didn't need our nanny for 15 days, which meant 2 weeks off for our nanny in addition to 2 week vacation, which was perfectly fine with me. She graciously offered that she can come in everyday for 2-3 hrs to help me with straightening out the house, meal prep etc while have the guests. it was very nice of her, she did come in for 3 hrs on 8 days, 7 days we were out of town and she got some downtime.

You sound like a great MB. I was simply responding to the person that said that a nanny should always expect to finish a shift, and that's simply not the case. Over-generalizations don't work in this field, there are too many extremes about what families want/need and what nannies are willing to do.

OP here,

I am actually a nanny. The reason for the post was curiosity on what other nanny/families do. I wasn't asking if you should expect anything, just what the protocol is in the house you work in.

I have a great relationship with my MB, and when she has extra time she lets me head home early. I think it's partly due to DB getting home by 4:30 so we all have a great work/life balance.

Anonymous wrote:

D-ATX wrote:I think you should always expect to work until the end of your shift, even when your boss is home - unless they dismiss you. However, if they come home unexpectedly and give you the rest of the day off, they should still pay you for the hours you were prepared to work since it wasn't discussed before hand. I also think that if you're ever unsure about what you can do when one or both parents are home, ask them directly what they expect of you. If the children are not paying attention to you because the parent is home, you can clean up their toys, their bath toys, fold laundry, load/unload the dishwasher, sweep, vacuum, wipe off tables and counters, etc.

Excuse me, no. I do the child-related tasks before MB or DB get home, like during naps? They're never home that early, ever. And the rest is not my job, I'm been explicitly told that taking on too much would be grounds for a warning. My job is to love, nurture and guide their children, not clean their home.

MB here. While I respect your position but life isn't white and black. Last year my brother and sister in law were visiting from overseas for 15 days. My preschoolers were at home to spend time with their uncle and aunt and technically I didn't need our nanny for 15 days, which meant 2 weeks off for our nanny in addition to 2 week vacation, which was perfectly fine with me. She graciously offered that she can come in everyday for 2-3 hrs to help me with straightening out the house, meal prep etc while have the guests. it was very nice of her, she did come in for 3 hrs on 8 days, 7 days we were out of town and she got some downtime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can understand wanting to leave early sometimes, but I would caution against doing it on a regular basis, unless your boss makes it clear that it is time for you to go.
My current nanny hangs around and we chat and play games with the kids together, or she takes them and I do chores or vice versa. I like that. It makes me feel like she likes her job and she likes our family. I like having the warm fuzzies for the person taking care of my kids, and it makes me feel better about doing nice things for her in return.

This was kind of an issue with our previous nanny. My husband is a physician, and once every couple of weeks, he has 30 hours on call in the ICU (which usually means little to no sleep), and he comes home at noon. Our nanny would be very judgmental when he went to sleep instead of letting her go home. That, paired with a few other things, ultimately ended up in us firing her, even though she did well with the kids.
By the way, it made me feel weird when she ran out the door as soon as I got home too. I KNOW that she doesn't have anywhere else to be (since she was scheduled to be at work for the next hour), and it was hard not to take that personally.

Huh? She'd just walk out the door and you'd pay her as if she had stayed?

This is very weird. It's not hard to explain to a rational person that part of her job is to allow a parent who works nights to sleep, or that there will be some overlap in the afternoon. This is totally different from what happened at my house yesterday, when my parents showed up and there were five adults sitting around chatting with the four kids. No reason not to let the nanny go home a little early. Or on Wednesday, when we went to Yom Kippur services in the morning, we told her to come in a couple of hours late.

On a regular day, though, part of why she's there is so that the last hour of her day overlaps with me getting dinner started. We interviewed lots of people, and we've had a few nannies over the last 6 years, and I've never gotten the sense that any of them thought they would be able to leave the second one of us got home! We had set hours, don't you?

Yes. She had guaranteed hours, and set hours, I would pay her for those hours even if she wasn't working, which was our agreement. However, what I did not expect was that she would up and walk out the door within minutes of my being home every day no matter what time I got home. As far as what happened with my husband, I still don't really understand it. I know that I wasn't 100% clear with her before she was hired that he would be home sometimes, and maybe that unnerved her? She would write these notes and texts on his post call days about how she didn't work with SAH parents, and she wasn't hired to work while we were home, etc. One was particularly nasty about how we were disrespectful of her and her time. She really only lasted with us for a few months because of this and a few other issues that were not related to the care of our children.
And I have done what you are talking about with my previous nanny and with my current nanny, where I have expressly told her that she could leave early, and that is great. Things come up, and there are times I want some privacy in my home or to be on my own with my children during her working hours.

Anonymous wrote:I can understand wanting to leave early sometimes, but I would caution against doing it on a regular basis, unless your boss makes it clear that it is time for you to go.
My current nanny hangs around and we chat and play games with the kids together, or she takes them and I do chores or vice versa. I like that. It makes me feel like she likes her job and she likes our family. I like having the warm fuzzies for the person taking care of my kids, and it makes me feel better about doing nice things for her in return.

This was kind of an issue with our previous nanny. My husband is a physician, and once every couple of weeks, he has 30 hours on call in the ICU (which usually means little to no sleep), and he comes home at noon. Our nanny would be very judgmental when he went to sleep instead of letting her go home. That, paired with a few other things, ultimately ended up in us firing her, even though she did well with the kids.
By the way, it made me feel weird when she ran out the door as soon as I got home too. I KNOW that she doesn't have anywhere else to be (since she was scheduled to be at work for the next hour), and it was hard not to take that personally.

Huh? She'd just walk out the door and you'd pay her as if she had stayed?

This is very weird. It's not hard to explain to a rational person that part of her job is to allow a parent who works nights to sleep, or that there will be some overlap in the afternoon. This is totally different from what happened at my house yesterday, when my parents showed up and there were five adults sitting around chatting with the four kids. No reason not to let the nanny go home a little early. Or on Wednesday, when we went to Yom Kippur services in the morning, we told her to come in a couple of hours late.

On a regular day, though, part of why she's there is so that the last hour of her day overlaps with me getting dinner started. We interviewed lots of people, and we've had a few nannies over the last 6 years, and I've never gotten the sense that any of them thought they would be able to leave the second one of us got home! We had set hours, don't you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can understand wanting to leave early sometimes, but I would caution against doing it on a regular basis, unless your boss makes it clear that it is time for you to go.
My current nanny hangs around and we chat and play games with the kids together, or she takes them and I do chores or vice versa. I like that. It makes me feel like she likes her job and she likes our family. I like having the warm fuzzies for the person taking care of my kids, and it makes me feel better about doing nice things for her in return.

This was kind of an issue with our previous nanny. My husband is a physician, and once every couple of weeks, he has 30 hours on call in the ICU (which usually means little to no sleep), and he comes home at noon. Our nanny would be very judgmental when he went to sleep instead of letting her go home. That, paired with a few other things, ultimately ended up in us firing her, even though she did well with the kids.
By the way, it made me feel weird when she ran out the door as soon as I got home too. I KNOW that she doesn't have anywhere else to be (since she was scheduled to be at work for the next hour), and it was hard not to take that personally.

Bullshit

What about this sounds like bullshit to you?

Ignore the troll pp.

I'm an MB. Sometimes I get home earlier than usual and I tell the nanny she can go. Sometimes I get home earlier than usual and I really need a few minutes to change, shift gears from work into mommy mode, etc... and then the nanny stays until her regular time.

Quite often I will take a half or full day of vacation time and use that to run errands, have lunch w/ a friend, come home and sleep for a couple hours if we had a rough night or I'm not feeling well, etc... THe nanny works those hours as she normally would.

I always make clear what my plan is and whether any of this impacts the nanny's schedule or not. If I tell her she can leave early (whether it's 20 minutes or a half day) then I don't expect her to stick around and fill the time. It's just a benefit of guaranteed hours - sometimes she get a slightly shortened day.

Once in a great while I'm 10 minutes late getting home and she is very gracious about that. A good relationship helps everyone.

D-ATX wrote:I think you should always expect to work until the end of your shift, even when your boss is home - unless they dismiss you. However, if they come home unexpectedly and give you the rest of the day off, they should still pay you for the hours you were prepared to work since it wasn't discussed before hand. I also think that if you're ever unsure about what you can do when one or both parents are home, ask them directly what they expect of you. If the children are not paying attention to you because the parent is home, you can clean up their toys, their bath toys, fold laundry, load/unload the dishwasher, sweep, vacuum, wipe off tables and counters, etc.

Excuse me, no. I do the child-related tasks before MB or DB get home, like during naps? They're never home that early, ever. And the rest is not my job, I'm been explicitly told that taking on too much would be grounds for a warning. My job is to love, nurture and guide their children, not clean their home.

Live-in nanny, salary for whatever hours are required for the week, yes it covers both minimum wage and OT.

When the parents get home, they give me a verbal agenda for the evening, which may include conference calls, dinner out with/out kids, reminder of on call hours, grocery shopping for a dinner the next night that was just set up, etc. I listen, ask questions when necessary, let the parents know what is left for the kids for the day, and make adjustments to my schedule. Personally, I run my laundry during my on call hours, that way I'm available, but I'm not working. Anything for the family is accomplished during work hours, although I sometimes cook and do kids' laundry during on call hours (both are voluntary, and bosses have repeatedly said that it's my time, so it can wait). Yes, when DB gets home, I almost always continue working, but he is writing, making calls for his non-profit or one-day-a-week WAH job, or planning out the following day, all in his office, and he tries not to be in and out, distracting the kids. MB works crazy hours, there are days where she leaves before kids are up and gets home after they are asleep, so when she gets off early, I'm usually off. She's also the one that has a crazy number of on call hours, and DB isn't comfortable cooking and feeding kids by himself, so I work when needed. Frankly, it works for us.

There have definitely been days where I worked 12+ hours and ran off to my room after handing off a cranky infant/toddler who refused to go down for the night as soon as MB or DB was available. Neither one has ever questioned why I would need or want to be off, both have always encouraged me to relax more than I normally do. Oh, and both understand that important calls will be answered as needed, not necessarily when I'm off...

I think you should always expect to work until the end of your shift, even when your boss is home - unless they dismiss you. However, if they come home unexpectedly and give you the rest of the day off, they should still pay you for the hours you were prepared to work since it wasn't discussed before hand. I also think that if you're ever unsure about what you can do when one or both parents are home, ask them directly what they expect of you. If the children are not paying attention to you because the parent is home, you can clean up their toys, their bath toys, fold laundry, load/unload the dishwasher, sweep, vacuum, wipe off tables and counters, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You work when you are being paid to work. You are a nanny and not a teenage babysitter. Do not even think of getting off early just because the parent of your charge comes home. You do your work and continue as if they weren't there.

- signed, a nanny.

My boss came home 2 hours early today and said thanks I've got them. Which is our code word for when I'm off work. Should I have said no. He then took the kids out to dinner should I have insisted I go to because I'm scheduled to work ?

Oh, Sweetie, are you really that dense?

Apparently. What would you do in this situation

Go home. The father took your "work" with him. You have to know that this is not the same situation as a parent who comes home and the parent and children stay in the home.

Seriously, PP - please try to think. Try to reason on your own. I am an NP and a nanny and your response embarrassed me. How can you not understand what OP is asking about and know, without being told, that your situation is not the same?

Op wasn't clear about the situation. I assumed op was a mb who wanted to know what to do when she has a day off or comes home early. She asked what others do. Then everyone started saying you work no matter what and I got confused. My boss let me off work yesterday but people were saying I should have still worked and done things around the house even though the children were gone. I felt very guilty I didn't think others did that .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You work when you are being paid to work. You are a nanny and not a teenage babysitter. Do not even think of getting off early just because the parent of your charge comes home. You do your work and continue as if they weren't there.

- signed, a nanny.

My boss came home 2 hours early today and said thanks I've got them. Which is our code word for when I'm off work. Should I have said no. He then took the kids out to dinner should I have insisted I go to because I'm scheduled to work ?

Oh, Sweetie, are you really that dense?

Apparently. What would you do in this situation

Go home. The father took your "work" with him. You have to know that this is not the same situation as a parent who comes home and the parent and children stay in the home.

Seriously, PP - please try to think. Try to reason on your own. I am an NP and a nanny and your response embarrassed me. How can you not understand what OP is asking about and know, without being told, that your situation is not the same?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can understand wanting to leave early sometimes, but I would caution against doing it on a regular basis, unless your boss makes it clear that it is time for you to go.
My current nanny hangs around and we chat and play games with the kids together, or she takes them and I do chores or vice versa. I like that. It makes me feel like she likes her job and she likes our family. I like having the warm fuzzies for the person taking care of my kids, and it makes me feel better about doing nice things for her in return.

This was kind of an issue with our previous nanny. My husband is a physician, and once every couple of weeks, he has 30 hours on call in the ICU (which usually means little to no sleep), and he comes home at noon. Our nanny would be very judgmental when he went to sleep instead of letting her go home. That, paired with a few other things, ultimately ended up in us firing her, even though she did well with the kids.
By the way, it made me feel weird when she ran out the door as soon as I got home too. I KNOW that she doesn't have anywhere else to be (since she was scheduled to be at work for the next hour), and it was hard not to take that personally.

Bullshit

What about this sounds like bullshit to you?