Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a nanny, and I agree with everything that's been said about setting a good example and so on, but I do still feel that if this wasn't specified before hiring (because it isn't reasonable to assume anyone's dietary preferences will mesh with yours, and LOADS of kids eat things like chips and cookies) then the MB should be providing food for the nanny's lunch.
She is asking her nanny to make a major dietary change, not to eat out of a separate packaging (kosher) or to leave out one ingredient (peanuts for an allergic child), and that's too much to spring on her without taking her share of the responsibility in the situation. MB wasn't clear upon hiring what her requirements were - that's okay, lots of things come up that you don't think of ahead of time - but now, because she failed to clarify this early on, she should be footing the bill for these healthy lunches.
I don't see the MB asking the nanny to make a dramatic change in her diet. I think most families would be fine with their nanny bringing a sandwich to eat. Having a capri sun isn't that evil either, as long as the kids see nanny drinking lots of water as well and not several capri suns throughout the day. No one is saying she needs to go organic at all. The main thing I see is that she needs to change the types of snacks she is bringing, and we have offered many types of substitutes for her cheetos and oreos, some of which can be very similar to that (like with different puffed snacks). She can still eat those at home, so she is not cutting it out of her diet even, just switching up what she snacks on at work. That is not a major dietary change at all. It WOULD be a major dietary change if she was asked to not eat meat in the house (and she suddenly couldn't) or liked peanut butter sandwiches for lunch daily and was told she could no longer have that for her lunch due to allergies. So if someone COULD make those types of changes easily enough, then she should be able to change the types of snacks she brings. I don't see a need for asking/demanding the MB to pay for her food for something like this. Just because it wasn't discussed before, no, it doesn't mean the family should foot the cost of her lunches. A nanny should be able to adapt to change (she is working with children that are CONSTANTLY changing and evolving!) and if she can't do this after the MB has asked her to stop eating this type of food around her kids, then it doesn't sound like the is the right person for that position any longer. If she doesn't like it, then she can find another position.
You think asking a nanny not to bring peanut butter to work is MORE of a dietary change than asking her to switch up her entire lunchtime meal?
Ohhhhhkay.
Nobody was asking her to switch up her entire lunch, just making the snacks more healthy. Honestly, oreos and cheetos and the like are not actually meal foods. Some carrot sticks or apple slices? Yes, they are part of the 5 food groups. I don't seem to remember cookies and other non-natural sugary foods being part of ANY food group for meals. A peanut butter sandwich? A bologna sandwich? Yes to both. These items are called snacks for a reason, they are not necessary, there is virtually no nutritional value from these items. They are fillers and crappy ones at that.
It is not a dietary change if someone is saying that you can eat this crap still while at home. It WOULD be a major dietary change if you cut them out of your diet TOTALLY. It is more of a dietary change to ask someone who eats meat everyday at lunch to no longer eat meat at lunch. This would affect how they are going to get their protein for that meal, making them come up with a new way to get it (maybe from other nuts and seeds, some cheese etc). If you aren't dealing with taking one food away that provides a necessary element (vitamins and minerals, proteins and so on) then you don't need to find another food to replace that with.
So yes, that is more of a dietary change IMO than someone not eating something sugary and processed that they will still end up eating later on.