Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nanny's job is to care for the children. She shouldn't have to cook for the parents. The housekeeper is to clean and do laundry. You need a personal chef if you can't even cook, Bad enough you don't clean, don't take care of your kids and now you can't cook ??? I feel bad for your children, what do you do besides write checks ?

I'm not OP, but we have a nanny, a housekeeper every two weeks, and our nanny is supposed to make dinner a couple of times a week. What else do I do besides write checks? I work, full time, to pay for our housing, food, clothing, health insurance, medical and therapy bills, and activities. I stay in close communication with teachers to address my oldest child's special needs. I help with homework and art projects and Valentines' day cards and play rehearsals and sports carpools. I take them swimming and play basketball with them. I wake up with them at night when they're sick, or had a bad dream, or can't sleep. I talk with them about their worries and their hopes and their friendship concerns.

What don't I do? As many loads of laundry or as much cleaning as I would without a nanny. Or chopping as many vegetables or dumping as much into a crock pot. Or picking up/dropping off from preschool. But don't kid yourself that parenting occurs only between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. It's a whole lot more than that, and anyone who thinks parents do "nothing" by outsourcing tasks is just plain foolish.

Many nannies have children, and families too. So what's your point?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nanny's job is to care for the children. She shouldn't have to cook for the parents. The housekeeper is to clean and do laundry. You need a personal chef if you can't even cook, Bad enough you don't clean, don't take care of your kids and now you can't cook ??? I feel bad for your children, what do you do besides write checks ?

The checks she writes keep the roof over her housekeeper's and her nanny's heads, and food on their children's tables.

I'd like to see the roof over the poor nanny's head. Probably one made of sticks, rather than bricks.

Lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nanny's job is to care for the children. She shouldn't have to cook for the parents. The housekeeper is to clean and do laundry. You need a personal chef if you can't even cook, Bad enough you don't clean, don't take care of your kids and now you can't cook ??? I feel bad for your children, what do you do besides write checks ?

The checks she writes keep the roof over her housekeeper's and her nanny's heads, and food on their children's tables.

I'd like to see the roof over the poor nanny's head. Probably one made of sticks, rather than bricks.

Anonymous wrote:A nanny's job is to care for the children. She shouldn't have to cook for the parents. The housekeeper is to clean and do laundry. You need a personal chef if you can't even cook, Bad enough you don't clean, don't take care of your kids and now you can't cook ??? I feel bad for your children, what do you do besides write checks ?

The checks she writes keep the roof over her housekeeper's and her nanny's heads, and food on their children's tables.

Anonymous wrote:A nanny's job is to care for the children. She shouldn't have to cook for the parents. The housekeeper is to clean and do laundry. You need a personal chef if you can't even cook, Bad enough you don't clean, don't take care of your kids and now you can't cook ??? I feel bad for your children, what do you do besides write checks ?

I'm not OP, but we have a nanny, a housekeeper every two weeks, and our nanny is supposed to make dinner a couple of times a week. What else do I do besides write checks? I work, full time, to pay for our housing, food, clothing, health insurance, medical and therapy bills, and activities. I stay in close communication with teachers to address my oldest child's special needs. I help with homework and art projects and Valentines' day cards and play rehearsals and sports carpools. I take them swimming and play basketball with them. I wake up with them at night when they're sick, or had a bad dream, or can't sleep. I talk with them about their worries and their hopes and their friendship concerns.

What don't I do? As many loads of laundry or as much cleaning as I would without a nanny. Or chopping as many vegetables or dumping as much into a crock pot. Or picking up/dropping off from preschool. But don't kid yourself that parenting occurs only between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. It's a whole lot more than that, and anyone who thinks parents do "nothing" by outsourcing tasks is just plain foolish.

A nanny's job is to care for the children. She shouldn't have to cook for the parents. The housekeeper is to clean and do laundry. You need a personal chef if you can't even cook, Bad enough you don't clean, don't take care of your kids and now you can't cook ??? I feel bad for your children, what do you do besides write checks ?

Did anyone consider she's probably not getting paid much to begin with and actually need the raise ? More than likely she's a foreigner and probably only makes $10-$12/hr considering they also have a housekeeper.. Both are probably getting paid a low rate. I can guarantee if this nanny was getting paid at least $18-$20/hr/FT.. She wouldn't have asked for an extra $40 week.

I am a nanny and would have no problem doubling a recipe if I was already planning to make it! I have a great relationship with my fam and get so much PTO it would seem unfair to say no or ask for more $!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Extra work requires extra pay. Simple!

How is this extra work? Even if it takes 2 hours, presumably she was spending that time working in some other capacity, helping the kids with their homework, playing with them, doing laundry, etc. Right? So this is "instead of" work, not extra. It's not like she is there additional time.

Extra work means that the nanny's time is taken away from her primary duty: the children. It's reasonable to expect the nanny to prep veg for 15 minutes during snack, that way she can put it on the stove and only has to turn it on later to make soup. It's not reasonable to have the nanny prepping veg when she should be playing with kids or helping with homework. The objection is that the nanny was hired as a nanny, not a chef, not a housekeeper, not even a split job.

I'm ones of the PPs who makes meals from scratch. I know exactly how much to make for my charges, I shop for my charges, and I prep when they are occupied. I do NOT expect to take time away from my charges to do more for the parents, and if it were required, I would definitely renegotiate my contract.

Every meal I make takes a minimum of 15 minutes prep and 20 minutes cook time, and that's for kids. I'm not going to make two batches, with one spiced more or veg that's firmer. If I'm making enough for the kids to have leftovers later in the week, it's because there's reason (in the schedule) that we need to do so, not so that the parents can have an easy night. Besides, my charges eat organic food, heavy on veg, and most parents don't want to eat like they do

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Extra work requires extra pay. Simple!

How is this extra work? Even if it takes 2 hours, presumably she was spending that time working in some other capacity, helping the kids with their homework, playing with them, doing laundry, etc. Right? So this is "instead of" work, not extra. It's not like she is there additional time.

Wrong.

Anonymous wrote:Extra work requires extra pay. Simple!

How is this extra work? Even if it takes 2 hours, presumably she was spending that time working in some other capacity, helping the kids with their homework, playing with them, doing laundry, etc. Right? So this is "instead of" work, not extra. It's not like she is there additional time.

Extra work requires extra pay. Simple!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't really see how this is more work except that the pot/pan the food is in will be heavier. Other than that, to double the recipe is nothing.

Nanny here. I cook from scratch, and there is a huge difference. If I'm making vegetable soup for kids, I'm only going to cube 1/2-1 of each vegetable, but if I'm making the recipe for two kids and their parents, I have to prep more. If everything comes out of a box, then yes, it's just a matter of the pan being larger and heavier. But OP said that the nanny cooks from scratch, and that means longer prep times.

This

Oh, and cook time is always longer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't really see how this is more work except that the pot/pan the food is in will be heavier. Other than that, to double the recipe is nothing.

Nanny here. I cook from scratch, and there is a huge difference. If I'm making vegetable soup for kids, I'm only going to cube 1/2-1 of each vegetable, but if I'm making the recipe for two kids and their parents, I have to prep more. If everything comes out of a box, then yes, it's just a matter of the pan being larger and heavier. But OP said that the nanny cooks from scratch, and that means longer prep times.

This

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I sometimes cook my family dinner just to be nice. Imagine that!

There's a difference between doing it (voluntarily) once in a while when there's time and being required to do it every night, whether there's time or not.