Okay for Nanny to Drink While on the Job?

Received Wednesday, February 4, 2009
I don't know if this has been addressed before and you might have to spell check this because I am on my phone. I wanted to run this by other employers and see how they feel about this. We have a good nanny, she has been with us 4 months and is a live-in. We pay her overtime when she works late, per day, not per week. She doesn't seem to mind babysitting 2-3 nights per week. When my husband and I come home, we usually have a drink. I will usually have a glass or two of wine, he will usually have a scotch. Occasionally, he will have many glasses of wine to the point where he and I have joked in front of the nanny about him knocking out a whole bottle of wine. The thing is, the nanny, age 30, when she is babysitting late, will have a drink as early as before dinner. I am not counting how much she drinks. I think it tends to be 3-4 glasses of wine or 3-4 beers. She doesn't eat with the children (I would prefer she did), but will sit with them and have a drink. Then she will clean up the kitchen and have another drink and join them in the family room where she has another drink. I don't believe she is intoxicated, although I do wonder if she would be impaired if she needed to drive somewhere. My real question has to do with the appropriateness of these actions. She is on the clock and making double her hourly salary when she works past 6:30. She has the right to say no if she doesn't want to sit (we told her this when we hired her). Employers, what do you think? How would you handle this?