The Veiled Threat

   

     I'm really tired of people talking up the nanny contract as if it is a lifesaver. If you are the nanny and it says you have to do something and you aren't doing it, best you believe you will be taken to task for not. But if it isn't in the contract and they ask you to do it, what the hell are you supposed to do? I don't have any power here. Every damn week they are sliding some more stuff into my job description. I only took the job that averages at $12/hr because there was ample downtime during the 12 hour day. But no, all that downtime is being eaten away.
     I was to cook for the children who are 3 and 9 and I have been doing that. During my interview I was told that they eat simple foods like Amy's macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets and cut up fruit. This didn't sound complicated and of course I would be cooking for them since I work from 7-7 five days a week. Last week, boss mom starts to leave me magazines with recipes marked with big arrows on folded post-its. When I made some of the first recipes, the kids didn't want nothing to do with it. She told me then, she wants to try new things for them and I should still make it for them and offer it to them eveyday and if they don't eat it they can have the back up option of scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese or soup. But, "don't throw anything out, save it for Hank & I".
     So now, not only am I cooking dinner and lunch and making dishes like mustard baked balsamic chicken and apple, beet and arugula salad for the kids, but I have to go to Whole foods to get fresh food everyday. And the kids don't eat this stuff. Its just an elaborate ruse for me to cook for the parents. What power do I have with my sad little nanny contract? I surely wouldn't want someone that begin to hate me cooking for me every damn day. That could end badly.

Situation got you down? Email isynblog@gmail.com.

Pampered Chef

   

     We have a live-in nanny for the first time ever. She has been with us two months. There are some issues that we need to work on, but one that I don't know how to address is with food. As a live-in, she eats her meals here. She grocery shops for me, which is helpful. The problem I see is with her meal times. The children are on a regular schedule so they eat their meals as breakfast when they get up, lunch mid day and dinner around 6. The nanny has breakfast at 10, lunch around 3 and dinner at around 8 or 9. I didn't think to address this in the beginning because it never occurred to me. There are a couple of problems with this. The first is that she cooks her meals during what I would think would be working time. When she schedules a play date or appointment, it is either around her meal schedule or at our house and during. The second problem is that my children, 2 and almost 4, sample in her meals. If they eat breakfast at 8, I don't like this habbit of the second breakfast followed by lunch followed by a second lunch. The third problem is that when I have suggested that she makes her meals in advance, she got upset and asked "Why don't I deserve fresh food". When I followed up with a suggestion that the warm weather would make it ideal for her to pack lunches for all three and go to the playground, she asked me, "Where would I eat?" I suggested she eat on a picnic blanket with the children or a picnic table. She replied that it was bad for digestion to eat on the run and made me feel like I was suggesting something outlandish. She's worked as a nanny before. She takes the children to the park, I know she sees other nannies lunch with their charges. It has been two months and she seems very rigid in her eating routine. The last problem is that she cooks her main meal at around 8. She gets off at 7 when my husband and I come home. This is causing my husband and I to fall into a pattern of taking the children upstairs, putting them to bed and staying upstairs until she is done. I have no problem with the expense of the food, but I can't live like this.

Turns out Nanny Can Cook

      Our nanny of less than a month is taking charge in her new position. I had not asked her to cook because we have three children and didn't think she could work it out. As it turns out, she has been cooking and she is quite good at it. Good at it as in, I see myself looking forward to coming home wonderding what she has made. Because this was not a part of her original assignment and because she is so good and we want to keep her happy, what would be a fair amount to add to her weekly salary for cooking four nights a week?  I was thinking $100 for family dinner for 5. Friday, we usually go out or do take out.  Her currrent salary is $825 after taxes for five 11 hour days.