Working from home/nanny duties

wieb67

I'm working from home and my nanny starts on Monday - I'll be nursing LO every two and a half hrs or so. Just wondering what others have the nanny do during naps or while nursing? Not to be a brat but I don't really want to pay her to read a book or watch TV (she actually mentioned reading during LO's naps...) should I make a list? She is willing to do light housework. My MIL is like "have her clean out the fridge!" ...I was thinking more like doing LOs laundry.

snicksnack

I paid a family member to watch my kids when they were young so it was a little different. She would empty the dishwasher, run a load of laundry I and sometimes start dinner in addition to taking care of the baby. In the moring they went on a long walk and when my son was little they went to Gymboree while my daughter was in preschool. In the afternoon when the kids took their long nap she ate her lunch, read or watched the afternoon news. It really
Did not bother me as she was often there 9 or more hours and everyone needs a break. There were also times that I worked from home and I only
Nursed at lunch. I found the nursing breaks to take way too long vs pumping. Just wanted to put that out there because what I do would not allow me the time it took to nurse every couple of hours when they were young. I would not have gotten anything done work wise.

snicksnack

One other thing she did was vacumn the areas where lo would play. This way the floor was always clean. So basically my downstairs was vacuumed daily. That was her idea because the baby was on the floor so often and crawling off the blanket. She said it took very little time.

RachelandEduardo

We wrote into our contract a suggested list of light housework for our nanny to do. When LO was younger and taking two naps a day and even now at one nap (2-3 hours) she still has time to do quite a bit throughout the week in addition to taking a break and reading/eating lunch. Basic tasks include laundry (both ours and our daughter--she only puts away LOs laundry, she folds ours and leaves it in a basket outsie of our room), keeping kitchen clean (loading/unloading dishwasher, sweeping floor, wiping surfaces), keep play areas clean, and changing sheets on crib once a week and washing cloth diapers.

Kewii

Personally, I would never expect my nanny to do any housework unrelated to LO. Doing LO's laundry, washing bottles, tidying up the play area, sure. Anything not related to LO I don't think should be her job. She's a nanny, not a housekeeper.

Also, babies can be exhausting.  When I was on mat leave, I have no idea if I could have survived if I didn't get some down time during naps.  She wouldn't need downtime every nap, but she does deserve some time to herself.

VOR

Sure, have a list of things you'd like her to do (and I would make it related to your LO), but really- you don't want her to have ANY downtime?? Keep that attitude and I expect that you won't keep a nanny for very long. Kids are exhausting and I think allowing her to take some time during the day to sit and relax would be a nice thing.

wieb67

VOR said:

Sure, have a list of things you'd like her to do (and I would make it related to your LO), but really- you don't want her to have ANY downtime?? Keep that attitude and I expect that you won't keep a nanny for very long. Kids are exhausting and I think allowing her to take some time during the day to sit and relax would be a nice thing.

Of course I'll allow her downtime, but she will be getting a lot already since I'll be nursing LO every two hours plus naps - he really isn't a hard baby and she is used to nannying for a family with five kids. She also is getting paid more as light housework was listed in the job description. I'm not going to make her clean toilets or anything. We haven't written up a contract at this point but will work on that. Thanks everyone!

ETA: I interviewed several nannies and not one of them had ever been given a lunch break

mommatotwo2

I probably would have included this in my interviewing prior to hiring, but I'd just let her know that you except the house to be kept picked up throughout the day which includes meal prep and cleanup (inc washing dishes/bottles/pump parts,etc), toy clean up, probably vacuuming and sweeping especially as LO gets older and is making bigger messes with eating/arts and crafts, etc.  I'd let her know that you'd prefer her attention be on LO during their awake and non-nursing hours and that the pickup should be done during the times LO is napping and nursing. If you're going to be nursing LO, I'd have her bring the baby to you ready to nurse (clean diaper, etc) and then brought back out as soon as baby is finished. I think your plan to nurse at home might take up more time than you're thinking- for me, that would have been 2-3x as long and probably more often, but you will have to try it out and see if it works for you.  I think allowing her a lunch break during one of LO's naps is not only the law, but also, reasonable and kind if you don't want a cranky person taking care of your kid all day.