Does your nanny eat your food?
OK, I realize most people don't have nannies. But would you be bothered if your nanny ate your food? Or is that commonplace? We never had a discussion about it but I noticed recently that she's eating our food for her lunches.
I don't mind that she eats our stuff. I just irritated when she finishes things. For instance, she has a penchant for eating my lunchmeat that I use for my lunches. It's now Wed. and I'm out of lunchmeat for the whole week. She finished the last of it yesterday.
I just don't know how to broach the subject with her, if at all. I feel like it's one thing to nibble on someone's food but another to finish it off. And she never says anything about it. I can see how it would add up financially if we're also feeding another person lunch in addition to her salary and health insurance.
I guess this is just one aspect of having a nanny that I didn't think about.
Re: Does your nanny eat your food?
I think it is pretty common for this. I have a 'nanny' 2 days of the week. I said she can eat whatever if she can find something( we don't keep a lot of food that's ready to eat.) I wasn't too keen on the idea but DH said we should. However, I have a friend that has nanny'd for years and does it FT and she says at most she will have a PBJ sandwich. She thought it was very rude that she was eating my food.
What I did, I bought some lunchmeat, cheese, etc. & said there is sandwich stuff for you so you don't have to go looking for something. Mine only comes 2 days a week so it's really not that much but I don't know about 5 days a week & w/ you paying health insurance. Maybe ask what type of lunchmeat she likes and buy her own specific so she just eats that?? Maybe someone has some better ideas than me.
When I was hired I was told that it was expected that I help myself to whatever I want--so I did.
I very rarely finished things, though, but I would make lunch for the kids and we'd all eat the same thing together.
ETA: I guess I should have mentioned that I was a nanny lol.
we told our nanny she needs to bring her own lunch and drinks. However if we have yummy left overs i will leave her a note she is welcome to it.
When I was a nanny I ate whatever I wanted as well as had a Credit Card in my name to go family grocery shopping and/or take the kids out to eat.
I have food in the house for our nanny as well. I offer to bring things back when I go out to lunch and I buy special food since she is gluten free.
If you have someone full time it is generally considered part of the job perks.
My motto is to treat my nanny like a queen because she's taking care of the most important person in my life. I ask her to leave me a list each week of what she wants me to have in the house to eat and drink. I also buy her gifts for Xmas, Valentine's Day etc...The only time it bothers me is when I buy something like dipping vegetables (carrots, red peppers etc) and fruit and she doesn't eat it. It ends up going bad and is a waste of money. For the most part she's only asked for turkey meat, peanut butter, whole wheat bread, fruit, dipping veggies, gold fish crackers.and flavored water. She's never asked for it all in one week.
I figure she's stuck at my houe (more so during the winter) and isn't going to just run out to get lunch or a snack. It's a long day 11 hours.
I think it's pretty common for a nanny to eat your food for lunches and occasional snacks. I told mine that she could help herself, but sometimes she still brings her own. If we notice that she tends to eat something (like turkey or cottage cheese), we just buy more of it the next time we go to the store.
If she's been a nanny before, she probably just assumed it was OK.
I was a nanny on college and I was always told to eat whatever I wanted.
However, I don't think I would eat the last of something, unless i was specifically told "finish this up" or "we bought this for you" or something.
My mom is a pre school teacher who quit to be a nanny for a family in town and she does all of their grocery shopping so she buys stuff for the kids and stuff that both she and the parents like to snack on and is encouraged to eat there if she wants (though she doesn't eat much, she's a gastric bypass patient!). The mom often has big business lunches in which she brings so much untouched, yummy food home that they are often sending my mom home with food as well.
That said, I think it's perfectly reasonable to allow a nanny to eat your food and would find it really odd if I were told to bring my own food (and drink!?!)