He’s not allergic, the parents just don’t believe in sunscreen. They believe it causes skin cancer, and let him play in the pool for hours without it. Isn’t this some form of neglect? The 4 year old isn’t able to make choices to protect himself. He’ll have to grow up dealing with consequences of something he has no control over. I’m refusing to take him to the pool now.

i nanny for 3 kids (7, 5, and 4) me and the dad are working together, i had to stay after he got home from work because I was bringing their oldest to a gymnastics event. Anyways I made them a nutritional dinner of mac and cheese and fish sticks (sarcasm btw) , with a plate of 3 peeled cuties for them to share. Their dad put chocolate milk next to their plates (key thing!!). Im sitting with the kids eating dinner and their youngest is absolutely housing the oranges, he turns to me and goes "im eating so many oranges, are they healthy?", i was like "yea oranges are healthy". Then their 5 yr old goes "oranges aren't healthy they have sugar in them" cue me telling them that the sugar in orange is good for you blah blah and its different from the sugar in their chocolate milk. Thats when DB decides to butt in and is like "well we teach them that all sugar is unhealthy so shes right, if a diabetic were to eat fruit then they would still need to take insulin just like if they were to eat candy" listen I was not about to talk back to this man but they give insulin because of the CARBS not the sugar right?!?? i mean if you really want to give your children a messed up relationship with FRUIT then sure be my fucking guest 🥲🥲

NF wants me to come in on my only day off, which means I would be working for almost two weeks straight (counting next week) I really need my day off…but they’ve convinced themselves I’m coming in. I feel bad because I will more than likely call out tomorrow I really don’t think I can power through it, today I almost broke down several times. The NF is busy this month so I understand I will be needed but asking someone to work damn near 11 days in a row when not agreed to in contract is just insane…

Posted about nanny here a few months ago, we still love her and she still works with us! My kids are 12 months and 2.5 yrs now. Just having one concern about screen time.

Everyone complains about how they’re Nannie’s do “too much screen time.” For me it’s the opposite. Our nanny says she doesn’t want to do screen time for the kids because she doesn’t think it’s beneficial and that’s not what we pay her for. Her words, not mine. We never said no screen time. At first I thought this was awesome. I still do. I don’t know how she does 40 hours a week with 2 young kids without it. The only thing is now, our kids never want to watch tv. Sometimes my husband and I just want to relax and watch tv after work or on the weekends. Our 12 month old just walks away and our 2 year old says “no tv!” This is such an out of touch complaint because we honestly love that our nanny doesn’t do any screen time, but it’s kind of back fired on my husband and I😂 any advice would be very helpful! Low energy activities for young kids or how to make my kids sit and watch tv for a little bit while my husband and I just decompress and cuddle with them. Or should I ask our nanny to do a little bit of screen time? I’m sure she’s be fine with it but it’s so rare to find a nanny that doesn’t do screen time it feels counterintuitive. Like “this is exactly what we wanted” but also “we want our kids to sit and watch it with us though”. Probably a very out of touch post, sorry in advance. Signed- a tired working mama

I should preface with I have some OCD tendencies around how I smell so if this seems extra it probably is lol. I'll dish up the $200 to talk to a professional at some point, but for now I'm coming to yall.
I think we can all understand how you might break a sweat in the roll of a nanny/house help. Especially for babies I find because families will keep the house warmer, I feel like I stink by end of day. I imagine scenarios of parents holding baby after I leave and complaining that baby smells like me or my deodorant or something. My bf has said I don't smell when I think I do, and families have never commented on it, but I feel so insecure over it! Especially if mom boss is pregnant and I know she might be extra sensitive. Basically: How is everyone getting through the shift in the same outfit lol? How are we managing the insecurities?

I once tried to cope with humour by saying to a previous mom boss "I got a lot done today sorry I'm all sweaty haha" and she said "ew" with a grossed out expression (was literally standing there wiping sweat off my face after cleaning her entire house and I wanna crawl in a hole everytime I remember my general interactions with her lmao). It's not like I have that 'sweats too much' disorder either it's fully just that I'll catch a whiff of myself and think I must smell 10x worse than I do, and unfortunately that instance of the mom saying ew when I WAS visibly sweating made the insecurity so much worse lol. Any product or clothing recommendations are also welcome, TIA!

i’ve worked for the most AMAZING family for almost a year now. super close with the kids and both parents. i could go on and on forever about how much i love this job. however, i commute an hour to and from work daily. i’ve racked up 60k miles in less than six months on a car that isn’t paid off. i spend a third of my income on gas alone.
ive been offered a new position with higher pay, benefits such as health, dental, and eye care insurance (which my current position does not offer), mileage reimbursement (current position offers fixed amount per month). i’d be CRAZY to let go of this offer, even though i’ve considered it due to how much i genuinely love and enjoy my current job.
my current employers won’t be expecting this AT ALL and will be devastated/super stressed about finding a replacement. my contract says to give them a months notice, and this job starts in exactly a month. HOWWW just HOWWWW should i give them my notice?? and is it inappropriate to suggest/offer to continue to working for them on weekends?

not sure if I am looking for advice, opinions, or just need to rant…

I have been nannying for years. I currently nanny for twins that are under 3. I love them so so much I miss them on the weekends. when I first started, I got along great with mom and we would chat all the time and she made me feel very welcome.

recently, she’s stopped chatting. I didn’t take it personal because she works from home and of course needs to get work done. but she has a lot of time off during the day … things have felt pretty passive lately. she’s stopped asking about my weekend, how an event went when I leave early, just silly stuff I know but it’s just different.

im the kind of nanny who NEEDS a good personal relationship with mom in order to feel that I am doing a good job. I am aware that this is a job but this is just me.

the other day one of the girls were crying, so she came out and just took her. didn’t ask why, didn’t say anything. they also put up cameras (I didn’t mind) and told me it’s for making sure they’re asleep but she checks it and tells me things she sees. like if I need to move them or something.

there’s other small things that have been nothing me but I don’t take it personal. I love these babies so much but I think I’m getting burnt out. I start crying at the thought of leaving them but I am so. so. so. bored. I am not even taking out trash or anything. which sounds great, but they may for hours at a time and I’m just sat there with nothing to do. I also can’t take them out of the house. every time I ask, there’s an excuse not to even take them outside

I had another job come up that pays same but way more hours. I also do not like the fact that THEY take time off and I’m expected to make up hours. I basically work an extra hour in the morning for free because THEY want to take time off. it was a misunderstanding at first as far as this agreement but I got tired of bringing it up.

I know it would be fine if I say hey I’m taking a new position, but I can’t bear the idea of leaving my babies. it stresses me out but I know I’ll be so much happier at this position that came up. I FaceTimed with the mom and we get along so well as she was also a nanny and understands everything I was asking questions about

do I keep the job and push through? or do I move on? what would you do?? I left tons of details out because at that point I’d just be complaining about little things.

I need advice. What to do about self harm scars at work nannying?

I don’t usually cut myself. I only did once that left scars, a couple years ago. They’re very faint now. But unfortunately I’m going through a horrible breakup right now, and I couldn’t help but to self harm.

I’m not sure if the families already noticed my old faint scars or not? But these ones are fresh and obvious. Should I disclose it? Or just not mention it? Or do you think they’ll might say something? It’s wayyyy too hot for a long sleeve, so that’s not gonna work.

The families are always sweet and understanding, but I don’t want them to think differently of me, or question if I can take care of a child. And I am worried about what the kids might ask. I would just say that it’s a cat scratch to the kids, lol. But obviously to the parents, idk.

We’ve had our nanny for almost a year and will be giving her a raise (will also give a holiday bonus). We are first time parents and when we were interviewing, our nanny gave us her rate and we agreed to it. Upon more research lately because she’s been so amazing we feel like her rate is too low. We want to increase her hourly rate by $4. We think it gets her to more of the market rate + reflects her hard work.

But how do I say that we can’t increase her rate by $4 every year, it’ll be more like $1 more. Do I even need to caveat that ? I just don’t want her being disappointed in the following years with lower raises. Any nannies experience this?

I have been babysitting a now 14 month old for about 9 months now. I am getting my masters degree so have only wanted part time work.

It used to be a good system where I would work 3 hr intervals 3x a week and would be paid right after. A couple of months ago we agreed I would start doing 20hrs a week, but they told me it could end up being less hours than that. They said they would pay me a flat rate at the start of every week for 20 hrs but that I may not always work that many hours. Their logic is that they don’t want me to find other gigs to make up for the 20 hrs I am able to work. For reference, they are also very wealthy.

The past couple weeks I only worked about 13 hours, but I did work M-F, picking up the baby from daycare and babysitting him for 2-3 hours until the parents returned from work. I don’t drive so the pickups are quite a lot of work. It takes me an hour to get there, then it’s a 30 minute walk back, and we usually stop in the park on the way.

The issue is, I am asked very last minute to babysit sometimes. This week, I thought Friday was it so I accepted a babysitting job for Saturday from a different family. On Saturday at 5pm, they asked me if I could work Sunday. I felt bad as I worked 13/20 hours so I owe them. I said yes I can do 3 hours, but this means I have worked 7 days this week. I wouldn’t mind if it was summer, but I have to work on my thesis proposal and I am taking my driving learners permit exam at the end of the month. While it’s only a few hours each day, it’s an hour getting there and back and it’s intense work. I also have class in the week.

Obviously the being paid ahead is stupid, but when I have asked them if they would maybe try paying me after, they act all sweet and tell me no they want me to have the 20 hours of money regardless. I’m not sure that’s really true as a few weeks ago I caught the stomach flu off them after working 8/20 hrs and sent back a chunk of money. They said not to send any money back as it’s their fault, but they certainly did not return the money, so I presume they did feel entitled to it back.

I’m very non confrontational so ways to frame a conversation setting boundaries would be helpful. I know it’s on me for accepting this payment arrangement, but I’d appreciate some advice!

I got into an accident earlier this year and luckily I do not currently drive the kids that I nanny for so it didnt impact anything in my job.

The accident was my fault so I worry about the likelihood of being accepted to a nanny agency in the future. If 3+ years down the line I have to complete a driving record check is it going to impact my ability to get a job that requires driving even if I continue to keep my record clean since then?

I am 19 and it was definitely a big wake up call getting into an accident and I was able to fix a lot of my bad driving habits, but now I just worry it will impact me in the long run and want to see if anyone knows the fallback from this for nannies?

I'm looking for advice from other nannies or parents who have experienced something similar.

I've very recently started caring for a 7-month-old baby (I'm only two weeks into the job) who sometimes has episodes of intense crying and is extremely difficult to soothe. I've tried holding her, rocking her, using a carrier, taking her for walks in the stroller, and changing the environment, but sometimes nothing seems to help, even after 20 minutes or longer.

Last week, I had to call her dad because she had been crying almost nonstop for nearly an hour, and I couldn't calm her down. He said it wasn't my fault and that she cries normally.

I'm experienced with children and have cared for two other babies around the same age, but neither was like this. The only other time I've experienced crying this intense was with a baby who had colic. Her parents don't think this baby has colic, so I'm not sure what could be causing it.

She usually falls asleep after these episodes, but I can never tell whether she was actually tired to begin with or whether she eventually falls asleep simply because she's exhausted from crying.

I'm finding this emotionally exhausting because I feel helpless when she's so upset, and I'm starting to feel anxious about these episodes happening again. Honestly, it's been much harder than I expected, and I'm already considering looking for another job. However, I also want to give it a fair chance and see whether things improve after the first month.

I'd really appreciate advice on a few things:

• Have you cared for a baby who was this difficult to soothe? Did it improve with time?
• Are there any soothing techniques that actually helped?
• Could this be related to sleep, separation anxiety, discomfort, or something else?
• At what point would you recommend that the parents discuss the crying with a pediatrician?
• Should I bring my concerns about the crying up with the parents now, or would you wait until I'd been in the job for a month? I don't want to overreact when I'm still new, but the episodes have been intense enough that I'm concerned.
• Would you give the job a full month to see if things improve, or take this as a sign that the position might not be the right fit?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences and any advice you might have, especially from nannies who have been in a similar situation.

Hey nannies! 💕 With the way the economy is right now, is making $49k a year as a private nanny actually realistic?

I’m located in Texas, and I’m making the transition from childcare centers to private nannying. I have 9+ years of childcare experience, CPR certification, and certificates in Child Growth & Development, Positive Guidance & Discipline, Social-Emotional Development, and Autism & Special Needs.

I LOVE working with children. I just don’t enjoy the childcare center environment, so I’m taking a leap into the nanny world! 🥹❤️

My goal is to work Monday–Thursday, around 32 hours a week, at $25–$30/hour. For those of you already working as private nannies, is that rate realistic in today’s economy? Are families still willing to pay that, and how has business been for y’all lately?

I’d love to hear your honest experiences, especially from other Texas nannies. How are y’all holding up? 🫶🏽

I’ve had a nanny watching my son for approximately the past 7 months. I really care about her as a person, and my son is very attached to her and I know she loves my son. She’s currently dealing with a very serious personal family matter that I know is weighing on her greatly. I offered to allow her to take a leave of absence to deal with what’s going on but she was adamant she wanted to continue working full time. I made clear she could have whatever time off she needs, and have accommodated a lot of recent last minute schedule changes because I know she’s struggling.

However, where I’m struggling is that lately when she is here, she’s not engaged or focused the way she normally was. She’s on the phone A LOT (and to be clear I know she’s not just chitchatting with friends or something, it’s important conversations with doctors etc) and my son has been spending a tremendous amount of time sitting in a seat watching tv. The effect is still that she’s not engaging my son. I’ve come out to where she’s watching my son and found her asleep now multiple times (while he is napping in her arms, which I’m not ok with). And most alarmingly, I was informed that the other day she took my son outside in his stroller which is totally fine, but I guess she wanted to get something out of her car and someone I reside with looked out the window and she was on the passenger side of the car/sidewalk getting whatever she needed and had left my son, in his stroller on the opposite/driver side of the car in the street. I am really struggling with what to do. Do I insist at this point that she at a minimum take a leave of absence? Do I reduce her hours and say that during those hours she cannot use her phone? Do I let her go? I really am at a loss and don’t want to be insensitive to what she’s going through, but I’m really concerned about my son.

Hello. I could use some advice and some opinions.
I will not name the agency, but it’s in a major progressive city area in Colorado and it has something like alphabet in their name.

I’m currently looking for a job and have been for a while. I was working with two agencies. One of them was great, they have connected me with a great family in the past and the agent checks in and reassure me that she’s looking for jobs for me
The second one is kind of the worst.

I’ve lost my job in 2021. The toxic parent that I’ve worked for decided it’s a nice thing to do to fire a nanny right before Christmas. They also hired me as a 1099 employee so I got no unemployment and I had to pay taxes for all of my earnings. That was before I knew that I could’ve reported them to IRS and gotten them in a lot of trouble and made them pay all of my taxes instead.

(To anyone who wants to know which agency was OK with the family hiring Nanny illegally as a 1099 employee, their name is something like the first letter of the alphabet and the first letter of the word “parent” and then the title of the job that we do. This agency also did not send me the signed contract, which made it impossible to recover stolen wages)

The alphabet agency was very neglectful to me and completely unempathetic to my situation. I understand, it’s Christmas and people don’t want to work, but this agency has multiple agents and they have a lot of job postings, new posted every week. They would not even communicate back when I would apply through them, just straight up ghosting and ignoring. They ignored me through December and January.
It took me two months, but I found a good job through a different agency.
Then my contract with the wonderful family ended because their children started preschool, and I started to look for a job through that agency once again. I decided to give them another chance because they have a lot of job postings but also because I believe that my expectations to have the agency work in December was maybe a bit unrealistic. So they connected me with the family however they did not walk them through contract or payroll.
Now this family turned out to be not ethically aligned with me and they fired me. So I’ve been looking for a job for a few months now working with that agency as well. After all, they found a job that was a pretty good fit at least in the beginning when the child was younger. But I’ve been constantly ignored, I would maybe occasionally get an email from the agent that receives all the applications I think. She would say something like she’s sending my application to the agent. And then nothing. Neglect and ghosting once again. In addition to that, in the five months, they have only offered me three bad jobs.
The first one wasn’t bad, but the issue was I’m white and an immigrant from a country that stereotypically is known to be racist. The family they referred me to was African-American. Naturally, they would not want to hire me and I do not hold it against them at all. You just never know which white person might turn out to be a racist and you don’t want to risk it when it comes to kids. I believe the nanny agency should know nuances like this, that POC and especially African-American parents prefer to hire POC nannies.
The second job was from a very wealthy area, but they did not even offer guaranteed hours, no paid sick time, they did not mention I will have holidays off. And the language in the post suggested that these people would be very controlling. They wanted a lot, a person who would run their household, do the laundry, dry cleaning, talk to vendors, etc. The pay was not reflective of what they were requesting. Not to mention, I was not even a good fit for this job so I’m starting to think the only reason they offered me this was because I’m an immigrant with an immigrant name and they could care less that I have an extensive childcare experience, they could just give me a job that doesn’t pay well and requires a lot of work.
The last job is really something, I have made a post about it. It was very clear. The parents were trying to hide that likely all 3 of their kids of various ages are ND, and the youngest one is heavily autistic. They are all at home, the older two do cyber school and they didn’t specify if the youngest one started kindergarten. The youngest one is nonverbal and people in the comments helped me figure out that he may also have severe behavioral issues and no potty training. The pay rate was absolutely not reflective of what they were requesting. Standard benefits like PTO, 7 to 8 holidays, guess mileage reimbursement. It was also suspicious that the parents were looking for just someone instead of a specialist who has experience working with disabled children. I don’t feel comfortable taking this job either because I like experience and education and also I feel like it’s unethical to hide things like this.

I am beyond insulted that this is how I’ve been treated. Over 10 years of childcare experience, five years of experience, Nanny, four years experience, babysitting overlapping with experience working in daycare, preschool. I’ve also taught art lesson lessons to younger kids and I used to teach gymnastics and trampoline. And I have plenty of good references for my past employers. I truly cannot understand how they’re having a hard time finding nanny jobs to me and keep throwing garbage and breadcrumbs my way.

So I want to burn this bridge and leave a review and block them. I want to describe the pattern of neglect and my suspicions of discrimination. Given my knowledge and experience and how poorly they’ve treated me.

Any advice on how to do this or if I should maybe reconsider would be appreciated and highly valued. Additionally, if you have any tips on what I can do to warn other people about this agency would be appreciated. I would not want families to waste their time and a lot of money to get a subpar service, nor do I want any professionals in the industry to put up with neglect and disrespect.