Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Nanny Woes


Maybe I watched Mary Poppins to much growing up, maybe I loved Nanny Mcphee a tiny but to much for my age, I'm not quite sure if I am expecting to much from my nanny but I am one step away from firing her.

A serious pet peeve of mine is laziness, especially when it comes to work. You show initiative naturally don't you, okay well at least do what is the minimum of what is expected in your job description if doing a little more is just to much to ask.

She comes in 3 times week, from 8am-3pm, R1200 per month, her job to look after Aiden, stimulate him, play with him, read to him, whatever makes my child happy and makes him progress the way he is supposed to. All things related to Aiden, keep his room clean, wash his clothes, pack away his clothes, feed him and do his bottles, I was going to add on doing my one bedroom flat as well but I think she might die from being over worked if I just suggest it.

The first few weeks the whole stimulating and playing with my child went well, I don't know if she got bored but she now sits with him in the laundry room so she can chat to our maid, my son has the most beautiful bedroom, we have a large garden which Aiden loves to sit in and she sits in the laundry room. That and while I type this she is sitting in the kitchen while the maid does the dishes and Aiden is just sitting there and I can hear her fat conversation from here, down the passage. 

She makes him sleep constantly.

She shakes a rattle in his face for an hour if she has to, that's if he is awake for that long or she is not mid conversation with the maid.

His room is covered in dust and spider webs.

I have reorganised his cupboard about 5 times in hopes she'll figure out one piece's with one pieces, shorts with shorts and so forth but no luck yet.

I have 12 bottles, my system is wash, sterilize and fill the bottles with boiling water, she has NEVER left this house and left me with 12 washed, sterilized and filled bottles, actually I'm lucky if I get one and she sometimes leaves 2.30 because Aiden is sleeping and won't wake up by 3pm.

Now if she did those few things I just complained about I would actually be happy, if I wasn't paying her to sit around and read magazines and have a social life I would be happy and if she showed a bit of initiative I would be ecstatic.

I hate firing people but I don't see anything really changing with this nanny, please Mary Poppins I need you.

2 comments:

  1. I am having similar issues with our nanny - but not this bad and its more Davids issue with her.

    Have you given her a list? I have done one now for Josephine - a simply daily, weekly, monthly list. Put it on the fridge for her. Makes it easier to let her go if you do still want to do that.

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  2. Sounds like your nanny needs training. Honestly, it's not easy finding a good nanny but if you have one who's willing to learn how to do things the way you like, you've got a winner. You can try to do what the previous poster said about writing a list but I think its only effective if she works/thinks that way. Better to lead by example -> so for the three days she is with Aiden let her know what u expect to be done or complete before she leaves for the day. Show her how you like it done and correct her if she gets it wrong. Try this for a month. Also make it clear this is very important so she knows her job is on the line - though I don't advise actually threatening to fire her as you'll never know how she might choose to retaliate. GL!

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