:)
Also plenty of people DON'T find time to fold their own clothes, run two or more businesses, homeschool, plan and care for their children, cook from scratch, AND play with their kids. It's okay if you're one of the many who don't manage to do ALL of those things at once! It's okay to outsource the 1-2 items that are least critical for you to be doing. Not being able to pull ALL of that off doesn't mean you're lazy, have a clinical neurological disability, "too" anything, etc.
:* :* Thank you! :)
So I just had a chat with my nanny. I asked her if she liked the job, because sometimes it seems like she doesn't really. And I said, I could understand that because we aren't paying you what a good nanny is worth. So I told her if she wants the job, I can raise her to $350/day (up from $240), and that I have certain expectations. I said with housecleaning, mostly just the underwear and the sock issue, super minor! :) lol. I know you guys are all dying with the underwear thing.
And with the kids, I told her I want to get her set-up with activities. Show her what the rules are for playing with puzzles and paints etc (I know it sounds ocd, but if you have no rules with my kids in one day you will have no more toys or paints, really.)
It's on me to get the activity cabinet fully stocked and set up. And then I'll take a day or two to be with her doing the kid activities so she can get an idea how to handle four munchkins. How to take one out at a time, and then put it back before you get out another, etc. As someone mentioned, if she didn't grow up with these things, she probably doesn't know how to show the kids how to be responsible with these things.
And we chatted a bit about discipline issues. How we'll need to hear daily what discipline issues arose so we the parents and her can all be on the same page and she can be empowered to enforce consequences and know what those consequences might be.
And I told her what I love, that she's on top of the laundry and it's great, that the cleaning is going really well, and that I love that she takes the kids for walks. She mentioned that they call it their "dia de campo" and that she brought cookies on her own and they had a picnic. <3 So glad we talked, because I wouldn't have known, and that's just the sort of thing I love.
I also told her that I'm going to be making a list of things that irk me and dh so we can go over them with her once a week. And I said that I don't want it to bother her, or feel like we're criticizing her. And she said she likes it if we tell her so she knows what we want. Maybe I'll just write it on the whiteboard in the kitchen when dh and I are talking. I'll make a "nanny" section.
So, it's going to be a little more costly. If she steps up, I'll raise it up to $400. But I'm feeling good about the communication. We'll see!