Adventure with a student nanny

I want to talk about life with a student nanny. For the past few months we have had a student nanny. Now mind you she was supposed to start in December and come once a week, every week, for 17 weeks. It is now March, and she has come 7 times. Do the math. Ah. Anyway, it started out with bad weather, snow storms, stomach flues ect.

Anyway, today was the day that our nanny was supposed to cook us dinner. It started by her calling to say that she would be 30 minutes late because her teacher had not given her back the meal plans. Now, she wasn't at school when she called, and it was a Monday, so she should have known ALL weekend that she didn't have her plans, but somehow she didn't notice till right before 11am on Monday.

Today we were going grocery shopping and she was supposed to do all of the meal prep and clean-up, while watching the kids. This is what happened. I had her get the kids ready to go grocery shopping all on her own. She did decently, but needed to be reminded that:

1. You should turn out the lights before leaving the house.
2. One should bring the diaper bag for an outing.
3. We normally put down the blinds.
4. You should take Mateo to the bathroom and make sure Natalia has on a clean diaper before leaving the house.
5. The buckles should not be twisted in the car seat.
6. You should always check to see if the seat and buckles are actually buckled in (thank god I checked - ahhh.)

Grocery shopping went quite well. During the shopping she said she was hungry. The "I am sooo hungry" look and stare at me type of look. So, I bought her a power bar. Whatever.

We got home a bit before 5, and the meal prep then started. I encouraged her to get going while Natalia was taking a nap, and it took her about 20 minutes to whip up the brownie mix. I am not honestly sure what took so long (add two eggs and butter and mix), but whatever.

The dinner was challenging. Things I taught or coached:

1. You do need to wash your hands after touching raw chicken.
2. If the spatula touched raw chicken, it should not touch the cooked pasta before it is washed again.
3. What does the word dice mean and how to cut, handle, cook and test for being cooked with chicken.
4. Use the kitchen timer. Did you put on the timer for the brownies - no. Did you put on the timer for the pasta - no. How long has it been going for - I don't know. How long is it supposed to cook for - I don't know. (3 minutes . . . opps)
5. When you should put the pasta in the water - ie after it boils
   
6. How to drain the pasta.
7. That you should not ignore Mateo if he is behaving well, but give him some positive feedback.
8. You can not spread refrigerated butter on cold bread - it must be warmed gently in the microwave.

And the list goes on, and on, and one. I actually feel like I could use a drink. . . and you know what, I have almost never said that, even with two kids.

What have I taken from all of this? Beyond being horrified at this poor girl's lack of life skills. We will be teaching our children how to cook! How to fold the laundry! How to help out around the house. Will we have another student nanny - well I just don't know.