This week’s hilarious viral video is a perfect example of why nannies don’t like to work for parents who work from home. Who hasn’t laughed at that very proper dad being interviewed by the BBC when his home office was suddenly invaded by both his children. Let’s get serious. If the person who was watching the children had been the nanny, odds are really good she could have lost her job. Good thing it was the mom! And had it been the nanny who dragged the daughter along the floor to get her out of view, I’m pretty sure there would have been a discussion about potential  bodily harm.

We ask every nanny candidate how she feels about working for parents who work from home. While some are ok with the idea, many say having the parents at home makes it so much harder for them to do their jobs. Kids naturally want to be with their parents and are incapable of distinguishing play time from work time. Nannies have told us they don’t care if cameras are following them as they would do nothing differently. They just need to have their work space separated from the parents – preferably by several metro stops not merely upstairs or downstairs.

Telecommuting for work isn’t going away and will probably only increase. Figuring out how to make that arrangement work is the continuing challenge for nannies and parents alike. One of the suggestions we will now add to our list of best practices is to make sure the home office door is locked!