As many parents know, it's difficult to find the right nanny, and when you do she's a godsend, providing the kind of high-quality care that studies show is important, along with cuddles and play in your child's own home. After five years of nannies, I can honestly say I’ve never regretted opting for this type of childcare - even if my bank balance has. But despite the greater measure of control a parent has through having a sole employee working in their house, things don't always go as we'd like.

I’ve loved the way my nannies have given hours of fantastic one-to-one care to my children, but I've also had my share of unhappy surprises and heard some disturbing tales. Of course what’s worrying is that, if I hadn't been working from home, I wouldn't even know about some of these…

1) Eat you out of house and home

Providing food for your nanny is part and parcel of employing them. But stories abound of nannies hoovering up entire fridgefuls and jacking up the cost of the weekly grocery shop. I soon learned with one nanny that nothing was safe.

In the run-up to a big family party I had spent weeks happily baking. My freezer was stuffed full of brownies, cakes and biscuits. The evening before the party, I retrieved my containers from the freezer and was in for a shock. The Tupperware was empty, with even the cake gone. There was just one possible culprit, our lovely, but admittedly rather overweight, nanny. In another incident, a different nanny ate my daughter's prized chocolate Easter Egg. She took a long time to forgive and forget that one.

The experience taught me an important element of good parent-nanny relations: food labels pointing out what's up for grabs and what's not. "Please don't eat” is always a good start.

2) Feed a newly-weaned baby inappropriate food

My son was newly weaned when I got one nanny in to look after him.

“There’s some organic salmon in the fridge for his lunch,” I said (sounding even a bit yummy mummy to my own ears). “He loves fish.”

She waved me off with a friendly “You go and work, we’ll be fine.” The baby even smiled.

But that afternoon, she told me that lunch had not been a success.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have microwaved the fish,” she said sadly. “Or maybe it was a bit too salty.”

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