Don't panic, yes, I am talking about a Nanny.
Never had problem with her, she is the best one ever..but!
I noticed that she won't "serve" after making any meal. She does not have to cook often, only when the eating-at-table aged kids shows sings of hunger. I have a bunch of leftovers, so Nanny does not spends her time in the kitchen.
That being said, children cannot "grab a plate" unless the serving plate/bowl was.."served" They can clean it up though, but that does not help when you are hungry and would like to politely eat the food that's been made just for you.

Does this happens too in your game, or it's just me?
I hate having to make a NPC controllable, even if it is just for a second and on pause, just to have her click on the plate and choose "serve".
Thanks.

Your kid can try influence her to serve.

"Influence...serve meal" ?
But wouldn't that just make her cook another meal? What about the one she just made..0_o

The same thing has happened to me! The nanny (who was just awful for more reasons than just this) fixed food, but didn't serve it, so the child couldn't eat. Fortunately, there were leftovers in the fridge, so he didn't have to go hungry, but sheesh. I've had so many bad nannies, that I avoid using them whenever possible.

Is there a centrepiece on the table? I had the no serve problem once and it turned out that the centrepiece on the small table was making the table register as full with no place to serve to.

Thank jesus hallelulejah for leftovers - whenever my sim makes food (I never make just one plate even if it is just cooking for one) my sim always put the leftover in the fridge and there is always something to eat. Always! That is one of the best functions in The Sims hands down.

No. There is nothing on the table, and dad always serve whatever he makes.
If it is not a common thing, then it might be something in my game. kitchen Table is CC by me, though I'd be surprise if that table alone, would change anything. I've been using my own kitchen set for years.

That sounds like she's using the "Make" option rather than the "Serve" option. Can the kids Put Away Leftovers on it and then take it out again?

Exactly what I was thinking JUST now Peni. But do I remember *if* Put Away leftovers shows up..? Of course not and this means I'll have to fire up my game..
What a life.

I hated the slowness of the old biddies - not to mention their weak bladder which would mean there were various puddles around the house. So I replaced them all in SimPE with three younger models who could at least walk fast.

Download simply leftovers
Let your kid put away group meal as single plates and let him take one plate.

Wait a second, I could have sworn you can have children (not toddlers) grab a plate.

I already have this, thank you.
I have no problems with leftovers, I just want my kids to be able to grab a plate if nanny cooks for them.

I don't think the game allows the nanny to serve food; not without a mod I don't know about and don't have If the kid can greet a Sim walking by, that guest will serve the food - kids can also get leftovers themselves, so make sure the parents put away the leftovers.

I've had nannies serve food, and I don't even use them that much. This would be a really stupid feature to put in, even granting that they seem to have wanted nannies to be undesirable.

I know this isn't the source of the problem, but this mod allows dishes to be placed on tables with centerpieces, if anyone's curious.

I've recently had the same problem.
To be honest I blamed it on UC - because it was the very first time a nanny was hired ever since I installed UC.
Any chance this could be your case too?

I also stored it on my Sims inventory and the kid decided to grab some leftovers but I was hoping it was a one time thing - haven't played that family again so I can't be sure.

Maybe it depends on the nanny? I've only seen them serve food when the parents are at home - I use them all the time, for all my families, though, and it seems to me that they just put the food on the counter - and normally, I just leave the food there until some Sim can clean it up - but I had had kids greet Sims walking by, and that Sims will serve the food - I have no nanny mods at all, so I assume that the game don't allow the serve part (stupid feature it might be, but that is my conclusion).

It's not UC - I always use nannies, for every family, because my parents always work - and I am fairly sure that the nanny does not serve food as a rule - sometimes she serves it when the parents are at home, though. Been this way in my game since I started playing before and after installing UC.

I downloaded UC, just because...EA gave it away. But since I have everything Sims2, I will never install it. lol
So no..in my case, it is not because of UC. Strange thing is...I cannot remember if I ever saw a nanny serve food, it is bugging me now though. I'll need to do more testing.

I'm pretty sure she does not, really have never seen her do that, except sometimes when the parents are at home with guests (happens if one of them gets promoted and the hours change - the nanny will stay then). I have UC because I broke my Sims 2 cd (and never had TSS). Perhaps it has to do with the fact that kids can make themselves muffins if they have a cooking skill point or two - but I play my game around the belief that she won't serve a child food.

I very seldom have nannies at all, but the Swains, who both work late, hired "the good nanny" for my neighborhood, and she has twice served lobster thermidor, and the kids got some. This was pretty late and I don't distinctly remember how it got to the table, so maybe one of the parents served it after coming home - I wouldn't take an oath on it one way or another. My small handful of nannies seldom does anything at all with food, other than getting bottles from the fridge. I only call them when both parents are working, and generally the overlap in schedules is not very long in the evening.

What sounds like the nanny coding to me would be for her to have an equal or greater chance to "make group meal" rather than "serve dinner," to start with; and with the probability increase for actions that have been performed before, any given nanny might get into the habit of "making" rather than "serving."

Nannies do serve food. I'm sure of that, they have cooked for kids in my hoods for years :D
I never really got why sometimes they do and other times they don't though

I think Maxis made the nannies awful as some kind of sick joke.

Even though I've tweaked mine considerably (aged them to adults, given them maximum cleaning, mechanical and cooking skills), I now find them too interfering. I cannot stand it when my parent comes home from work and wants to do something with the toddler, the nanny butts in like something out of the Omen or that nanny in "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" to do something else. I get rid of them as soon as possible and try not to use them either if I can help it.

I must say since improving my nannies I have missed out on some gems of fun though.. I always remember one of my original (elderly) nannies dying when she tried to fix the trash compactor and got electrocuted. hehe. (ooh I'm cruel!)

You are lucky then - never seen it myself being done and I had a hood with 198 families