Avoiding Nanny Nightmares (again)
A couple of days upon returning from our “big trip” to China, our current nanny who has been wonderful for the last 10 months told me that she would like to keep working for us but “live-out.” Ugh! This is about the last thing I need to handle right now – I still feel like I’m catching up on my work from being away and cannot afford any outside distractions, especially because Zoe Foods is just at the brink of taking off if we can meet consumer demand and build our distribution quickly enough.
So… childcare… I welcome your suggestions. I have made every effort in the last year to keep our current nanny happy. I’ve taken vacation time to cover for her vacation. When we’ve had vacation and she didn’t want to take hers, I paid her anyway. I’ve tried to make her feel welcome in our home – we’re easy-going and flexible and it’s been fine with nannies in the past, but she wants her own apartment. If she were to “live-out” that means a higher cost for me. Alternatively, she offered working for me in the afternoons only and receiving the same compensation. There’s no value to me in that other than I don’t have to go through the search process again and that my children can have consistency beyond the last year. Ugh. That’s what comes to mind, a big, fat, ugly, UGH!
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October 15, 2008 at 11:43 am
Robin Joz
Tori,
I don’t know if you’ve found a resolution to your child care challenge…but I feel your pain. I had a live in nanny this summer……and there were a lot of hidden costs that I experienced.
I think that you’ve been generous with pay from your description, it’s not easy to have someone live in your home either.
Working just afternoons doesn’t work for most people, if you worked in a traditional employment setting, you’d need “day care” anyway.
So, if your nanny is ready to move on then I’d suggest you find a new nanny situation. I’d checked into Au Pair’s, there are a bunch of nanny websites on the internet. Good luck in this season. Moving on is definitely part of life when working with nannys.
October 16, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Tori
Robin, Thanks so much for your comment. A couple good friends of mine also suggested going with an Au Pair agency. I’ve been working with Cultural Care Au Pair the last couple of weeks and we just matched with someone who seems lovely. I am looking forward to the experience and am thrilled to have avoided the months of searching through resumes and following up with unresponsive young women. Thank you again for your thoughts.
Your comment on being able to move on with nannies is a very important point to keep in mind.