Post by theseaword on Feb 10, 2017 8:56:11 GMT -5
Gonna be a long one!
This is part vent, part looking for other perspectives.
We have had our nanny for almost a year. Up until the end of last year, she was fantastic. So high energy, takes the kids to lots of fun places during the day, reliable, and flexible when we were running late at the end of the day (her end time is 5:30, but more often than not it was more like 5:40/5:45). The only thing I didn't like is that she's a smoker. My ad was for a non smoker, and her contract says she can't smoke in my house or while on duty. She never told me straight out that she was a smoker, but she takes the kids to her house pretty often and when she does I can smell it on them. I don't believe she smokes around the kids.
Anyway, at the start of this year, she started to be noticeably less reliable. She's been late more often. And she's had a lot of absences. She was sick in January, ok. Then she called out for a snow day. It was just a light morning snow. We asked if she could come later in the morning once it stopped. She never responded.
This week, she called out for a snow day on Tuesday. It was going to be some moderate snow. We asked if we could drop the kids off at her house if she didn't want to drive. She put her phone on airplane mode and didn't respond. Wednesday she was late. Thursday we were WFH for snow and told her she didn't need to come in. Today she called out because of car trouble.
She gets personal days, but these have all been last minute. We don't have the kind of jobs where you can just not show up last minute (not that most people do). I have a new boss that doesn't know me very well, and I'm sure I'm starting to look unreliable to him. On Tuesday, we both literally could not miss the day, so we paid $350 for a drop in center.
At this point, I'm thinking I need to replace her. But I don't want to be rash since she has such a good relationship with the kids, and I like how she is with them. What does parenting think?
Tl:dr: fire nanny for too many absences? Or deal with it because she's great with the kids?
This is part vent, part looking for other perspectives.
We have had our nanny for almost a year. Up until the end of last year, she was fantastic. So high energy, takes the kids to lots of fun places during the day, reliable, and flexible when we were running late at the end of the day (her end time is 5:30, but more often than not it was more like 5:40/5:45). The only thing I didn't like is that she's a smoker. My ad was for a non smoker, and her contract says she can't smoke in my house or while on duty. She never told me straight out that she was a smoker, but she takes the kids to her house pretty often and when she does I can smell it on them. I don't believe she smokes around the kids.
Anyway, at the start of this year, she started to be noticeably less reliable. She's been late more often. And she's had a lot of absences. She was sick in January, ok. Then she called out for a snow day. It was just a light morning snow. We asked if she could come later in the morning once it stopped. She never responded.
This week, she called out for a snow day on Tuesday. It was going to be some moderate snow. We asked if we could drop the kids off at her house if she didn't want to drive. She put her phone on airplane mode and didn't respond. Wednesday she was late. Thursday we were WFH for snow and told her she didn't need to come in. Today she called out because of car trouble.
She gets personal days, but these have all been last minute. We don't have the kind of jobs where you can just not show up last minute (not that most people do). I have a new boss that doesn't know me very well, and I'm sure I'm starting to look unreliable to him. On Tuesday, we both literally could not miss the day, so we paid $350 for a drop in center.
At this point, I'm thinking I need to replace her. But I don't want to be rash since she has such a good relationship with the kids, and I like how she is with them. What does parenting think?
Tl:dr: fire nanny for too many absences? Or deal with it because she's great with the kids?