Nanny sick days question?

chloebeth930

If you have someone who comes into your home to watch your LO how do you deal with sick days or doctor's appointments?  We pay our nanny a monthly salary to watch our daughter.  I understand that sometimes sicks days come up or you need to schedule and a doctor's appointment and the only time they can see you is during the work week.  My issue is how do you deal with that money wise?  For those that pay a salary, do you have a predetermined number of sick days that your nanny is allowed to take?  If you don't have a formal agreement put in place, how do you feel about still paying for care even on those days where your nanny isn't there?

 

 

Here is my back story if you are bored. My mom watches our daughter full-time.  My husband is in the military and doesn't always have a set schedule, while I work 8-5 Mon-Fri. She has lived with us for the past year but is now getting her own place.  She will still watch our DD in our home and will then leave to go to her place when DH gets home each day.  When she lived with us we didn't pay her and instead just didn't ask her to contribute to any of our bills.  Now that she is not living with us, we are going to be paying her the what it will cost to have DD in full time care as a monthly salary.  I am trying to figure out how to handle situations where she may have an appointment or be sick.  I do have the option of having my daughter go to the hourly drop in on our base (it is only $4 an hour/$30 a day) and I am comfortable with that, I guess it just makes me feel frustrated that I would be paying my mom for full time care and then on some days be paying extra to have my daughter be watched by someone else.  Especially with the fact that my husband 75% of the time gets home early and my mom will be working less that 40 hours per week watching our daughter.

I realize that this whole situation is one that a lot of people wouldn't put themselves in but for our family there really isn't another choice.  My mom is a widow and finding full time work isn't very easy for her with her limited work experience.  A lot of the responsibility falls on my shoulders to make sure she is provided for and this was the perfect opportunity to be able to take care of her finacially without her feeling bad about being given a hand out from her daughter.  Also, her and DD are best friends, and I love that DD gets taken care of by a family member and not a stranger.

Sorry for the bad spelling...I can't seem to find the spell check anywhere

djm31012

I do not have a nanny so im sure others will have better advice...but I think the best way is to work it out as if she were not family, and was in fact an employee. Have a set number a sick days/vacation days put in place that she should adhere to and are built into her salary.  Anything above that, deduct pay. I would just make sure expectations are very clear and there are protocols in place to avoid any issues. 

jf198400

Most ladies with nannies on this board give a certain number of paid days off per year. In your situation, since this is your mom and she has been doing you a favor, I would just give her whatever time off she needs. She's obviously not going to be taking advantage of you and calling out "sick". And $30/day for backup care is freaking cheap! When my mom was watching my kids FT, and I occasionally had to pay a backup babysitter, I was usually paying $100/day.

chloebeth930

Thanks everyones.  I will sit down with my mom and try to write out some formal agreement that we both feel comfortable with.

 PrivacyWanted - Thanks for your comment.  My older sister died in the same accident that killed my father so I know where you are coming from.  It sucks being forced into the role of having the sole responsibility to make sure your parent is taken care of, especially when you have your own family that needs to come first. (ps I have no idea why this comment is green and it won't let me change it to black).

GMH1183

I have a very similar setup with my mom. When she needs time off I usually just use that opportunity to stay home with my kids and hang out with them. She doesn't take excessive time off or anything so we don't have a formal sick policy.

Puppies+Rainbows+Unicorns

I use a small in home daycare. We pay for 10 holidays and two weeks if vacation/sick a year.

snicksnack

my mom watched the kids and we paid her.  She liked to take  vacations and always needed off before and after to get ready and unpack, but her vacations never seemed to work out with ours and that got old once my dad retired and she was talking two or three a year.  So we decided after talking with her to pay for our vacations but not hers. So any time I took off she got paid but if she took off she did not.  As for daytime appointments I treated her like I am treated at work she was paid for the day and one of us would come home or go in late.  Those came few and far between for us it was the multiple 10 day vacations. She was also paid for 10 holidays a year.  We switched to daycare at the first of the year and I love it.  I am very happy that my mom watched them when they were babies but it is so much easier not dealing with time off coverage.

lily_721

I had a nanny. She worked four days per week. If she needed a day off, she had the option to swap days, or be paid for three days instead. On the flip side, if I decided to work from home and watch LO myself (not recommended), I would give her a paid day off. Basically I paid her to be available even if I didn't use her that day.

rockychryslerb2010

We give 15 paid vacation days a year.  5 are at our discretion and the remaining 10 she can use for appointments, vacation, snow or sick days. 

If she needs to take more than her 10, we don't pay her for that time.  I think our policy is more than fair, although she's had to take 4 days in the last two months because of the horrible winter weather, but the first two years were not nearly as bad.