Nanny F/U

WillisReincarnated

Thanks for all of your responses.  I thought you would all be interested to know that the nanny just didn't show up today.  We discussed that she would come Monday between 830-900.  We called her at 915 and left a nice vm asking if she was ok.  No return call.

We interviewed another candidate.  Nice lady, said she had nannied PT for the same family for 5 years and worked PT retail.  Did heavy housework (vacuumed every day), etc.  When I asked about using the family as a reference, she kind of stalled.  Finally gave it to me today.  I called the reference and she had a totally different story.  She nannied for one year, no housework, nice lady, was FT.  I swear this reference was just a friend who offered to tell us a story.

WTF?  This is insane.  Is it really that difficult to find a nice, honest person who wants to work 25-32 hours a week?  I swear we are being totally upfront with the candidates about the job parameters.  It doesn't even matter to me if this person has "years" of experience.  

And did I mention I've already started my job.  Yeah, today was awesome.  DH and I each worked a half day.  Lovely. 

Go_Dawgs

Wow, that really sucks, especially on your first day on the job.  You would think that in this economy, it wouldn't be so hard to find someone!  I hope you find someone soon.  What in the world are you going to do in the meantime?

JillRock96

I'm sorry.    We've had to go through this process three times (one when I went from part-time to full-time, and then just recently when we moved).  It is hard, for sure, but there are some amazing people out there.  We absolutely adored our last nanny before we moved away -- she was incredible and loves our girls so much.  I thought we would never find anyone like her.  This time around, we had a terrible time at first, possibly because I work part-time.  We had lots of people respond that could not even commit to the hours we needed, and we had several people just flat-out fail to show up for first or even second interviews.  We were very up-front right away about pay, hours, sick time, vacation time, etc.  We finally found our current nanny, and we are so happy with her.  She adores our girls, and we love her.  She is part of our family, and we have met her family as well.  Hope that give you a little inspiration and you find your perfect match soon!

BeccaLandes

we have also had a very hard time finding good, reliable childcare.  we also met with a woman who let slip she had worked for an acquaintance of mine (not listed on her references). so of course i emailed the acquaintance-- turns out that the nanny had just stopped showing up!  no thank you.

i hope that you are able to find someone good soon. i know it is an added stress to go back to work worrying about what will be going on with your children. 

LALASEPT05

I'm sorry. Yes it is incredibly difficult to find good nanny help. Believe it or not I've heard people have had good luck with Facebook and asking for recommendations. The other thing you might consider is looking into a nanny agency. Since you are looking for someone temporary you can usually pay the referral rate per day and then pay the nanny directly. We did this for a while. I tried going the care.com and sittercity route but did not have luck. I ended up going back to the agency because I just couldn't find anyone which is crazy with all of the candidates out there. Good luck to you!

CandT

That is so hard. Can you find part time daycare instead, at least temporarily until you find a good nanny? Good luck!

lrrb

We had WONDERFUL success using an agency.  The agency can be from anywhere and will find someone in your area.  We used from out of South Florida called Little Angels and we don't live in South Florida (we live 4 to 5 hours away).  They found us someone who was AMAZING.  I think you need to serach our an agency in my opinion, it cost a bit more up front but they will find you a nanny until someone sticks (like if they send someone and its not a good match for you and your family and they keep sending until someone does fit).  

 

GL sweetie! 

jenn2929

I'm so sorry you are going through this.  We had a really difficult time as well.  The prospective nannies either wouldn't show up to an interview, wanted a whole lot more money than we were willing to pay or were just kind of dingy.  Our first nanny stole money from us, so I would highly recc doing a background check!  We ended up getting our 2nd nanny from an agency.  In my mind it was worth the peace of mind to pay the extra money.  When she left to go back to school full-time, I did find someone on care.com, who was good, but it took A LOT of interviews to find her.  When she left, to go back to school as well, we ended up putting teh kids in daycare.  It's not for everyone, but it was a great decision for us.

GL!

howleyshell

Sadly I'm totally not surprised.

I swear dealing with child care stuff is one of THE hardest parts of parenting.

Hang in there - the search is tough but you WILL find someone who is great!

 

 

Dragonfly1226

I can't believe she just didn't show up!!! What a horrible thing to do. It sounds like a really good thing you won't be using her, but some warning would have been nice. I hope you find someone really soon!