Those with a Nanny

myrall · January 2012

For those of you with a nanny, do you have a catastrophic back-up plan? DH keeps throwing out there there possibility that something awful could befall our potential nanny. I mean, I understand having contingencies in the case of the nanny getting sick or her kids getting sick, but can you really plan for everything?

If she were to get injured or something serious were to happen, I guess we'd just have to move into crisis mode and move on. There wouldn't be much else we could do. What have y'all done?

lindzed · January 2012

I don't have any big plans, but I am not really sure how you could. It is one of the issues with having a nanny, but to me the positives easily out weight the possible issues. I did find my amazing nanny in like 2 days, so I guess I would find someone else (although I don't think I could survive without mine).

Mrs Manners · January 2012

We did daycare tours and chose one we liked as a backup plan in case it didnt work with our nanny. We ended up having her for almost three years and then moved him to the daycare (interviewed and visited all again and still liked this one best even 3 years later).

slwprincess · January 2012

Your back up plan is called drop in care. Sophie's daycare at the office will take them- no problem. That's what we do with Gavin now when his school is closed or if I need to go into the office on one of his "off" days. In fact, I bet your current daycare would do it too if you ask. At ours, you'd have to pay an enrollment fee up front I think and then its $50 per day- which is pretty pricey IMO. Most are $40-45 for drop in care so definitely try to negotiate where you are now. ETA: This is for temporary back up plan... it would just buy you some time till you find a new nanny or make other permanent childcare arrangements. I just hate that more centers don't advertise this as an option. I've found that almost all will entertain it (except the really hard to get into ones ITP)- especially in this economy. They will take whatever they can get!

ally-cat · January 2012

Luckily, my mom would take care of him. But if she weren't close, I'd be talking to some nearby daycare center as a back-up plan.

mingaling2 · January 2012

Can you have his current daycare be your back up plan if you talked to them about it? I mean, Geneva's been there forever and they know you really well, so it can't hurt to ask about that as an option?

NozzeFS · January 2012

If the nanny were sick and couldn't come, one of us would take a sick day to take care of him. The nice thing is when the kids are sick, you don't miss work. Ours has never had a sick day - so we are lucky.

If she wanted to go on vacation or something major happened, we'd probably take a few days off of work as needed and see if one of our parents could come up to watch the kids. If the nanny would be gone forever, we'd start interviewing ASAP. You can hire a nanny pretty quickly- it is just a lot of work during the 2 weeks or so of searching.

myrall · January 2012

NozzeFS:
If the nanny were sick and couldn't come, one of us would take a sick day to take care of him. The nice thing is when the kids are sick, you don't miss work. Ours has never had a sick day - so we are lucky.
If she wanted to go on vacation or something major happened, we'd probably take a few days off of work as needed and see if one of our parents could come up to watch the kids. If the nanny would be gone forever, we'd start interviewing ASAP. You can hire a nanny pretty quickly- it is just a lot of work during the 2 weeks or so of searching.

This is what I'm thinking. You just go hire someone else. It's a pain, but you do it. As for our current daycare, I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be an issue to get him back in if something else were to arise. They just like to make a stink about how full they are, but I know there's an empty spot there right now.

Thanks for the input, y'all! I may have a couple more questions in the upcoming week. After meeting two gals this weekend, I'm ready to yank him from daycare ASAP.

decaturbride · January 2012

This happened to us right after we hired our 1st nanny. She was with us for almost a month and then I got an email saying she was in the hospital. I forget exactly what it was supposed to be, her appendix or something. At first we were very supportive and my Mom was able to come from Nashville to take care of Owen. I rearranged my schedule at work also to be off more. Then her story kept getting more and more fishy. We did have her come back for a couple of days, but decided we weren't comfortable with her afterall. We fired her and searched for a new nanny. I took about 2 weeks to place another ad and interview people. We found our 2nd nanny right after that and she was awesome in every way.

When our 2nd nanny had to move away, we had plenty of notice to search for other options. If you find a great nanny that you love, it is worth the possibility of taking a sick day here and there. I love that Owen was able to have that kind of individualized care for his first 2 years of life.

Louise06 · January 2012

You could get into the situation with a daycare. One of my friends went to pick up her daughter and was told the daycare was closing in like 4 days. She had to scramble to find someplace to care for her 3 month old. I felt so bad for her!

AugustaBride04 · January 2012

If she's sick or needs vacation etc, ask her if she has a backup. I've found that nannies are a pretty tight knit community and will help each other out. Our situation is unique in that I work from home FT. So, as much as it sucks when our nanny calls out, I am already home. If it's a couple days in a row, DH and I will switch off. If it's longer we'll ask grandparents to help. In between nannies is always the hardest, but thankfully we've handled it with grandparents and a past nanny that can help us PT. You just need to have some type of backup plan in place - just in case. If it's an unexpected extended outage, I agree with the others to look for someone else. Once you go the nanny route, you've got to have the coverage.

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