No More Nanny
When our nanny resigned she had given us a few weeks notice – the equivalent of 5 of her working days.
The first day she missed due to car problems.
Her second day she proceeded to essentially ignore Baby MPB. I spent my entire day going to check on them as things just didn’t sound right. It turns out when I told her needs to go down for a nap at about 10:30, she put him down at 9:30 so she could study. The kid wasn’t tired so he screamed. This happened again in the afternoon. Later in the day I asked her to try to feeding him a 20 minutes early as I was taking him out with me at the end of her working day and wanted to try feeding him before I left. Well she started feeding him a full hour early and there was no way he was going to eat so he just screamed as she continually shoved the bottle in his mouth (we aren’t big fans for force feeding our son and clearly he is also not a fan).
Up until now she’s been awesome, so I’ve been a bit surprised by her. I suspect she’s just checked out of the job as her focus is probably on her exams and her upcoming world travels.
But as an employer, I was definitely not happy. And as a mother, I was deeply annoyed, I want better for my son and when I’m paying for it I expect better.
So, with only 3 of her working days left, Mr. MPB and I began talking about letting her go early even though we don’t have someone else lined up. Honestly, I just don’t feel the need to pay someone to neglect Baby MPB.
As we were discussing our options over the weekend we got a text that explained she had to miss her last two days. Which left us with 1 day.
Needless to say, we politely told her not to come for the 1 remaining day.
.
We’ve been searching for and interviewing nannies non-stop for the last few weeks. I’m now registered on a few different nanny websites hoping to widen our prospects. Of the ones we’ve interviewed so far, some had great potential but were clearly very afraid of our dog. And, the dog isn’t going anywhere and part of the job is to take her for walks. So, anyone who is afraid of her simply wont work for our family. We found 1 awesome nanny but she was very upfront that she’s still looking for a summer job in her area of academic pursuit, and she has now secured a paid summer internship which she clearly cannot turn down. Every other nanny we’ve interviewed has been a complete dud. Tonight we have 3 more interviews lined up so I’m desperately hoping one of them is perfect.
So, we are officially in the juggling mode. Working, parenting, interviewing nannies all the while trying to maintain our sanity.
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My Perfect Breakdown 
Goodness, i am so sorry it’s been so difficult to find someone who is a good fit! When I used to work as a nanny I was always surprised how the parents would often hire me before I even left the interview. Now I know why! Apparently the pickins are slim. 😦
It was really awful of your nanny to ‘check out’ like that and neglect Baby MPB. That is disgusting and inexcusable no matter how stressed she is about exams.
I reallllly hope you find your diamond in the rough soon! I know she’s out there!
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Yes, the pickins are slim! If we didn’t have our dog we could have hired already, but we need someone who is comfortable with everyone in our house, dog included!
I’m hoping at least one of the ones tonight will be our diamond. 🙂
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Ugh, how disappointing! I hope you find some reliable help soon!
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I am completely disappointed, but am holding out hope that we find someone tonight.
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Wow I’m really surprised as she was so great. Good luck finding a good nanny, it must be so hard trusting someone else with your baby.
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It is so hard trusting someone with our son!! But, it does help that we make sure one of us is always working from home when the nanny is here – once we find a good one and he gets a bit older we’ll start leaving him, but for now we just aren’t ready to. 🙂
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How frustrating! I have been guilty of checking out after I gave notice at a job but that was office work, not a baby! Poor little guy. Good thing you were around to check on him. Hopefully you find a great nanny soon. Our mastiff is “scary” too, even though she is just a big slobbery baby.
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I completely agree, it’s one thing to check out of some jobs while you wait our your notice period, but not when a baby is involved!
Your mastiff sounds just like our dog, big giant baby! 🙂
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Gah! I am annoyed for you. She obviously doesn’t know how references work in the real world.
Good luck tonight!
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No, she clearly doesn’t get how a reference works!! She may have been great for a few weeks, but when someone asks me about her, I wont forget the way she checked out once she resigned.
I so hope we find a good one tonight! 🙂
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Ahh, that’s the worst! I’m sorry, Friend! Care that you’re comfortable with is so, so, so important. Hope someone amazing comes along very soon!
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I still wish we lived closer together! haha! 🙂
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Oh my goodness. I was just given the “car problem” the other day. It’s so tough to find reliable care, and so difficult when you’re relying on help. Best of luck with your search!!
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I’m sorry you also had to deal with “car trouble” too. It is so incredibly frustrating, you’re right!!
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Sort of adding on to the comment above about their mastiff, if you find someone who likes dogs but is scared of a big dog, it might be worth a trial period. I loved dogs, but I had only had smaller, fluffier dogs and as an adult was scared of bigger, scarier-looking dogs, until my friend got one and I realized really quickly that the way they look is no reason to be afraid. Now I have two big, scary-looking dogs of my own who love nothing more than to try to climb in my lap for a belly rub! (Side note: trying to watch TV with two 80-pound dogs both trying to sit in your lap at the same time is really, really hard)
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We’ve thought about that. For the right person who is just slightly uncomfortable with a big dog, I think we could do a trial.
As an aside, we had one lady who continued to use her clipboard as a divider between her and the dog, which just made our dog want to interact with her even more as she thought it was a game. We ended up removing the dog from the room so the lady could focus on talking to us. It was almost comical. She wont get a trial, but for the right person we would be willing to work with them to get to know our dog. 🙂
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That is appalling. I’m so sorry you’re having such a hard time. I really hope you can manage to juggle and find somebody caring soon. It is so hard to find someone you can trust with your child!!
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Yes, absolutely appalling! I’m so disappointed in her change of attitude.
Here’s to hoping we find a good one tonight! 🙂
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Oh no. Just NO. I would have a hard time not letting someone go immediately if they were ignoring my instructions and the baby. How awful. I hope you find someone amazing soon! Hold out for Mary Poppins! XO.
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That’s exactly how we felt. We had decided to tell her she was done, but then she texted first and backed out on mot of her remaining days. So, it worked out really well for us since she’s no longer here.
I hope we find our Mary Poppins ASAP! 🙂
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Oh i hear you on the nanny struggle. We gave up, couldnt find anyone suitable.
Can you and Mr work in 2 hour shifts? Is that possible/ feasible?
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Wow. That’s awful! How unprofessional of her. I hope she doesn’t think she’s going to use you as a reference. This is making me want to go home and hug my nanny.
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Completely unprofessional! And you are right, she better not hope to use me as a reference, because it wont be positive. While she may have been great for a little while, I simply cannot overlook her last week.
And yes, go home and hug your amazing nanny!! 🙂
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Would you be open to an au pair? We have had one for past 2 months and she is ammmmmmazing! Lives with us though but is super affordale.
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Wow, she sounds awful! That’s really bad. I kind of think it’s easier just to go once you’ve decided to go, although obviously you don’t want to leave people in the lurch.
Re the dog, as someone else suggested, I do think people who aren’t familiar can be a bit “funny”. I never had a dog growing up so I didn’t know a lot of stuff about dogs and even though I loved dogs, I was cautious. (Eg I didn’t understand biting games! I used to think they were killing each other!) My dad “hates” dogs but proudly tells everyone that he’s “tamed” our dog! I think once they get used to them it’s not so bad… I mean, who doesn’t love a dog?!
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Oh no, that sounds very frustrating! Good luck with the search – hopefully you snag a good one soon. There are good nannies out there, sparse as they may be…
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Ugh! Child care is probably the most difficult and the most important service parents seek out. I hope you find someone soon! It’s good that you and Mr MPB are home with the nanny right now. That gives you the opportunity to slowly transition to being out of the house should you find someone you like. Good luck!
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Yikes. She has really checked out 😦
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That sucks that she just really didn’t even care anymore once she gave her notice. What a crock!! I would have told her not to come back, too. I do hope that you find someone new and awesome very quickly!! Hang in there…like I said before, you did this with just the 2 of you before and you got through it, you can do it again!
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Wow. I am sorry the first nanny turned into such a flake. Definitely not professional! This sounds pretty stressful. I hope tonight you find the one! I am glad you are so good at paying attention to what is going on when you are working and noticed the oddities. Best luck to you for a swift transition!
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Ugh, how frustrating… I hope you’re not in juggling mode for too long. I was annoying reading about her slacking. Sigh.
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Oh no….that is a terrible shame for you guys. Fingers crossed you will find your Mary Poppins tap tap tapping on your door soon 😊
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Oh my god I would be LIVID if my nanny did these things! So unprofessional. I guess she doesn’t need a reference letter from you. I wish I could nanny share our nanny is amazing. I hope you find someone reliable soon!
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I’m talking to a few gals about the potential of doing a Nanny share. I’m sure the thought is good but the logistics of finding someone will be as equally challenging as your experience. Hope you find someone you can trust and rely on soon
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Best of luck finding the perfect fit for your family!
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Wow, how cruddy of her! Forget unprofessional, that’s just being a shoddy person on her end. I’m sorry you had to deal with that stress! Having a new born is stressful on its own. Hoping your next nanny is a much better fit.
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Horrendous!!! I just let my nanny go as well because she started showing signs of dementia and forgot which boy she fed! Not good! (Granted she’s 68!) So sorry all that you went through! It’s not easy allowing someone else to care for our babies.
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