nanny is pregnant :(

Your attitude stinks op.

I also find you ageist and judgemental.

. You know she is an actually person with rights don't you ? Not a slave ?

I was so sick when pregnant it was awful and all the anti emetics if took zonked me out so much I couldn't have cared for children. You can't make her come into work.

I never said my boss was going to profit and we both know that the rest will need paying back.

I was making reference to a pp that asked how op was going to pay for 2 sets of childcare.

Donkir, your boss will have to repay yo the government the element of the SMP that she has received in advance that you will jot be paid, due to your choice to take less than 39 weeks maternity leave. She will not make a windfall on it.

The government pays employers the full SMP allowance for their employees at the start of maternity leave. This is because it is administratively easier. SMP is, when payable, 39 weeks at a weekly rate.

If the employee takes less than 39 weeks (you said you were taking two months), then you are entitled to two months' SMP and the rest must be repaid back to the government. Nobody personally profits on it.

By the way you also accrue holiday whilst you are on maternity leave.

I am currently 31 weeks pg and a nanny. My bosses have been fabulous and I think this helps by me being upfront with them. Unfortunately I've had complications which has meant emergency appointments. I hated letting my bosses down but needs must.

My boss has handed in my matb1 form and the government will give her an upfront payment of my entire mat pay for the year (even though I'm only taking 2 months). This means the money she would normally use to pay me she is using to pay another local nanny and a friend of mine to cover my maternity leave.

Us nannies work incredibly hard and deserve to be treated with respect and not treated as slaves.

If I was sick I'd rather take a few days off to recuperate rather than being made to work and running myself into the ground which will result in me having even longer off in the long run.

It's just so difficult to get good staff these days ...

I think you've hit the nail there Light. My guess would be that the OP didn't have particularly bad sickness, worked through it herself, and is assuming the nanny is having something similar and so could manage to come to work.

However it may be that the nanny is feeling a lot worse than that and simply cannot work. Or she may be being precious as Pretty suggests. it's impossible for the OP to know really because she's not there with the nanny. In which case she has no choice but to believe the nanny when she says she's too ill to work.

It IS more disruptive when a sole employee like a nanny gets pg than when an employee in a large organisation gets pg - no two ways about it. But the rules are the same and nanny employers have to take it on the chin and be as supportive as they can.

"Morning" sickness covers a huge range of experience, you can't just say everyone should work through it unaffected.

In my case (not a nanny) I was no good after 5pm so had to leave work by 4.30 to get home before I started retching and throwing up. I started a bit early and caught up at weekends, but if that hadn't been an option (e.g. in a nanny situation) I would just have had to work something out with my employer to allow me to cut my hours. I simply couldn't have done anything useful in the evening. Even in my very flexible work it was a bit of a pain e.g. when scheduling meetings or the rest of the team were working and I wasn't.

Yes, it's tough for a nanny employer who is relying on one employee. But you know your responsibilities when you hire a nanny (and there is help available e.g. my nanny payroll company has an advice line to help deal with this kind of situation).

OP, can't be of much help in terms of advice but would like to offer my support. I think many posters were too harsh on you and your attitude is not shocking at all. On any job an employee taking time off because of morning sickness (a routine thing in pregnancies) would be seem as acting too precious.

OK, the nanny has morning sickness but imagine she wasn't a nanny and already had a child? She would surely cope - simply because she would have to, as I cannot imagine her arranging a childcare for her own child for the reason of her "not fully functioning". My guess is she is young, scared and takes every little problem seriously - or she may well be using her right for the time off because she is entitled to it, and you can't really check how unwell she really is.

Quite a number of employers do not pay sick pay these days. So statutory sick pay is all the employee gets. Don't know if this is different during pregnancy. How is the OP to afford to pay the nanny and a replacement.

This is exactly why my 2 children went to nursery. My employer wouldn't sympathise with me having a day off sick let alone covering one else's ( ie a nannys sickness) I envy all the posters who critise the OP, clearly they have caring sharing bosses who do not shudder at the concept of their female employees having Childcare issues.

Op get an au pair to back fill nanny sick days or establish emergency nanny care or find a nursery. My children loved nursery and were very happy there.

in my job I receive zero tolerance to any Childcare problems and although its expensive paying for primary care and back up care it's is worth it in the long run.

Shocking attitude op.

if you didnt want a nanny getting pregnant you should have hired a 50 year old.
she does have employment rights you know.

bbc - so the entire point of a nanny is to completely strip them of all employment (and human come to that) rights so they are of maximum convenience to you?

if you choose to hire a nanny you take the risk of illness/pregnancy etc. nobody forced you to have children/go to work/have a nanny as childcare

what an awful way to treat fellow human beings, not least vulnerable women who im sure feel guilty enough as is for "letting you down"

Wow, how delightful you seem op.

I think some people forget that nannying is a proper job and nannies are actual people.

I am currently on my third pg nanny - not so much something in the water as a case of employing young women who love children for more than 11 years now! I agree with Mrs Wobble, it's not nearly as bad as you think at first. antenatal appointments are generally fixed well in advance and the start date of maternity leave is predictable. But you will need to call in favours and juggle if nanny is having a difficult pregnancy. Do you have any local SAHM friends who can cover while you are at work in exchange for you taking their child at the w/e?

Op can you confirm whether this is a reverse or not please?

I think you are right. Nannies should be neutered just to be sure... Poor employers...

I sympathise with you. I've had two nannies become pregnant; it's an absolute nightmare as a nanny employer, because you only employ one person to do one job; it's not as if you're a big company who can somehow cover the work or put non-urgent projects on hold.

Clearly you can't demand anyone comes in if they are ill; your contract will say if you need to pay your nanny in full, or if SSP applies.

I really, really don't think all those answering "I hope your employer was more understanding" can be parents who employ nannies... It's a completely different situation - you employ a nanny to be reliable and there to look after your children whilst you work. That's THE ENTIRE POINT of having a nanny.

We used a nursery so we were covered in the event of nannies being ill, ph, leaving etc. would that suit you better? You could switch to cover nanny mat leave.

Bloody autocorrect! *cansu