We've already had a few talks about time off. She's got 20 days' holiday a year. We're at 27 days off already including holiday still to be taken and 5 days sick/appointments. Some of that time is holiday we're taking, so she has to be off, but she's known those dates for ages and could have sorted her own holiday accordingly (she's young, free and single).
Last week she texted late at night to ask if she could have a.n.other day as she'd got flights wrong, and I said, OK, but we're going to have to start docking pay now as it's getting silly as I have to pay for extra cover/not work. Miraculously the flight sorted itself out.
Last Monday she had an urgent hospital appointment for a problem with her jaw. Fine. But she booked it in the middle of the day which meant there was no point coming in at all. Again, I couldn't work. She then texted to say it was because she was grinding her teeth thanks to stress, and she needed to calm down.
Am I being a beeyatch to think being a nanny isn't the most stressful occupation in the world????
And then at the weekend she texts to say she fainted, was taken to the walk in centre, who told her she was anemic, needs to be on iron pills, and was to take the whole week off.
I'm retraining in a medical field and this was my first week of seeing patients and I was so excited! Am scrabbling round trying to sort things out with a childcare jigsaw puzzle and trying sooooo hard not to text something counter productive and rude back/panic/rage...
WWYD wise MNers?
The DTDs (age 2) love her. She's v good at playing with them. There's some stuff I'm not happy with as she has funny priorities, but not sure that's relevant here?
AIBU?
Is my nanny taking the michael? Or am I being judgey?
stinkingbishop · 23/06/2014 09:24
That's a good point nannymoss, but supposing she sticks with anaemia...can you even be diagnosed on the spot? Wouldn't the doc have sent off bloods for testing?
Oo I am far too suspicious. I was bitching politely conversing with another Mum about this today. I guess maybe the severity of my reaction is I am sooo the opposite way round, probably unhealthily so. My parents were doctors and my DB was once sent home from school with a note asking if they were aware he had a broken arm. We weren't allowed time off unless we had a broken neck, and even then we'd have been lucky to get a couple of aspirin. Fast forward a few decades and I met my DP at work, with a heart monitor strapped onto my chest and a face slashed open because I'd been in an accident but knew how important the meeting was for our firm, so stiff upper lip (what was left of it) and all that. He thought it was hilarious. And now we have the childcare-less twins 
.
Stinkingbishop, our very first nanny was a lot like yours. Emotionally, very good with the children, but took lots of sick days, booked up all her holidays, then needed personal days to take care of life admin, etc. I was reluctant to change as the children loved her, but a wise friend counselled me that the parents are also an important part of the nanny relationship, and if I was so stressed by what was happening in the house (and the impact it had on my work when I had to take yet another day off), then the situation was not working and we needed to change it.
We ended up with the most wonderful nanny on earth for our next one, and a lot of that was down to asking questions in the interview prompted by our previous experiences.
I didn't want to offer extra holidays based on not taking sick days, as I felt that a professional nanny wouldn't take days if she wasn't actually sick, and if she were less professional, she may come in while unfit to look after the children and / or pass her lurgie on to them!
Hospital appointment for grinding teeth? 
The dentist will sort that out with a mouth guard.
Anaemia sounds equally suspicious in an otherwise healthy young person.
I've just thought, if she's ill, it may be that anaemia is something she's using to hide something more embarrassing, or it's a symptom of a wider problem.
They can diagnose anaemia quickly. My ex had a blood test on the Monday morning, was called and asked to go to our 'local' hospital ASAP for transfusions as he was severely anaemic. He was kept in overnight and pumped full of blood but they did a lot of testing over the next few weeks, including a camera into his intestines he was not impressed by that, because they suspected that he'd had a major bleed. They never did find it. I think it was diet related.
I was anaemic for most of my teens, apart from two mahoosive, industrial sized bottles of bright red iron liquid when I was 11 (fuck knows what that was) I never received any treatment. I thought that I still was anaemic but blood tests recently prove me not to be 
Severely VitD deficient, but not anaemic.
It's hard to know what to do when you're ill, or generally not feeling great, as a nanny. Unless I feel likely to throw up (or have thrown up) I try to make it in, though will call ahead if I have a really bad cough/cold going on as I have had employers in the past who would prefer me to avoid the kids in that situation!
If she's ill, I'm The Pope's mother I work in a industry where all the younger employees throw fake sickies all the time. Some of them are sick so often they really should be invalids
U thought the OP wasn't including bank holidays, only giving 20 days. If not, my bad sorry!
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