Help me do this tactfully!

[CoffeeChocolateWine]

I have a regular babysitter who comes round once a week for about 3 hours to look after my 8mo baby while I do some work. I met her once and she seemed very nice, very keen, qualified and exactly what I was looking for so I hired her. However, we are about 6 weeks in now and it is becoming very apparent that she has very poor personal hygiene.

When she arrives in my home the smell is quite overpowering and it doesn’t take long before my lounge, where she generally looks after my baby, smells too. While she is here, she sorts out dinner for my 2 older children as well as feeds my baby, which now makes me feel quite nauseous. When she leaves I have to spray the room and rather than putting my baby straight to bed as I would like, I have to bath her as she smells by then too

I’ve tried to be quite forgiving of it as that aside from this she is doing a good job, but it has got to the point where I don’t want her smelling out my home. And it’s mid-winter...what is summer going to be like if I keep her on? I’m terrible at confrontation and I really don’t want to hurt her feelings (she is early/mid twenties) so how do I let her go tactfully? I keep thinking I could just make up an excuse about stopping the work so she’s no longer needed but I worry about her seeing the kids at some point in the future with another babysitter!

How should I handle this or do I just need to be honest?!

Of course I would Mummy. There are worse things in this life than a bit of embarrassment. An employee stinking out your home is one of them, letting an otherwise good worker go from their job is another.

You really wouldn’t feel able to say something to someone you’re employing who smells so bad it’s causing problems?

I'm sorry I just couldn't
I'd be mortified I would upset them and mortified I'd go red with embarrassment and just finding the right words

Perhaps she’s staying over at someone else’s place and they have a smelly home? And she didn’t stay there the last time she came to work for you hence no smell??? Don’t know —clutching at straws—

Total cross out fail there

That's great she smelled fine this time OP, I wonder if she read the thread?

I've worked with a few people who smell awful, they either realise and don't care or can't smell themselves. One lady was really eco friendly and tried to convince us to switch to natural deodorant and eco eggs instead of laundry powder, she was lovely but the smell of stale sweat was really noticeable! Another man was so pungent it sort of followed him like a cloud and lingered after he left (he only dropped in to fix our computers, nobody wanted to call IT when they went wrong in cause it was him on duty!)