Nanny not available?

[SacreLao]

Not asking for myself but a close friend of mine.

She works an hour away from the family home and has 3 children for which she has a live out nanny.

The 2 older children go to school and the youngest goes to nursery 3 hours a day which gives the nanny a small amount of 'free time' for which she is still paid as she is the main contact for school / nursery in case of illness etc.

Anyway had a phone call from friend a few hours ago asking can I please collect one of the older children from school as they are ill and need to come home.

The school had been phoning nanny for over an hour and got no response to voicemails left etc. and so phoned my friend who phoned both nanny and then me as even if she left work there and then she could not be home for a while.

I of course agreed and collected the child, leaving my number with the school so if / when nanny calls them back they know to come and collect child from me. This was nearly 2 hours ago and still not had a call from the nanny.

Got me thinking, surely if a nanny is paid for the 'free time' to be on call then they should make sure they are contactable and able to collect an ill child if needed?

The youngest child should be collected from nursery any minute now (nursery attached to the school) so wondering if I will soon get a call from the nanny as she becomes aware that one of the older children has been sent home.

It's not a problem to me as I would be home today anyway but as a parent I would be hugely annoyed to have to ask friends for favours such as this when I have a nanny paid for these eventualities.

Hard to know at present as anything could have happened to the nanny.

Mobile phones are not 100% reliable, the nanny may be in a dead signal spot, or the phone may not be responding.

They could be laying in a ditch having been thrown from their car during a car accident.

Who knows at this stage... bit early to tell.

Oh gosh, didn't even consider an accident, feel awful now!

Had best phone the nursery and make sure youngest child has been collected as still no phone call from the nanny.

Does seem a little strange (and worrying) that the nanny didn't pick up her phone nor return any calls to either school or mb

Unless been in an accident then there is no reason at all why the nanny isn't contactable and I woukd be very alarmed if I were your friend

Yes she is on call all working hours regardless if children with her or not and yes I have been in areas with dodgy signal but as soon as I'm out of it my ansa machine will beep at me and I will listen and return the call

Hope the baby is fine and update when you know

Right just to update, youngest child has been collected from nursery by the nanny so no accident, phew!

I have still not had a phone call from the nanny so assuming she does not yet know that older child is with me.

I will be going to collect my own children from school soon, should I take friend's oldest child with me as nanny should be there to collect the middle child and I can then hand the child over to her?

As you knew the nanny would be there to collect the middle child, then yes I would take friends oldest child with you - well you can't really leave them at home can you.

So sounds as though nanny picked up from nursery but still hasn't got the messages left on their phone.

Strange that the nanny hasn't responded at all to messages left on their phone. Maybe they left their phone at home this morning.

Any update OP?

oops posted too soon.

I also get 1 day (studying at uni) and 2 mornings where I am on call for DC and I can imagine my boss going MAD if I wasn't available straight away (within 10 minutes) or if she had to arrange alternate cover.

Late update sorry as been a busy afternoon.

Took friend's child to school with me as planned and luckily the nanny was waiting in the classroom for me to turn up having been told by the teacher's that he was with me, as I have never met her before.

She was very apologetic and simply said she did not have her phone on her, I didn't ask any more questions as it's not my place to question her. I just handed the child over and explained how he had been.

Friend gets home from work at around 8pm so I am sure she will speaking to her regarding this.

glad nanny was ok

but sure her mb (your friend) wont be impressed she left her phone at home - esp when is the MAIN contact for her children in mb absense - the job she is paid to do

yes it happens (well not to me, but then my phones surgically attached to my body )