We've had a miserable two month saga trying and failing to recruit a new nanny and are now at our wits end. Help!
We have advertised on Gumtree and nannyjob.co.uk; we are offering the going rate; we live in a lovely part of London and our children are pretty lovely, we like to think! Our last nanny was adored by all of us and stayed with us for four years.
Yet over the last few weeks, we have been bombarded by scores of semi literate/illiterate applications which in no way meet our criteria. We have wasted many dozens of hours interviewing people who looked promising on paper but were clearly over-selling themselves and unsuitable.
We have lost count of the number of candidates who turn up to interviews late or even worse, not at all, often with no message or explanation.
No fewer than four people who seemed just right have accepted the job, appeared to be delighted, then for a variety of reasons, changed their mind a few days later - usually informing us by text.
What is it about childcare as a job that makes people think they can behave like this, treating job applications, interviews and offers with such casual disdain? In what other line of well paid work would this happen?
And where, oh where, do we find a lovely new nanny? We are not ruling out using an agency, but is it really money well spent? Are there other websites we should be using? Are we just having incredible bad luck?
We realise websites like Gumtree throw up lots of poorly qualified/unqualified chancers, among whom are a few gems; but even nannyjob.co.uk seems rife with time wasters. Help!