Nanny resigned and I'm due back at work in under a week

[OrchidFlakes]

I'm due back to work on Tuesday after mat leave and my nanny just quit!

We've been settling for the last week and all was going really well. Apparently another family have offered her more hours yet she told us she was happy with our hours.

It's the first time I've hired a nanny. Is this kind of thing common or have I been unlucky?

I'm a mess. Going back was already stressing me but I was starting to feel confident that DS would be ok with her and now I have nothing. What the hell do I do?

I suspect you have been unlucky. I do find there is a two week itch point where it dawns to both parties what the job/having a nanny is really like, so vital to check how things are going in the early days.

You've been unlucky :( but it does happen

Where did you get her from? Agency? Contact them for replacement /refund

In the meantime arrange a temp for a month to give you peace of mind

I think she's behaved very badly. Don't panic though. HAve you any friends or grandparents who could do a day or two to tide you over till you get somebody in? Can ds's dad take some (unpaid) family leave or holiday time?

Sorry to hear this has happened to you.
It could be that your nanny got cold feet and felt she wasn't suited to your family or she could have just taken the job to tide her over until a better paid one came along. I suppose you'll have to take her at face value and accept the reason she has given.

Please let us know what area you are and how you employed this nanny as there may be other suggestions as to what you can do going forward.

Best of luck for going back to work!

Thank you all for your responses.

I am in north east London and found her on nanny jobs. I have updated our profile/ad on there and put an ad in gumtree. I'm try to avoid agencies if I can just as the fees are extortionate.

Any tips/advice? I still can't believe this has happened, she was just here yesterday and was so lovely and engaging with DS

oh no! you have just been unlucky.
I live in east london,I already have a full time job mon-fri but I will mention this to a few friends if you want.

Please do MissMoo. They can pm me. I seem to be getting a lot of unqualified people on gumtree so far but it's early days

I think you've just been unlucky, but it's worth asking her whether there really was anything 'wrong' with the job so you can avoid it with the next nanny.

Are you offering very few hours that she wants more? Or paying less than average for the area? Is there any way you can resolve it?

She shouldn't, on the other hand, be quitting with no notice. That just leaves you high and dry.

She accepted full time from another family the afternoon after she spent the morning on duty! I have asked but she is 21 and wants full time, even though she insisted she wanted part time. Grrrr

The good news is though that one of the early respondents to my ad was super :-) we met today for the interview and I snapped her up this afternoon

nobody I know is currently looking for anything. I hope you find someone!