Overlapping outgoing and incoming au pair?

[alltheworld]

My part-time live-in nanny is leaving (see other threads for why...). I am about to recruit an au pair. There may be an option to have the two overlap for a week if my outgoing agrees to stay with a neighbour.

Pros:

1. The new au pair could shadow the old for a week and get a sense of logistics/geography etc.
2. the kids can acclimatize to the new au pair.

Cons

1. The old au pair is leaving because she is not competent and has emotional health issues - she may not give the new one a good impression. However she may, not possible to know for sure.
2. It may be confusing for the kids.

Ideally I would take time off work (and I will if I have to) but I am a lone parent, so need to keep my annual leave carefully for total childcare emergencies eg. sick au pair/au pair leaving with no notice etc.

What do you think?

Have you done this?

Thanks

I wouldn't do it, sorry. It might be hard to get time off but it's better for you to train her up personally rather than rely on someone you are moving on. If if goes wrong it will suck a lot more if your time overall.

This is something I have done and it works well, but only if you trust the person doing the handover. As you say you don't then I wouldn't.

I wouldn't. The new au pair may get a poor impression of you and misinformation from the old au pair. Assuming your kids are school age, the new au pair will have plenty of time during the day to acclimatise and find her way round your house and the neighbourhood. It's also not fair on the old au pair to have her stay in someone else's house for her last week, better for everyone to have a clean break.