What do I do now?

[nannynannynannynanny]

I left my previous position over Christmas and relocated to a new town at the same time.

I found the perfect family for my next job and was lined up to start yesterday (4th Jan). I'd signed an acceptance letter, been for a settling-in day over Christmas so was ready to go. Due to sign contract on first day of work.

Except the mum rang me on the day and decided she doesn't want to return to work after all, so they no longer require a nanny. I completely understand her reasoning, but that won't pay the bills!

So now I'm stuck. There don't seem to be many jobs around and I've wasted time not looking because I thought I had a job secured. Now the time is ticking on that I'm not working and I'm starting to panic.

I don't really know why I'm posting, I just need to rant I think. I can't believe it's happened. I'm frantically applying for the few jobs that are out there but I don't know what else I can do. I couldn't sleep a wink last night and I feel so sick about it all. The most annoying thing is, I had two jobs to choose from and this particular family fought for me to pick them. I'm kicking myself for not choosing the other family now.

call the other family immediately - what's the worst that can happen?

That was the first thing I did. They feel second best because I didn't choose them over the other family, so aren't keen anymore.

This happened to me, had signed contract and everything - but that turned out not to be worth the paper it was written on as the start date was specified.
Two days before I was due to start I got a phone call saying that they had just told the children that their previous nanny was leaving and that the children were so upset that they had decided to keep her on. Unsure whether they had actually given previous nanny notice or not. A couple of months later I got about 3 requests from them to come and work for them - er, no, I don't think so!
Only advice I can give is to register with every agency you can, and sign on straight away. We had to use all our savings to cover the gap until I got another job, and I had to take one to which I wasn't best suited as we were so desperate for money. More than happy in my current job though!

Lesson for the future - if starting at some distance away, sign contract first. Then you'd have been entitled to your notice period, admittedly only a week usually in probationary period but better than nothing.