Nanny holiday notice

[Lysaa]

Turning the standard question the other way around. I usually take the same holidays as my employer (I am the nanny), but this year they are very late to let me know their holidays. Since it is going to be summer time flights will already be costly, but I'm afraid if they wait any longer to let me know about my days off, I basically can't afford to go on holiday anymore.

How do you feel about this in terms of fairness? Is it fair of me to expect to know my holidays a certain amount of time in advance? Or is this all part of the flexibility of being a nanny?

If you employ a nanny yourself, I wonder how do you deal with holidays, does nanny take the same days as you, or do nannies usually ask for their days?

Thanks a lot for any help.

It is reasonable in my view to know about holiday several weeks to a month in advance. Whatever time period you agree between you.

Flexibility is often a key requirement but you need to be able to choose some holiday yourself. Would putting a request in now spur them on to confirming when they will be away?

Does your contract say you take the same as them?

If not then discuss with them you having half your choice

We have it in our contract that we specify half the dates each. I think we have a right of veto but in practice we wouldn't, but would try to discuss to find something that works for both.

As for notice I'd think for big blocks of time 6-8 weeks at least is reasonable. BUT my kids are still small so we aren't strictly tied to school holidays. As we get more constrained I can see your point that the nanny needs more notice of dates or it gets expensive.

Can you not sit down and talk this through with them? They may just not have thought about it, and if they're going to do something last minute they may be quite flexible about precise dates?