The curse of Boff. Again.

[BoffinMum]

You are not going to believe this, guys. The lovely temp (and she really is lovely) who came today has had to leave because her mum was rushed into hospital. We don't know if/when she'll be coming back. So we are without childcare again! I am currently in Paris and DH was supposed to be going into work tomorrow because he hasn't been able to get in all week. He has no leave left either. Crikey! Anybody want three lovely children, two with diarrhoea?

Okay - can you not consider a nursery/au pair option? It CAN'T be any worse than this.

Agree on agency fees; would expect a significant discount for any further hires.

Sounds like a lot but I reckon I interviewed over 20 each time I have hired and could tell you all sorts of horrors of folk!

Appreciate London hiring probably easier; although we are in Zone 4 and sometimes folk think we are too far out. Follow up refs (at least 2) and really probe. Don't hire a perm until you have done this.

Are you paying top quartile? I do. My rationale being this is better in the long run than folk leaving and additional agency fees. Seems to be working for us. i.e. I prob pay £50 a week net so about £75 gross more than I could get away with i.e. £3900 a year; for a very happy nanny who bends over backwards and no more fees. Note this is for live out would be a lot less for you for live in.

Seriously hope it improves soon.

You really don't have much luck. Why are the childcare vouchers unusable? Can't you just use them when you eventually find a nanny who stays around long enough to be paid?

Won't you get some of the agency fees back or a substantial discount?

Really hope you get sorted soon.

Agree childcare vouchers last at least a year; you will be able to use them eventually!

My flights: 900euros
My salary: peanuts because I would be thankful that I had something to do at last! AP pocket money rates?

Deal?

(might need to convince DH)

I really, really hope you find someone soon.

Hi,

Would you consider a temp?

I'm looking for approx 8 weeks temp work, from Ja 27th

How many/what age children?

I have sole charge, live in, twin, proxy parent, shared charge exp

CRB checked, city and guilds certified...

Thanks for all offers and support, lovely lovely people. [kiss emoticon] [hug emoticon]

Update: One of you is coming for an interview for a bit of temping later, plus I registered with a couple of other reputable nanny agencies over the weekend online, and one (which Frakkin often uses) gave me the low down on LovelyNanny.

LovelyNanny is in fact not LovelyNanny at all.

LovelyNanny often leaves people in the lurch on a whim with silly excuses, when she gets what she thinks is a better offer.

It seems the Maison de Boffin has fallen victim to her unscrupulous ways.

ReputableAgency said that The Place We Do Not Name appears to have two kinds of nannies - silver spoon (i.e. too rich to work very hard) and OK. LovelyNanny is apparently the former kind.

Make of that comment what you will.

Now re: agency fees. This was the figure AFTER all the refunds and so on. It's like divorce lawyers - at the end of the day, agencies are in the business of sorting out misery, and this doesn't come cheap. I only resent the money we paid to the Place We Do Not Name, actually, as they ended up refunding the difference between the placement fee and what we would have paid in temp agency fees over the same period, which works out incredibly high. But I am not going to have a fight with them because to be fair it wasn't entirely their fault SillyNanny decided to start being crap, and they did do a lot to try to reform her, including visiting her on site.

Frakkin, I will email ...

K75, I am really worried we won't be able to find someone and get them registered before the year is up, tbh. Hence my concern. It takes 4+ months at the moment apparently and we are 4-5 months in with our vouchers.

iluvkids, please send CV to boffinmum at hotmail dot co dot uk.

"It is a conspiracy to stop women having a say and influencing the public arena, childcare hassle is. It wears us out and grinds us down so we don't cause trouble or ask difficult questions of our leaders."

Well said, BoffinMum.

WingedVictory, shall we get some t-shirts done??

Even better, I will streak down Downing Street dressed as Madame Liberte with Felix clamped to my bosom in an extended bf mode of demonstration!

Good luck Boff, I really hope your next nanny is both fabulous and a keeper/stayer!!!! You're definitely owed a hige chunk of karmic nanny goodness based on your last few months of nanny hell.

And have you joined Eden? They have been wonderful from my pov, and I have heard nowt but good things about them from parents pov too.

fuck a duck boffy at the amount you have spent

the place which we do not name is obv not teaching their girls right - you go there to learn how to become a professional nanny

if the agency knew about the lovely nanny, and that she want really a lovely nanny, and that she does this a lot, then why the hell have they got her on their books?

hope the one from here is who i said

my rates will be less than you stated earlier lol xxx

Oh Boffinmum you poor thing!
Reading that list made me wince.
Didn't realise it was only three hours. WTF. I regularly work five days a week, weekends and can keep this up for weeks on end. I was under the impression we nannies were hired to help make mums life easier (in theory anyway) not make every possible effort to send them over the edge. I hate my job but I would never behave like that. Really hope you find somebody. Fingers crossed for you

Tavvy, you have got it all wrong.

Around here, on Planet Boff, despite what their stated purpose might be, agencies appear to represent the nannies rather than the employers, and seem to spend all their time telling us to spend more, more, more, because then, only then will be achieve the holy grail that is a proper nanny. We are always running behind financially, as agencies see it. They reluctantly promise to 'do what they can' but it is always 'a difficult time' and 'there are not a lot of girls around' and they are 'really sorry' but if we could offer 'just a bit more' then 'it might improve our chances'. Mysteriously, when they winkle your bottom line out of you 'this might be enough' but only for four days a week or whatever. When it all goes wrong, then they are also 'really sorry' and this is 'so unusual' and we have 'been really unlucky' and 'next time it will be alright'. But funnily enough it goes wrong over and over and over again. In the meantime the agencies keep collecting fees.

Blondes, she ain't on their books any more ...

I told the Place We Do Not Name that they were not teaching their girls right, as well. I said things appeared to have gone downhill in recent years. They denied it, but then in the words of Mandy Rice Davies, they would say that, wouldn't they?

Have mailed you back. Apologies for extremely boring e-mail title as it didn't want to send until I titled it 'work'.

ever thought of moving boff to somewhere with good caliber nannies?

You can get childcare vouchers refunded via your company's payroll.

BofinMum,
i think you have said in a previous thread that you have a long career in child related field?
If so, do you think that nannies might feel nervous and- perhaps unconsiousely- intimidated by you, especially young new ones?
I am not saying that YOU do that, but perhaps your job title and cv makes them nervous.

Apologies if i am wrong and mixed you up with another poster.

Obviously am totally wrong. I stand corrected
I shall take my totally out of date work ethic that seems to be totally redundant now and go and finish making one of my charges fancy dress costume for a party they are going to.

That wasn't meant to sound so utterly arsey.
I just think the nannies you've had are really taking the but then you hardly need me to point that out. I registered with an agency once who took me on when I was starting out because I spoke the Queen's English, came from a so called posh background though not by way on the Place That Shall Not Be Named and was academic therefore she could, 'auction me for more than a common run of the mill nanny' (her words not mine)Given at the time I was not overly experienced she made me ask for a ridiculous weekly sum. The whole thing was a sad, snobbish joke.

Tavvy, we are on the same wavelength - the agencies are very cynical about parents and their needs, IMO. It seems sometimes as though agencies and nannies stitch quite a lot up between themselves and parents are expected to bankroll both, and made to feel cheap, mean or unreasonable a lot of the time. Yet the agency is supposed to be representing the parents as clients, NOT the nanny, as the nanny is not paying the agency a fee.

FWIW I think many nurseries forget the parents are clients, as well, and set up systems to suit themselves without any reference at all to the stress this might bring families (eg 5.30pm rigid pick up times in urban areas).

I found the 'auction' concept so nauseating that I have a major moment of desparation just there.

Laquitar, you are probably right but I can't help my job ... it pays their wages, anyway!