*SIGH* She's resigned due to bombs. Any agencies in N London do live-out part time?

[majorstress]

The London bombers have put my nanny's Mum over the edge and she is going to blow HERSELF up if her darling doesn't come home to Czecho RIGHT NOW. Leaving my darlings and me with no one 3 days a week. I am lucky Nanny stood up enough to mummy to give me a months notice! Now I am back right where I started a year ago-getting notice just when it is most impossible to get anyone, and this time I have booked 2 weeks holiday starting next week as well in the US, which I now can't afford timewise or financially as I will have to take an unknown amount of unpaid leave to cover this crisis.

I really like her too. WHY DO WE LIVE HERE???

my dd2s favorite is "Pasta Dinna!"

Majorstress,

Can you cat me and tell me what name you are going to use in contating her just so I can give her a heads up on who will be contacting her?

Hope it works out!

Bad news, she's got a job in the US. So she isn't available anymore.

SORRY!!

Ok, first I have to be completely honest and confess that I work for a nanny agency in London. And we do live-out, part-time nannies. I started working there a few months ago when I called them about a part-time nanny for my two toddlers. And their office is right around the block from my flat so it couldn't be more convenient. I don't want to look like someone from an agency looking on these boards for business, because I only come here as a mom, so I won't post the link to the website, but you can email me at [email protected] if you need more information.

I have got completely swamped by applicants so sorry if I haven't responded to anyone's helpful offers/CATS sensibly. Had to take phone off hook finally or I end up talking to no hopers for the 1.5 hours I can endure before my ear drops off, instead of the ones I NEED to talk to who have sent sensible cvs by email. Email keeps overflowing too. DH has NOT come up smelling of roses-unscheduled late home on the night the ad hit the net, leaving me to work a full day, deal with grieving departing nanny, look after dd2 on my own for 1.5 hrs, meanwhile fending off early phone-calls, and then being attached to phone until I collapsed. After being told in no uncertain terms that this would not be acceptable last night, he came home at usual time, ate, pj'd and dumped dd2 wailing in her cot and announced he was off to the gym as the clock struck 8 and the phone began ringing again!

He was set to pumping paper instead of iron! But said he deffo had to go to gym tonight-even though this crisis is still underway, and if I don't keep up I will miss out on or p* off the good ones and keep having the useless ones clogging up my brain. So, I have got a bit better at this business, but made the big mistake of not having everything ready and a reliable babysitter lined up when I put the ad in-turned out I had lost my list of questions that I used last time and had to re-compose it as I talked on phone-very unsatisfactory. Have had to revise ad 3 times, and of course now it's not "fresh" anymore. And my organisation of the emails and cvs using my poxy wanadoo email account has been atrocious- it is too slow and cumbersome to look through them properly on line, I couldn't print them out conveniently as of course I am at work and with nosy hostile colleagues on my back all the time, and haven't had 3 seconds of peace at home for 3 days to do it on our decrepit printer. I definitely coudln't work for a daft woman such as myself!

THanks Lucy 14 but the agencies I contacted were all based so far away from me, that put me off as I want someone who is not travbelling hours to and from, we have enough communters in the house dependendt on the poxy northern line, and their fees were just too high so I gave up on that and went back to DIY.

I'm hoping this is too late for you and you've found someone but I have just employed someone via great aupair without any of the nightmare you report. I didn't give out my telephone number until after several email conversations and telephone conversations - I called them - and then only to the two applicants invited for interview (they were both in the UK already).

Our new nanny starts next week so I'll know whether the process worked or not then I guess.

Lucy14: quite some time ago, maybe a year ago, you CAT'd me about nannies. I actually gave you the name of a nanny, under the impression you needed one yourself. (That's what you told me). You didn't mention you worked for a nanny agency, but you must have been: your email address was the searchsolutions one. Did you use her name for the purposes of your business?

During my long and tedious search for a 2 day a week nanny earlier this year, I spoke to a very helpful Highgate based agency whose name I can't remember but you should be able to find them on www.bestbear.co.uk.

They couldn't help me at the time (but maybe could help you) but recommended an agency called Riverside, based in Limehouse. Apparently Riverside do lots of part time recruitment for nurserys so have lots of people looking for other days to fill the week.

Bestbear has lots of other agency names but I did find that quite a few, including Eden, weren't interested in part time. Also I didn't recruit through agency in the end as the CVs the agencies sent me were no better than the stuff I was getting from Simply Childcare/ nannyjob & gumtree.