Nanny Number Two

Our first Nanny has gone bye bye. One day in December (after receiving her Christmas bonus, son's birthday and Christmas gifts), as I handed her printed schedules for the next two months, she told me that she wouldn't be here past January 19th. What!!! Why? She said something came up and she would need to leave. She wasn't very specific.

After getting past the shock and hurt and almost begging, I put all efforts into looking for Nanny Number Two. It's amazing, you go through this phase where you want to keep the first nanny at all costs because you feel you've got such a great thing going. If it's more money, tell us how much we can pay you. You make sure it wasn't anything you did - the printed schedules, your son getting bigger and thus heavier to carry. At one point, I just had to stop all the madness and say enough's enough.

Needless to say, for the past month, I've been trying to find my Nanny Number Two. This time around, with the experience of having a very good nanny - relatively - I had a better idea of what my family needed. That, and with a more attractive package and two weeks paid vacation we began our search. We interviewed many on the phone, called in fewer for interviews and finally, chose someone that had interviewed with us before but came in a close second to Nanny Number One.

We decided to give her a test period and if it didn't work out, we'd try daycare. After bringing her in a few times during #1's off-days to see how/if she would work out, I am not so sure. The pluses - She's got experience, she's good with the baby i.e. she reads him well, sings to him etc. She's also quite stable. At least I'm hoping with maturity comes stability. There are other pluses that I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I like.

The minus - She's been late every single time. Almost. Her first day, she was five minutes late. Her second day, an hour maybe? Apparently, she got lost and by the time she found her way, I was already at work. Her third day, twenty minutes late. Her fourth day, she was an hour early. I would so love to work with her but we've got to get the time thing right.