Anonymous wrote:We’ve had the same babysitter for several years. There are some lovely things about her -most importantly that she is kind and loves our kids - but our needs have changed as our kids and family have grown and our careers have evolved, and I don’t think she is the right fit for us anymore.
I feel awful about it and can’t bring myself to hire someone new, even though realistically I really need to. I won’t elaborate on all the things, but they are legitimate. one of them for example, is that our current babysitter doesn’t drive and that has become problematic with older kids who need to do activities, have playdates, etc after school. In fact, if it’s raining hard, I have to rearrange my work schedule to be available so I can drive one of my kids to preschool. I also sometimes doubt her common sense. I was previously working from home so I felt I’d always be here if there was an emergency, but I will need to start going back into the office a few days a week and I simply don’t feel 100% comfortable that she could handle an emergency or even something like dealing with a kids medication if they’re not feeling well. She needs a lot of micromanagement. However, as mentioned, she is kind, reliable and loves my kids, so we’ve probably continued the situation longer than we should have.
If you were in a similar situation, how did you handle it? Anything I should keep in mind to make this less painful for all parties involved?