Nanny Didn't Tell Us Her Child Was Sick

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, did you build in a 2 week paid time off period during the year? Or more?

If so, please fire the dishonest nanny. You should have no trouble finding another one

if you did not, then please check your entitlement and privilege.

Yup - no doubt you would have been on here bitching about how inconvenient it was that your recently hired nanny was staying home to take care of a sick child so soon after starting.

Who is taking care of her child BTW - did you even bother to ask?

Never in all my years of working was I ever asked by an employer who was taking care of my child - nor would I expect them too.

+1 ask any HR professional; it is a totally off limits question.

[Anonymous]

Yes, nanny should have told you that someone in her living situation was sick. But calm down, OP. Talk to her and stress the importance of full disclosure as you clearly weren’t clear about it (she freely volunteered that her own child was sick not thinking there was anything wrong with it).

Make it clear and move forward.

Is she foreign, per chance? I’m a Mexican-American and for some reason our community is not at all compliant with the importance of isolating, masks and other protocols

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family has been quarantining heavily (including having all groceries delivered due to my husband's illnesses). We very reluctantly hired a nanny so that we could get help managing distance learning and working from home. A few days ago, our kids started getting sick with sore throats, runny noses, and one child threw up. I notified our nanny via text that our kids were sick and she mentioned in her reply that her daughter had the same bug a few days before. I was beyond angry that she would come to our home and get the entire family sick (its now making its way to my husband and I) and never say a word about her child being ill. This is more than likely just a cold, but I now don't trust her to mention any potential COVID exposure or symptoms. When we hired her, she agreed to limit her interactions to our family. Am I overreacting in reconsidering having a nanny? The stress of having to worry about someone else's honesty and level of care is becoming difficult.

Those are classic Covid symptoms.

YOU NEED TO ISOLATE AND TEST. DO NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE UNTIL YOU TEST NEGATIVE.

Don't eff around with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family has been quarantining heavily (including having all groceries delivered due to my husband's illnesses). We very reluctantly hired a nanny so that we could get help managing distance learning and working from home. A few days ago, our kids started getting sick with sore throats, runny noses, and one child threw up. I notified our nanny via text that our kids were sick and she mentioned in her reply that her daughter had the same bug a few days before. I was beyond angry that she would come to our home and get the entire family sick (its now making its way to my husband and I) and never say a word about her child being ill. This is more than likely just a cold, but I now don't trust her to mention any potential COVID exposure or symptoms. When we hired her, she agreed to limit her interactions to our family. Am I overreacting in reconsidering having a nanny? The stress of having to worry about someone else's honesty and level of care is becoming difficult.

Those are classic Covid symptoms.

YOU NEED TO ISOLATE AND TEST. DO NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE UNTIL YOU TEST NEGATIVE.

Don't eff around with this.

Literally EVERYTHING is a Covid symptom. Many people have had COVID, but have been "asymptomatic" so feeling perfectly fine and dandy is also a "classic Covid symptom."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family has been quarantining heavily (including having all groceries delivered due to my husband's illnesses). We very reluctantly hired a nanny so that we could get help managing distance learning and working from home. A few days ago, our kids started getting sick with sore throats, runny noses, and one child threw up. I notified our nanny via text that our kids were sick and she mentioned in her reply that her daughter had the same bug a few days before. I was beyond angry that she would come to our home and get the entire family sick (its now making its way to my husband and I) and never say a word about her child being ill. This is more than likely just a cold, but I now don't trust her to mention any potential COVID exposure or symptoms. When we hired her, she agreed to limit her interactions to our family. Am I overreacting in reconsidering having a nanny? The stress of having to worry about someone else's honesty and level of care is becoming difficult.

Those are classic Covid symptoms.

YOU NEED TO ISOLATE AND TEST. DO NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE UNTIL YOU TEST NEGATIVE.

Don't eff around with this.

Literally EVERYTHING is a Covid symptom. Many people have had COVID, but have been "asymptomatic" so feeling perfectly fine and dandy is also a "classic Covid symptom."

Ok so? Get tested. Then you'll know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family has been quarantining heavily (including having all groceries delivered due to my husband's illnesses). We very reluctantly hired a nanny so that we could get help managing distance learning and working from home. A few days ago, our kids started getting sick with sore throats, runny noses, and one child threw up. I notified our nanny via text that our kids were sick and she mentioned in her reply that her daughter had the same bug a few days before. I was beyond angry that she would come to our home and get the entire family sick (its now making its way to my husband and I) and never say a word about her child being ill. This is more than likely just a cold, but I now don't trust her to mention any potential COVID exposure or symptoms. When we hired her, she agreed to limit her interactions to our family. Am I overreacting in reconsidering having a nanny? The stress of having to worry about someone else's honesty and level of care is becoming difficult.

Those are classic Covid symptoms.

YOU NEED TO ISOLATE AND TEST. DO NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE UNTIL YOU TEST NEGATIVE.

Don't eff around with this.

Literally EVERYTHING is a Covid symptom. Many people have had COVID, but have been "asymptomatic" so feeling perfectly fine and dandy is also a "classic Covid symptom."

Don’t be obtuse. Of course there’s only so much that can be done about asymptomatic spread but if the family has clear symptoms they should isolate and test.

[Anonymous]

You can't say you are taking such extraordinary precautions when you are allowing someone into your home on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family has been quarantining heavily (including having all groceries delivered due to my husband's illnesses). We very reluctantly hired a nanny so that we could get help managing distance learning and working from home. A few days ago, our kids started getting sick with sore throats, runny noses, and one child threw up. I notified our nanny via text that our kids were sick and she mentioned in her reply that her daughter had the same bug a few days before. I was beyond angry that she would come to our home and get the entire family sick (its now making its way to my husband and I) and never say a word about her child being ill. This is more than likely just a cold, but I now don't trust her to mention any potential COVID exposure or symptoms. When we hired her, she agreed to limit her interactions to our family. Am I overreacting in reconsidering having a nanny? The stress of having to worry about someone else's honesty and level of care is becoming difficult.

Those are classic Covid symptoms.

YOU NEED TO ISOLATE AND TEST. DO NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE UNTIL YOU TEST NEGATIVE.

Don't eff around with this.

Literally EVERYTHING is a Covid symptom. Many people have had COVID, but have been "asymptomatic" so feeling perfectly fine and dandy is also a "classic Covid symptom."

Don’t be obtuse. Of course there’s only so much that can be done about asymptomatic spread but if the family has clear symptoms they should isolate and test.

+ 1

Kids giving a runny nose and sore throat to their parents is kind of the tip off, especially if kids have GI issues as well.

[Anonymous]

OP, did your family or hers get tested?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, did you build in a 2 week paid time off period during the year? Or more?

If so, please fire the dishonest nanny. You should have no trouble finding another one

if you did not, then please check your entitlement and privilege.

Yup - no doubt you would have been on here bitching about how inconvenient it was that your recently hired nanny was staying home to take care of a sick child so soon after starting.

Who is taking care of her child BTW - did you even bother to ask?

Never in all my years of working was I ever asked by an employer who was taking care of my child - nor would I expect them too.

+1 ask any HR professional; it is a totally off limits question.

Nannies usually tell you this information without you needing to ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should have hired a single nanny who lives alone. Hiring a nanny with a family, all working or going to school out of the house, was your first mistake.

Unfortunately, this is true. Older nannies living alone or live-in who share your views on pandemic safety are the ones you want to hire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you expect the nanny you hire to limit her interactions to just your family, you need to hire a live in nanny and pay her hourly rate requirement around the clock. That is the only way you can have complete control over what she does, where she goes, and who she sees.

So let’s say there is a nanny out there willing to surrender control of her own life to you. To do that, she wants $30 per hour. Her weekly gross pay would be $5240. She Will also need her own bedroom and bathroom at a bare minimum, although a private suite would be best. You’ll need to pay for her food, since you will want to control where the groceries come from.

You’d also need to guarantee her weekly pay, and would need to compensate her for emotional distress if anyone close to her dies and she can’t attend the funeral.

So about $500,000 a year to have a nanny you can completely control!

If that’s not fiscally possible, you will have to deal with having a nanny who is human and might have a sick child or even get sick herself. If you can’t cope with that, you or your DH needs to quit working and be the nanny yourselves.

Or look for a live-in nanny with high risk factors who will take quarantine just as serious as you do (or more). Then you’ll only need to pay whatever you negotiate for the hours. For me, that’s $1000/week for 45 hours, split between homeschooling and prep work. No housekeeping. I do the kids laundry with them, as part of teaching them life skills, and I direct them to do their other chores. I cook for the children and myself because I want to cook, not because I’m required. I have room and board, including delivery when adults order for just themselves, and whatever healthy food I want.

You still may not be able to afford a live-in nanny, and that’s ok. But don’t try to hold a live-out nanny to the same standards. It’s not possible, and nobody will be happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes you think your family got it from the nanny’s kid? My kids are in elementary school and often times colds and stomach bugs go around totally separate groups of kids at the same time. I have often mentioned that my kid threw up and a friend with kids in a separate school will say her kid had the same bug, it lasted a week/2 days etc. Obviously my friends kids didn’t give it to mine. I would have read your nanny’s comment in the same way - along the lines oh ‘oh yeah, that bug is going around!’ If the nanny didn’t get sick, I would assume it’s just a coincidence.

And if you intend for your nanny to stay home any time her kid is sick, you need to tell her that and then pay her for her time.

OP here - my kids are in distance learning and are not around other children to pick up bugs.

Were they outside when the weather was up and down?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family has been quarantining heavily (including having all groceries delivered due to my husband's illnesses). We very reluctantly hired a nanny so that we could get help managing distance learning and working from home. A few days ago, our kids started getting sick with sore throats, runny noses, and one child threw up. I notified our nanny via text that our kids were sick and she mentioned in her reply that her daughter had the same bug a few days before. I was beyond angry that she would come to our home and get the entire family sick (its now making its way to my husband and I) and never say a word about her child being ill. This is more than likely just a cold, but I now don't trust her to mention any potential COVID exposure or symptoms. When we hired her, she agreed to limit her interactions to our family. Am I overreacting in reconsidering having a nanny? The stress of having to worry about someone else's honesty and level of care is becoming difficult.

You have responsibility here. Why didn't you ASK if new nanny had children and not hire someone with a child. Why didn't you have her self quarantine in basement of your house with FULL PAY, prior to taking on her nanny duties? You did none of these and have no one to blame but yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, nanny should have told you that someone in her living situation was sick. But calm down, OP. Talk to her and stress the importance of full disclosure as you clearly weren’t clear about it (she freely volunteered that her own child was sick not thinking there was anything wrong with it).

Make it clear and move forward.

Is she foreign, per chance? I’m a Mexican-American and for some reason our community is not at all compliant with the importance of isolating, masks and other protocols

This. Lay out your expectations clearly and in writing.