DH and I can both work from home unless we have meetings. Hell, even for those we can WebEx in for if absolutely needed.

I have a neighbor who is a writer and works from home. She's our backup.

My friend's dad is widowed and retired and he's also backup.

If we have advance notice we can fly in my MIL or FIL.

What area do you reside in? I offer drop in services upon availability in my daycare. I am in Alexandria

First: Both our employers' offer back-up care. In one we have the option for center-based or in-home. I would ask around a lot at each office - some employers' are better than others about advertising it. DH did not know about his employers' back-up care option until I did some investigating, and found out about it. His boss, colleagues, etc. did not know.

Second: I would see if there are neighbors with advice. Not to watch your kids all day, but tell you about nearby places, or others with nannies, or whatever.

Would it help if the back-up comes in only for 6 hours or so?

We use White House Nannies as backup care. It isn't cheap, but I like knowing I always have the option available if I need it.

When my DH was deployed, I formed a weekend babysitting arrangement with a lady who did in Home care. I use her for back up too.

Anonymous wrote:I know you say that the reasons are "beyond her control" but if this is going to be an ongoing issue, you may want to reconsider this situation.

Yes. The whole point, well a huge benefit, or hiring a nanny is to have consistent childcare so you can work (i.e. you don't need to take off for a sick child.) So if this isn't working out you may either need a new nanny or to look at daycare.

We’ve used bright horizons back up care. It’s worked great for us over the past few years. I schedule through my employer- this is part of my benefits package. You might double check that your job doesn’t have anything like this.

I know you say that the reasons are "beyond her control" but if this is going to be an ongoing issue, you may want to reconsider this situation.

We are in a nanny share for our 12 month old and love our nanny. Recently she has been unable to work on several occasions (for reasons beyond her control). We don't have any family nearby to help and have done the juggling of schedules that I am sure many of you are familiar with. It made me wonder if there are options I'm not thinking about. I know some daycares have drop in options. Has anyone ever used that? Are there other things I'm not thinking of? I can tell my boss is starting to get annoyed with my recent abundance of teleworking between naps, and my DH is hitting a really busy season at work, we would love some options.