Nanny may need to work Christmas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone so I am a mom to 2 girls age 2 my husband was deployed to Germany 6 weeks ago for the next 2 years which means I'm pretty much on my own for a while. We have a wonderful nanny who we adore but because I'm a doctor I know her job may increase a little but, the first issue I must fix is the fact I may have to work Christmas I was off Thanksgiving so we gave her that week off plus 3 days off the following week so, if I need her to work Christmas should I pay her double or triple her normal rate ? I'm ok with doing both just want your opinion.

Double is standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

Nanny here and it would break my heart to think of my charges celebrating Christmas with some random backup sitter. OP, I was a military kid growing up and we were often flexible on the dates of major holidays. If you have a day off right before or right after the 25th, I would just celebrate then. If the kids are young enough, you don’t even need to tell them it is not the right day. They won’t know! If they are old enough to figure it out, then just tell them that Santa wants everyone to have a merry Christmas and he knows that some families have to work...I fell for it as a kid and was just happy to get my tous earlier than my friends!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

Nanny here and it would break my heart to think of my charges celebrating Christmas with some random backup sitter. OP, I was a military kid growing up and we were often flexible on the dates of major holidays. If you have a day off right before or right after the 25th, I would just celebrate then. If the kids are young enough, you don’t even need to tell them it is not the right day. They won’t know! If they are old enough to figure it out, then just tell them that Santa wants everyone to have a merry Christmas and he knows that some families have to work...I fell for it as a kid and was just happy to get my tous earlier than my friends!

Meant to add: the point of celebrating on a different day is that it makes the 25th just a normal day for the kids and that means that you can ASK nanny if she’d rather work and make double time or rather you hire a sitter (there are plenty of nice atheist/muslim/etc. sitters who would be happy to make double time on their day off)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay her time and a half and if you get called in, allow her to take your kids with her to celebrate with her family. I worked for a doctor in the past and had to work one Christmas and my boss dropped the 1 year old off at my house and he came with me to celebrate at my parents house, we stayed until 7pm and I brought him back to his house for bedtime. They paid me time and a half and gave me a 2 week bonus.

For Christmas day only 24 days before Christmas, is worth a lot more than 1.5. there is no way OP did not know that she would be on call on Christmas Day and it is inexcusable that she has waited so long to tell nanny . If it were me, I would tell you that I would work the entire day at double time but I would not accept being on call to you.

OP call your parents/siblings or In-laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay her time and a half and if you get called in, allow her to take your kids with her to celebrate with her family. I worked for a doctor in the past and had to work one Christmas and my boss dropped the 1 year old off at my house and he came with me to celebrate at my parents house, we stayed until 7pm and I brought him back to his house for bedtime. They paid me time and a half and gave me a 2 week bonus.

For Christmas day only 24 days before Christmas, is worth a lot more than 1.5. there is no way OP did not know that she would be on call on Christmas Day and it is inexcusable that she has waited so long to tell nanny . If it were me, I would tell you that I would work the entire day at double time but I would not accept being on call to you.

OP call your parents/siblings or In-laws.

Maybe this is just not feasible b/c they are not in the area. I think it's pretty clear from OP that she has no real other options.

[Anonymous]

I would be really upset if you just sprung on me that I was to work on Christmas. If you were to ask me kindly and compensate me generously (double) and let the children celebrate with my family in my own home then I might consider it. You are in a tough spot with your work and being alone, but this is something you should have considered and established at the time of hiring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

So i think everyone is mistaken of course she knew upfront just like we talked about the possibility of my husband being deployed . I wpuld never take advantage of her and she has the option to say not but she is also allowed to drive the girls around so she can be with her family if she wants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

Nanny here and it would break my heart to think of my charges celebrating Christmas with some random backup sitter. OP, I was a military kid growing up and we were often flexible on the dates of major holidays. If you have a day off right before or right after the 25th, I would just celebrate then. If the kids are young enough, you don’t even need to tell them it is not the right day. They won’t know! If they are old enough to figure it out, then just tell them that Santa wants everyone to have a merry Christmas and he knows that some families have to work...I fell for it as a kid and was just happy to get my tous earlier than my friends!

Meant to add: the point of celebrating on a different day is that it makes the 25th just a normal day for the kids and that means that you can ASK nanny if she’d rather work and make double time or rather you hire a sitter (there are plenty of nice atheist/muslim/etc. sitters who would be happy to make double time on their day off)!

Christmas is only for Christians??? Someone should have told that to the Pegans!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

So i think everyone is mistaken of course she knew upfront just like we talked about the possibility of my husband being deployed . I wpuld never take advantage of her and she has the option to say not but she is also allowed to drive the girls around so she can be with her family if she wants

Then why the question? It was a condition of the job on hiring. Are you just asking what you should pay her? You still should have told her you would be on call for either TG or Xmas explicitly if you did not. If you did tell her that, then she probably knows. If you didn't say in your contract what her on-call pay would be, decide and address it now since this is likely to not be the only on-call day in the next two years. Then, if you want to be generous, add a bonus for working Christmas.

Lots of jobs require working the holidays for no extra pay; that's just part of the job. People usually don't take those jobs if they don't like that part, or leave them if their circumstances change. I'm assuming the nursing staff at the hospital just gets regular old pay, as do the kids working the local movie theater...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

Nanny here and it would break my heart to think of my charges celebrating Christmas with some random backup sitter. OP, I was a military kid growing up and we were often flexible on the dates of major holidays. If you have a day off right before or right after the 25th, I would just celebrate then. If the kids are young enough, you don’t even need to tell them it is not the right day. They won’t know! If they are old enough to figure it out, then just tell them that Santa wants everyone to have a merry Christmas and he knows that some families have to work...I fell for it as a kid and was just happy to get my tous earlier than my friends!

Meant to add: the point of celebrating on a different day is that it makes the 25th just a normal day for the kids and that means that you can ASK nanny if she’d rather work and make double time or rather you hire a sitter (there are plenty of nice atheist/muslim/etc. sitters who would be happy to make double time on their day off)!

Christmas is only for Christians??? Someone should have told that to the Pegans!

Where did I say that Christmas is only for Christians? I said that there are plenty of non-christians who would love to use their day off on christmas to rake in some cash. There are probably some christians ones in that camp too, just as there are many people who celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday. My point was merely to reassure OP that she shouldn’t assume that she can’t find other caregivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

Nanny here and it would break my heart to think of my charges celebrating Christmas with some random backup sitter. OP, I was a military kid growing up and we were often flexible on the dates of major holidays. If you have a day off right before or right after the 25th, I would just celebrate then. If the kids are young enough, you don’t even need to tell them it is not the right day. They won’t know! If they are old enough to figure it out, then just tell them that Santa wants everyone to have a merry Christmas and he knows that some families have to work...I fell for it as a kid and was just happy to get my tous earlier than my friends!

Meant to add: the point of celebrating on a different day is that it makes the 25th just a normal day for the kids and that means that you can ASK nanny if she’d rather work and make double time or rather you hire a sitter (there are plenty of nice atheist/muslim/etc. sitters who would be happy to make double time on their day off)!

Christmas is only for Christians??? Someone should have told that to the Pegans!

Who ate the Pegans? The PAGANS celebrated the Winter Solstice. Not Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny and fellow Milspouse here. I have worked for three different families where both parents were physicians. Only one required major holidays and I was told up front that the position would require alternating Christmas and Thanksgiving. We agreed that I would get double time and the parents would bring the kids to me on that day and I would celebrate as usual with family or friends.

Because it was not agreed upon at hire and because it is so close to the holiday I would definitely give her the option to make some extra money or have the day off. I think it would be pretty low to tell her she HAS to work it. You definitely still have time to find some backup care if she says no. With your DH just gone you really don’t want to do something to sour your relationship with your nanny!

So i think everyone is mistaken of course she knew upfront just like we talked about the possibility of my husband being deployed . I wpuld never take advantage of her and she has the option to say not but she is also allowed to drive the girls around so she can be with her family if she wants

Then why the question? It was a condition of the job on hiring. Are you just asking what you should pay her? You still should have told her you would be on call for either TG or Xmas explicitly if you did not. If you did tell her that, then she probably knows. If you didn't say in your contract what her on-call pay would be, decide and address it now since this is likely to not be the only on-call day in the next two years. Then, if you want to be generous, add a bonus for working Christmas.

Lots of jobs require working the holidays for no extra pay; that's just part of the job. People usually don't take those jobs if they don't like that part, or leave them if their circumstances change. I'm assuming the nursing staff at the hospital just gets regular old pay, as do the kids working the local movie theater...

You're mistaken. Many jobs pay holiday pay. My cousin gets 3.5x his hourly rate when he works as a firefighter on holidays.
Also, if you read the initial post, OP was asking how much to pay her. IMO, double is fine.

[Anonymous]

You can’t tell her she has to work on Christmas. Who do you think you are? You sound like a terrible employer!! You can ASK if she can work on Christmas for double pay. And she can say yes or no. Don’t assume you have coverage on Christmas because you didn’t think to negotiate this ahead of time. Probably because you know you’d never get. Nanny to agree to that. You seem the type.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay her time and a half and if you get called in, allow her to take your kids with her to celebrate with her family. I worked for a doctor in the past and had to work one Christmas and my boss dropped the 1 year old off at my house and he came with me to celebrate at my parents house, we stayed until 7pm and I brought him back to his house for bedtime. They paid me time and a half and gave me a 2 week bonus.

For Christmas day only 24 days before Christmas, is worth a lot more than 1.5. there is no way OP did not know that she would be on call on Christmas Day and it is inexcusable that she has waited so long to tell nanny . If it were me, I would tell you that I would work the entire day at double time but I would not accept being on call to you.

OP call your parents/siblings or In-laws.

Maybe this is just not feasible b/c they are not in the area. I think it's pretty clear from OP that she has no real other options.

Only an idiot parent doesn't have alternative childcare options. What if her nanny my had to have emergency appendectomy? Or, was in an accident, had bronchitis/flu/pneumonia. There are ALWAYS options.

[Anonymous]

If she knew about this upfront, it should be a huge deal. Tell her now that you may need her.

Does she have small children? I can see how that would be problematic, but she also should have considered it. With my child at home, I did not accept jobs with parents in the military or medical fields precisely because of this. Those families need a nanny with flexibility.

Double pay plus a bonus should help. I think it’s better for the kids to be with the nanny instead of a sitter, or aunt they don’t know. If her other holiday plans are flexible, it could be a lot of fun.