Ending

[Anonymous]

This will seem like a silly question but here goes: I was a PT nanny for a family for a while, until my schedule filled up and I couldn't offer them any more weekday hours. Instead, I've been doing two Saturdays a month - 3pm-10pm for a date night kind of deal. I adore the kids, the parents are lovely, and it suits my schedule to have a little extra income.

HOWEVER, literally every time I have babysat for them in the past three months, I've gotten a cold within 24 hours. I cannot afford, physically or mentally, to get sick so often, and I rarely do otherwise (I never catch anything from my FT charge, even though he is often sick).

So I need to stop working for them, I think, but I'm not sure what to say. I don't want to tell them their house is too full of germs, but because this is a regular thing, scheduled out for the next several months in advance (1st and 3rd Sat of every month), I do need to say something. Pretending my schedule is full will only work once or twice, then it will become clear that I'm avoiding them and I don't want them to worry about why.

Gah, so basically I feel really bad and don't know what to say to them. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

same troll

[Anonymous]

Wash your hands more often. It would unlikely be a cold picked up at their house with an incubation time of 24 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:same troll

Not a troll. Not sure how to phrase it differently to be convincing, but I will if you tell me how.

PP2 - I wash my hands all the time and I virtually never (maybe 2x a year) get sick from the other kids I nanny/babysit for. The boys are 4 and 5, sick ALL the time, don't cover their mouths when they cough, think it's funny to wipe snot on people, all kind of normal things but issues I can't solve when I only see them twice a month. The parents also don't use their dishwasher, don't use antibiotics or modern medicine (on themselves or their kids), and use an all-natural non-foaming dish soap that I don't think does anything, so I honestly think their house is just this horrible petri dish of germs. I can't explain why it's the only time I get a cold, but I sat for them this past Saturday and like the last 5 times, woke up today on Monday sick...

It's just a bummer and I'm not sure what excuse to use to cancel our regular gig.

[Anonymous]

"I've really enjoyed watching your children, but I'm unable to anymore."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I've really enjoyed watching your children, but I'm unable to anymore."

This. I would not tell them that their kids are making you sick.

[Anonymous]

They don't use modern medicine? Or regular cleaning products? This story is sounding less plausible.

You could bring hand sanitizer.

[Anonymous]

Yeah just tell them you have too many commitments. It's their choice to be a crunchy granola family, but you shouldn't have to come down with a cold everytime you're around them.

Are you sure it's not just a coincidence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I've really enjoyed watching your children, but I'm unable to anymore."

This would be perfect to say.

[Anonymous]

I'm NOT sure it's not a coincidence, it very well could be... but I don't really know how to test that. I told myself it was coincidence all of February and March but now it's April and it still happens every time I work for them so it feels connected. I don't know for sure, though.

I like the short and sweet cancellation, but I know she'll ask why. I will actually probably make something up TBH, having thought about it all day, like that I'm taking a weekend class or something. I feel bad to end it and if I use an excuse like that and later decide I'm getting sick anyway and want to go back, I'd have a way to open up my schedule again for them.

To the PP re: medicine and cleaning products - they would absolutely use modern medicine in case of an emergency, but for example their older son had an ear infection for two months before they moved off the "natural" drops and got some serious drugs for him (by then it was a very serious infection). They keep cleaning chemicals out of the house, too, and use nothing with added fragrance too... I don't know, those are all actually really common things where I'm from (West Coast) so I didn't think twice about it until I just kept getting sick.