Can you help me figure this out?

[Anonymous]

We have 2 kids, ages 5 and 2, and a part-time nanny who has worked for us for 2 years. We all love her. It took us months to find her so I don't take any thought of losing her lightly. However, she is in school now and plans to eventually return to her home country, so this arrangement will not last forever. DH and I have been having an ongoing debate about what to do going forward--DC #1 is now in kindergarten for most of the day, so our nanny comes over early on the days I work, walks him to school, then takes DC #2 for various outings, makes lunch, etc. until school is over. Then they all hang out for a short time until I return home.

In the future, we could put DC #2 into a free pre-K program at the same elementary DC #1 attends. This would require a shift in my work schedule, where I would still work PT, but would go in early and leave in time to pick the kids up. I think we could try to have DH go in later to be able to drop the kids off, but worry that this might mean he would never get home in time for dinner. Another option would be to find someone to watch the kids for about 2 hours in the morning, but I feel like this is a really unattractive position and will be hard to fill long-term.

And then I keep thinking of what to do about summer break, plus all of the many breaks and days off during the school year, in addition to sick days. I feel like we could cover less than half of that time between days off, taking sick leave, and vacations, but otherwise, would be scrambling to try to figure out a bunch of random days when the school is closed, or how to find someone reliable to care for our kids over the summer.

Has anyone out there put this puzzle together successfully? Is it worth the considerable savings to not have our nanny anymore, or is it too much of a headache? And regardless of what we decide for next year, the day will come when our nanny is ready to move on and we will be forced to find a new arrangement. Should I just wait for that day to come? DH keeps telling me that there has to be a solution since we know many families where both parents work and very few have regular nannies or sitters, but I just can't seem to figure out how to make this work for us.

[Anonymous]

Do you have family nearby? Any neighbors with kids in the same school? With neighbors you could alternate carpooling and taking the kids on school holidays.

Summers will involve camps, summer babysitters/nannies.