Sick Baby and Nanny / Nanny Share

[Anonymous]

My son has RSV. (He's 13 months and this is his second bout.) We are in a nanny share. Before we knew it was RSV, the other family was weary of him being around their child because they didn't want her getting a cold. i understood, so I took him home. Now, for the past four days, I have had to pay my nanny even though I cannot use her, plus pay someone else to help out for a few hours during the day, plus sacrifice several hours of work. On Fridays, we do not do the share and the nanny comes to my house. What is generally appropriate in this situation? Should she come despite the fact that he might be contagious or should she stay home? Also, what do other families who are in nanny shares do when it is the common cold?

One other thing, does anyone else feel like between their child's illnesses, their nanny's illnesses/schedule, and your own schedule that you are constantly having to take time from work? I keep wondering if I have the wrong nanny and the wrong share arrangements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has RSV. (He's 13 months and this is his second bout.) We are in a nanny share. Before we knew it was RSV, the other family was weary of him being around their child because they didn't want her getting a cold. i understood, so I took him home. Now, for the past four days, I have had to pay my nanny even though I cannot use her, plus pay someone else to help out for a few hours during the day, plus sacrifice several hours of work. On Fridays, we do not do the share and the nanny comes to my house. What is generally appropriate in this situation? Should she come despite the fact that he might be contagious or should she stay home? Also, what do other families who are in nanny shares do when it is the common cold?

One other thing, does anyone else feel like between their child's illnesses, their nanny's illnesses/schedule, and your own schedule that you are constantly having to take time from work? I keep wondering if I have the wrong nanny and the wrong share arrangements.

This is why you pay for your own nanny. Nanny takes care of your child(ren) with no differentiation between sick or well. When nanny has a cold or light flu, she works as normal, only calls off if you don't want your child around her or if she has fever, vomiting or diarrhea. And there's zero reason that your schedule should be making you take off work unless you are sick; find a nanny who will work with your schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has RSV. (He's 13 months and this is his second bout.) We are in a nanny share. Before we knew it was RSV, the other family was weary of him being around their child because they didn't want her getting a cold. i understood, so I took him home. Now, for the past four days, I have had to pay my nanny even though I cannot use her, plus pay someone else to help out for a few hours during the day, plus sacrifice several hours of work. On Fridays, we do not do the share and the nanny comes to my house. What is generally appropriate in this situation? Should she come despite the fact that he might be contagious or should she stay home? Also, what do other families who are in nanny shares do when it is the common cold?

One other thing, does anyone else feel like between their child's illnesses, their nanny's illnesses/schedule, and your own schedule that you are constantly having to take time from work? I keep wondering if I have the wrong nanny and the wrong share arrangements.

This is why you pay for your own nanny. Nanny takes care of your child(ren) with no differentiation between sick or well. When nanny has a cold or light flu, she works as normal, only calls off if you don't want your child around her or if she has fever, vomiting or diarrhea. And there's zero reason that your schedule should be making you take off work unless you are sick; find a nanny who will work with your schedule.

No, it's not reasonable to expect the other family to be ok with the nanny taking care of your sick baby and contaminating theirs. And yes, you are still obligated to pay your nanny, but you should have had something in the contract that said any time you were unable to use her services would be paid at 60-85% of her rate, depending on what she agreed to. I always make sure that the family knows they still have to pay 75%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has RSV. (He's 13 months and this is his second bout.) We are in a nanny share. Before we knew it was RSV, the other family was weary of him being around their child because they didn't want her getting a cold. i understood, so I took him home. Now, for the past four days, I have had to pay my nanny even though I cannot use her, plus pay someone else to help out for a few hours during the day, plus sacrifice several hours of work. On Fridays, we do not do the share and the nanny comes to my house. What is generally appropriate in this situation? Should she come despite the fact that he might be contagious or should she stay home? Also, what do other families who are in nanny shares do when it is the common cold?

One other thing, does anyone else feel like between their child's illnesses, their nanny's illnesses/schedule, and your own schedule that you are constantly having to take time from work? I keep wondering if I have the wrong nanny and the wrong share arrangements.

This is why you pay for your own nanny. Nanny takes care of your child(ren) with no differentiation between sick or well. When nanny has a cold or light flu, she works as normal, only calls off if you don't want your child around her or if she has fever, vomiting or diarrhea. And there's zero reason that your schedule should be making you take off work unless you are sick; find a nanny who will work with your schedule.

You want a nanny with a "light flu" taking care of your baby? You're awful, both toward your nanny and your baby.

[Anonymous]

I think sickness and nanny shares can cause issues but it should have the same rules as daycare (fever of 100 or higher, stay home). We went with our own nanny (yes, you pay more) but you can avoid these issues.

[Anonymous]

You'd still be paying for daycare if your kid was too sick to attend. This is the nature of the beast. You could find care for your child and offer non-guaranteed pay, but you'd also have to be understanding when she doesn't reserve her time for you or just doesn't show up.
You get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

I would discuss with nannyshare family on guidelines. There will come a day when the other baby is sick....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has RSV. (He's 13 months and this is his second bout.) We are in a nanny share. Before we knew it was RSV, the other family was weary of him being around their child because they didn't want her getting a cold. i understood, so I took him home. Now, for the past four days, I have had to pay my nanny even though I cannot use her, plus pay someone else to help out for a few hours during the day, plus sacrifice several hours of work. On Fridays, we do not do the share and the nanny comes to my house. What is generally appropriate in this situation? Should she come despite the fact that he might be contagious or should she stay home? Also, what do other families who are in nanny shares do when it is the common cold?

One other thing, does anyone else feel like between their child's illnesses, their nanny's illnesses/schedule, and your own schedule that you are constantly having to take time from work? I keep wondering if I have the wrong nanny and the wrong share arrangements.

This is why you pay for your own nanny. Nanny takes care of your child(ren) with no differentiation between sick or well. When nanny has a cold or light flu, she works as normal, only calls off if you don't want your child around her or if she has fever, vomiting or diarrhea. And there's zero reason that your schedule should be making you take off work unless you are sick; find a nanny who will work with your schedule.

You want a nanny with a "light flu" taking care of your baby? You're awful, both toward your nanny and your baby.

Actually, I'm a nanny... And yes, I always work with light flu, that's what the parents need.

[Anonymous]

Then you can't tell the difference between the flu and a bad cold or stomach virus.

Nobody and I mean nobody works with the flu.

[Anonymous]

I work in a share. OP...the other family gets to keep the nanny when your child is sick. For the common cold, babies stay together and nanny comes to work as usual. For fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and illnesses such as RSV, Croup and Strep, the children need to be separated and nanny stays with healthy child. It's the nature of the game in a share. The other family's child will get sick at some point and the tables will be turned. I don't know the details of your situation but it seems your nanny is taking off a lot of time? If so, you need to have a sit down and review details of your contract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then you can't tell the difference between the flu and a bad cold or stomach virus.

Nobody and I mean nobody works with the flu.

Yes, I do. With infants and toddlers, I don't work if my fever is over 100.5, I have thrown up in the past 3 hours or had diarrhea in the last two hours. Otherwise, I work, because my bosses are people that don't have the option of calling in unless it's actually an emergency. With preschoolers and older kids? I work no matter what my symptoms are, because that's what the parents and I agreed. All of my charges are capable of making themselves simple food by 4/5 (peanut butter sandwich, grabbing hummus and cut veg, etc.), they know when I'm sick that we all have an easy day. I do the best I can to not contaminate them, but such is life, and they usually are the ones who were sick first. In one case, we lived 5 miles form school, and there was no busing, so that parents called the school to let them know kiddos wouldn't be in as I couldn't do drop-off or pick-up. Just because you don't work with the flu doesn't mean that others don't.

[Anonymous]

Well if your nanny has a history of calling in sick or not being available due to scheduling conflicts often, then you have the wrong nanny.

Reliability is very important in this profession. I would put it in the top three.

If your child is ill, it isn't your nanny's fault & she still has her bills to pay so out of goodwill, I would have paid her the same amount. I mean, in a daycare/preschool, if your child fell ill, in order to remain there, you would have to keep up w/your payments or lose your spot.

The reason for this is because childcare workers are just like any other workers, they need to know how much they will be making so that they can adequately pay their bills + live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then you can't tell the difference between the flu and a bad cold or stomach virus.

Nobody and I mean nobody works with the flu.

Yes, I do. With infants and toddlers, I don't work if my fever is over 100.5, I have thrown up in the past 3 hours or had diarrhea in the last two hours. Otherwise, I work, because my bosses are people that don't have the option of calling in unless it's actually an emergency. With preschoolers and older kids? I work no matter what my symptoms are, because that's what the parents and I agreed. All of my charges are capable of making themselves simple food by 4/5 (peanut butter sandwich, grabbing hummus and cut veg, etc.), they know when I'm sick that we all have an easy day. I do the best I can to not contaminate them, but such is life, and they usually are the ones who were sick first. In one case, we lived 5 miles form school, and there was no busing, so that parents called the school to let them know kiddos wouldn't be in as I couldn't do drop-off or pick-up. Just because you don't work with the flu doesn't mean that others don't.

[Anonymous]

hahahaha omg PP thanks for making my day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then you can't tell the difference between the flu and a bad cold or stomach virus.

Nobody and I mean nobody works with the flu.

Yes, I do. With infants and toddlers, I don't work if my fever is over 100.5, I have thrown up in the past 3 hours or had diarrhea in the last two hours. Otherwise, I work, because my bosses are people that don't have the option of calling in unless it's actually an emergency. With preschoolers and older kids? I work no matter what my symptoms are, because that's what the parents and I agreed. All of my charges are capable of making themselves simple food by 4/5 (peanut butter sandwich, grabbing hummus and cut veg, etc.), they know when I'm sick that we all have an easy day. I do the best I can to not contaminate them, but such is life, and they usually are the ones who were sick first. In one case, we lived 5 miles form school, and there was no busing, so that parents called the school to let them know kiddos wouldn't be in as I couldn't do drop-off or pick-up. Just because you don't work with the flu doesn't mean that others don't.

In no way am I trying to be a martyr. I simply believe that parents should get their own nanny if they feel that common courtesy to the other family (and the nanny) in a share is unreasonable.