Do they all start strong, then slack off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from cleaning the trays you sound like a micro manager.

Why buy a stroller that you find to heavy to lift into the car? Sell it and buy another lightweight one if you need 2.

If she brushes their teeth after dinner and you do them at breakfast it would make sense the brushes have dried. If you are going behind her checking, then you are a micro manager.

OP again. No, the brushes are dry WHEN I GET HOME, 15 minutes after she supposedly brushed their teeth. Why are you assuming that I don't see them until the next time I need to use them? They're sitting on the counter, obviously unused. I'm going to see them, even if I'm not intentionally looking for them.

For the people saying this is my fault, because we've been through 6 people in a year: one au pair was kicked out of the au pair program and sent home for multiple egregious violations. We then took a rematch au pair whose English was terrible, out of desperation because the au pair agency didn't have any good replacements for us. She didn't even understand what we told her to do, and was overwhelmed if we left her alone with both kids at all. Then we fired her and the au pair agency. We had a decent local nanny last summer, but she was a college student who couldn't work the hours we needed once classes started in the fall. She still babysits for us occasionally.

People keep asking me if I did trial days-- YES, I did that with the local candidates (obviously it's not possible with an au pair), and 2 candidates failed their trial days. Isn't that the whole point of trial days, that you can get rid of the really terrible people immediately? If everyone left for the same reasons, I would think it was me, but if one is violating her au pair visa 6 different ways, one doesn't understand English, one is too busy to do this job now, and 2 failed their trial days because they couldn't even feed my kids lunch or do their laundry properly, I don't see a pattern-- except that they all got worse over time.

Why in the world would you lump "nannies" who failed their trial days and APs in with honest-to-goodness nannies? Oh, and a Montessori teacher turned nanny may not be a nanny and know what a nanny means either...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have not only gone through an unusually high amount of Nannies OP, but your expectations are really through the roof.

Caring for young twins can be quite the challenge & it seems your Nannies are expected to do many other things besides childcare.

If a Nanny does not remove balls from under the couch, then that is truly okay.
...................................................
It appears that it will be difficult for you to keep an in-home childcare provider.

Your best bet would be a daycare for your children.

Good luck!

What part of this isn't childcare? Putting a stroller in the car? Brushing their teeth? Cleaning their high chair trays? Keeping a humidifer running for them (recommended by their pediatrician due to preemie health issues)? Keeping their toys organized and off the floor at the end of the day? If someone can't do these things, why would I pay them money? I know the entitled nanny trolls here think they should make $30/hour as long as they manage to keep the kids breathing, but no one is paying out the nose for a nanny who sits on her lazy butt all day watching TV.

They still had preemie health issues at 18 months? If so, you should have been paying for a special needs nanny.