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[quote=Anonymous]MB here. In-home care can be high-quality and meet the expectations you're laying out. In particular, dishonesty is grounds for dismissal with no notice in my nanny contract. I will give the benefit of the doubt on things that may reasonably be misinterpretations or memory lapses, but I absolutely will leave my kid alone with someone I think is lying to me.

It does take careful screening, interviewing and trial periods to ensure you are hiring the right person, but if you feel like you are running a rigorous process there and still getting people who turn out to be duds after a while, it could be your compensation. If the nanny is full-time, the right benchmark is whether what you are paying her is a good living wage in your area and what is appropriate for her experience, not how much daycare would cost you or her previous salary (after all, there must be some reason why she was looking to leave!). People get demotivated very quickly if they realize they are being underpaid. And daycare is a perfectly acceptable solution if your budget can get you better quality daycare than nanny care.

As for this specific nanny: a Montessori teacher's job description probably does not involve brushing teeth, stroller folder or high chair cleaning, and if she nannied older children before, those may not be part of the job either, so it is possible she doesn't realize those are integral parts of the job when providing in-home care to 18-month olds. Not trying to justify that behavior -- only to say it is a poor match of expectations. You may want to take a second look at your job description to make sure it's detailed enough, and then give specific examples or a daily routine during the interview/trial day. You could try to address this with the current nanny in a serious talk and another "shadow" day (where you show her all the things you believe are important for her to do) -- but if not, at least do this with the next nanny candidate you hire.[/quote]

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