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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some nannies can't handle 2 small children - our first nanny was fantastic with DC1 but only lasted 3 weeks after my maternity leave ended with DC2 before she quit.  She had experience with caring for more than one child over 5 and with babies, but had never cared for a toddler and an infant and it was too much for her. [/quote]

Same here. I wish she had been more honest and up front about her abilities while I was on leave so I could have handled the interview process then, not my first month back in the office.

My advice to all families is have the talk with your nanny asap and routinely during your pregnancy about how life will be with two kids.  This is much more than just agreeing on a rate.  Lay out everything again - start time, end time, likely nap times, likely meal times, likely class schedules/driving needs, and continued things like vacuum up the food/play room, keep kids' tub and bathroom in order, bottles washed, and kid laundry 2-4x a month.  With a second child there will be no more hour+ downtime when one child naps. That doesn't mean gosh, so much more work, that just means you can't take a paid nap while the kid naps so much anymore!

No rate in the world will offset someone who is not qualified, organized, ready or thoughtful about how to manage a new baby and older child.  Maybe call around and see what nannies are available as well, just so you have some ideas of who is out there and how they structure their day to manager two kids.   Millions of parent(s) and nannies can do it, so can you![/quote]

Laundry more than doubles when adding an infant, and if nanny only does laundry 2-4 times a month, either you are doing most of it, you have the cleanest kids on the face of the earth, or your nanny does laundry all day long on those days.  There are now two kids to plan for, play with, care for and find activities for, so yes, it's double the work, only you can't actually do double the work because it's impossible to run after a toddler/preschooler and hold a baby without hurting the baby.  One set of eyes=one child supervised, though that can be ok during the first few months, as long as you're ok with nanny wearing the baby at all times.[/quote]

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