OP, we do the same as you as backup care (work from home with nanny from backup care agency), but I find it hard to believe that your nanny had 15 separate emergencies that were not her fault that required her to miss work. Does she even have enough PTO to cover all that?

Anonymous wrote:[b]

Anonymous wrote:You could offer to pay a neighborhood nanny, especially if she has only one child.

The neighbourhood nanny is not your nanny. I don't want to watch your kids.

I'd personally be happy to consider an extra $20/hr. for the temporary care of a compatible child. No discounts.

[b]

Anonymous wrote:You could offer to pay a neighborhood nanny, especially if she has only one child.

The neighbourhood nanny is not your nanny. I don't want to watch your kids.

We have a few options for backup care on short notice:

1. DH or I watch the kids - luckily we both have reasonably flexible jobs so this generally isn't a problem as long as it's not too frequent
2. We have a couple of babysitters who might be available, but with last minute notice it's not guaranteed
3. My parents are sometimes available in a pinch, but they're not the best choice for a whole bunch of reasons so this is our last choice

It sounds like your biggest problem is just the frequency that this is happening. I've never had to deal with the level of frequency that you're talking about in almost 8 years of having a nanny. Our nannies have gotten sick and had car problems but I'm still thinking its never been more than maybe 5 days a year of calling out on short notice Of course they take vacation at other times or might have appointments that have to happen during the workday, etc but those are all things that I get plenty of notice for and can arrange a babysitter to cover.

Can you ask your nanny if she knows anyone who she would recommend for short notice backup care? Is she even aware that this is causing problems for you?

You could offer to pay a neighborhood nanny, especially if she has only one child.

We have grandparents who can sometimes cover and a bunch of sitters who have all sat for our kids at least once per 6 weeks or so and could be called to at least cover part of a day.

Live-in nanny, then you have less issues with calling out.

AP, again, less issues with calling out.

For a live-out nanny, you have many options:
1. telework, if available
2. call out work if you can't telework
3. family
4. friends who don't work the same hours or who SAHP
5. agreement with a friend to share nanny on emergency basis only, no sick kids
6. drop-in daycare, no sick kids
7. back-up sitter, preferably someone who who babysits the child occasionally (date night, errands or similar)
8. random person from agency (like metro parent relief), that way you know that the relief caregiver has had their background check run
9. random person from care or sittercity, but you have no idea what you'll get

Here are our backup options:
- one parent takes the day off, or we each take a half day and trade mid-way
- we have a dear friend who is semi-retired who can often fill in for a few hours
- if we have enough time, or if it will be for multiple days, we use MetroParentRelief

We are lucky to have those options, but it is still extraordinarily stressful to deal with last minute sick days. i don't think there's any getting around that, short of having a competent, willing, local grandparent who doesn't have a life.

We have one main back up care person. She is a college student, and she watches the kids every other Friday when we have date night, so they know her well. She is usually willing to skip classes or call into her other job in retail if we offer her enough money. If she is out of town or can't make it, we have two other people we can call. One is a friend of our nanny who is working as a nanny for her brother...he has a flexible job so she is often available, one is a back up sitter we found on care.com. She has met the kids, but they don't know her well. There are also some high schoolers in the neighborhood that I use if I need to run an errand or sometimes for date nights. If school is out for whatever reason, I could call them as well.
Nannies on here saying that every responsible parent should have easily accessible back up care or that agencies will have a wonderful nanny at your door in any part of the world within fifteen minutes of you calling have no idea what they are talking about. There are a bunch of nannies on this board who have never had to deal with the realities of finding childcare while they are at work and say all sorts of stupid things about backup care and daycare that don't make any sense.

Even if it's not her fault, if she's the kind of person who will call in for every unfortunate event (what are these? illnesses? family deaths/illness? car accident?), this may not be a good fit.

Here's an example: my nanny had a fender bender that resulted in her break line falling apart. She was late to work, but she had the car towed and dealt with it later that day. She didn't just call out to go get it fixed. Another example: her cousin was sent to the hospital, and she and her mom took the cousin's baby in for a few days. She worked out coverage for the baby so she could make it to work, and visited her cousin before and after. This happened over night, and I didn't hear about it until lunchtime. She'd worked it all out.

To me, that's the difference between being a professional and not.

One of us takes off, usually me, or I ask another Mom friend to have DD for us. Then I either pay them or reciprocate, whatever they prefer.

We have a lot of options. On any given day, generally either DH or I can work from home. DH and his friend started a law firm, so in a horrible pinch he could bring the girls to work. It's not ideal, but doable.

DH's partner's wife works part time, so sometimes she's available (they have two older kids - elementary school).
My friend's dad is an honorary grandpa and in a pinch we will ask him to watch both girls at home for half a day or take one out of the house for the whole day (both out or whole day is too much for him).
My friend/old neighbor is a writer and works from home. She has agreed to be our last resort. She will also take one girl for half a day.

If we have advance notice, we can fly in my MIL to babysit for a few days.

I did. Most things I found talked about the employer's responsibility to have a backup care plan. I found one reference to someone having 4-5 people they would call as needed, and several references to backup care agencies. But, for whatever plans people have in place that do NOT include an agency, I'm wondering what those plans. Friends? Baby sitters? Do people really find friends and baby sitters available last minute? I haven't had much luck with that and wonder if my pool isn't large enough. The second part of my question was how often others have to find back up care at the last minute. I didn't find anything on that.

Pls do a search.

Our nanny (who we generally like as she is very loving) has had a number of unfortunate events over the course of the year which have led her to take time off from her job with us at the last minute. She texts or calls either the night before or the morning of. While I understand that the unexpected comes up, DH and I fear we are annoying our own employers with so many last minute telework days (to be home when a stranger from a backup care agency cares for our child) and bothering our friends who have at times been gracious enough to care for our child so we could go to work. We have no family in the area.

So, my question for the DCUM world is what do you do for emergency backup care when your regular care giver calls the night before or morning of? Are they friends? People you also employee as baby sitters? I find it hard to imagine many people are regularly available at the last minute, so wonder how others handle this. Also, how often in a year do you have to deal with this? In the past year, our nanny has had last minute emergencies (none of them her fault) about 15 times. It feels like a lot of last minute scrambling and stress, and I'm having a harder time handling it.