You could pay her a retainer or something to reserve her. Like pay her 30-50% of her usual rate and not have her work so she can still work elsewhere (or work little here and there for date nights). She'd get this retainer pay all at once after she starts showing up to work for you. Or work out something both sides are ok with.

Yeah when preschool starts in Sept. I've seen ads for nannies planned to being being let go once kid starts preschool.

I was in your shoes (went back to work after Thanksgiving in 2014). A friend's nanny would have been available in September and I felt that perhaps we should hire her in order to make sure we had hired a good nanny for when I went back to work. We decided not to hire her. Turns out that our current nanny was looking for a new family that fall and we hired her in October to start after Thanksgiving. (Found her through DC Urbanmoms). She's been amazing and my son adores her. There might be more postings on here and on neighborhood listservs for nannies looking for September start dates, but I wouldn't feel pressure to hire someone Sept 1st for a return to work in late Nov.

Anonymous wrote:I have a very generous leave from my employer. Expecting baby in July, will go back to work in late November likely. Will we have a lot more/better choices for nanny if we look for someone to start in September (when kids are going back to school)? We could afford someone during the last few months of my maternity leave, but don't really need it obviously.

Yes, I think one month earlier is worth it, but not three months.

I have a very generous leave from my employer. Expecting baby in July, will go back to work in late November likely. Will we have a lot more/better choices for nanny if we look for someone to start in September (when kids are going back to school)? We could afford someone during the last few months of my maternity leave, but don't really need it obviously.