Anonymous wrote:I'd tell her now and give her an incentive to stay by offering generous severance pay/bonus at the end.

This. Offer her 4-6 weeks pay as a severance/completion bonus. That way she will know that she has plenty of buffer to find a new job. And let her know about it now!

I'd tell her now and give her an incentive to stay by offering generous severance pay/bonus at the end.

Please let her know now.

Reason being is that she needs to be kept abreast of any + all future plans that will be affecting her.

Imagine if she finds out on her own.
She not only will be extremely devastated, it will also change the entire dynamic of your relationship and she may lose all trust & faith in you.
She may feel betrayed, deceived and that you do not really care for her even though you do!

Do not keep her in the dark.
If you let her know sooner rather than later on, it will give her plenty of time to assess her future long-term.

If you do not tell her, thus keeping her in the dark you also risk that she may have low morale and possibly quit w/zero notice.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:As a nanny, I would love a year's notice and would honor the commitment to stay for a year. A year's notice would give me a change to get my resume in order, take a couple classes (Sign Language, Childhood Development, Infant Certification) and re-do my CPR training. Most importantly, it would give me a change to really do a proper transitioning for the children. Get them used to being without me and teaching them to do more things on their own.

Even after you move, OP, I would encourage you to let the kids facetime with the nanny and visit (if possible) until they, the children, decide they don't need to.

Thanks for your perspective. The move wouldn't be too far, so we definitely plan to keep in touch, both virtually and in person.

As a nanny, I would love a year's notice and would honor the commitment to stay for a year. A year's notice would give me a change to get my resume in order, take a couple classes (Sign Language, Childhood Development, Infant Certification) and re-do my CPR training. Most importantly, it would give me a change to really do a proper transitioning for the children. Get them used to being without me and teaching them to do more things on their own.

Even after you move, OP, I would encourage you to let the kids facetime with the nanny and visit (if possible) until they, the children, decide they don't need to.

OP here, thanks - I was thinking the best thing was to tell her and be totally open about it once it's 100% set in stone. She is married but no kids yet. I don't think she'd move with us and she has local family and once the kids get to be older we wouldn't be needing a full-time nanny anyway.

Is she married/kids? If not I would offer to pay her moving expenses if she'll come. If not, she'll still feel positively about the relationship and maybe stick it out.

Tell her as soon as the move & new house are 100% happening. Let her know when her tentative end date would be, and you may want to offer a bonus if she stays until then. But, if she has been with you for 4 years and loves your family as much as you say, she will probably want to stay as long as she can.

Also, this way it will be much easier in regards to trying keep her from finding out. You can be open about everything and she can help with the moving, getting the kids prepared, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Tell her the truth and incentivize her to stay. All nanny jobs end; all nannies know this. It's far more insulting to not be told.

+1 This.

Tell her the truth and incentivize her to stay. All nanny jobs end; all nannies know this. It's far more insulting to not be told.

I think you tell her. No matter when you tell her, you may end up needing temp care for a bit before you move, because she may find a new job. If you tell her now, though, you can also discuss plans and maybe tell her how much of a bonus she can expect if she stays until your end date.

We are planning to move before the start of the 2018-2019 school year. We are also planning to build a house in the new city, so we'd start doing that around September 2017 (we are currently narrowing down lot choices and choosing a builder). As a result, it will be obvious in a couple of months that we're going to move. We've had our nanny for four years now and love her, but we're not sure when to tell her that we'll be moving. Things are hard to keep secret in this day and age (hello, Facebook), and we wouldn't be keeping the move secret from family and friends, so I don't know how she'd not find out, but I could try really hard to keep things under wraps if that would be best. I'm hoping that an entire year will be enough time to let it sink in, find a new job, etc., but I also don't want to put a damper on an entire year. She says we're the best family she's ever nannied for and we're never going to get rid of her, but I don't think she's considered that we might move away. She's one of the only reasons we'd consider staying, but we have to think long-term, and we've already stayed here longer than planned partly because she's been so great. So, do you think a year is way too much notice? Should we keep things quiet until closer to the time? Or will she then feel like we've known and were hiding it from her all that time? Which is worse?