Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and the month-long trip is not an annual thing, but rather every couple of years. As for the other trips, her DH is a bit older than she is, and is semi-retired. They want to be able to take a couple of 1-2 week trips per year together.

This is completely reasonable. Make it work out for your children.

MB here and I disagree that this is reasonable. So every other year she expects to take a one-month vacation, and every year an additional three weeks off? Three weeks I think is all right especially if she is willing to coordinate with you on timing. But a month on top of that is excessive, IMO. If you are planning to keep her even somewhat long-term, I would not look forward to having to deal with this situation again in two years.

Part of what makes a great nanny is reliability and not making excessive demands on employers. And great nannies are not as hard to find as some people suggest.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and the month-long trip is not an annual thing, but rather every couple of years. As for the other trips, her DH is a bit older than she is, and is semi-retired. They want to be able to take a couple of 1-2 week trips per year together.

Is she flexible on the timing of her trips? With our nanny, we give her 2 weeks paid vacation per year - one week of our choosing and one week of hers. We are always gone Christmas week as well as for a week of spring break so nanny always gets those off and plans accordingly. Maybe she can plan around when you are already going to be away so you don’t even need back up care. That could be a good compromise...