I awoke this morning for the first time in months having slept through the night and without the foreboding weight on my chest that has been persistently awakened me for the past several weeks.
I slipped out of bed, my ipad and book* in hand, to enjoy a leisurely morning reading on the sofa, while the rest of the family snoozed. My fatal mistake was taking the ipad and reading my email.
My nanny tendered her notice. She will only be with us through the end of the month. Never mind that she has only been with us since February, and I was explicit in my interview that I needed someone who was available through the summer. Never mind that my children are devastated at the thought of saying goodbye.
So my leisurely morning was ruined, spent trying to figure out what I was going to do with my children for the summer. We had pretty much decided that we didn't need a nanny once school started. My girls will be 11 and 14--6th graders and a freshman. But I don't want them stuck at home for 10 hours a day, all day, through the summer. The point of the nanny wasn't so much for supervision (she was only coming in half days, anyway), but to have someone who could get the kids out of the house for a few hours each day and ensure that their eyes didn't glaze over and that their behinds didn't become glued to the sofas from watching television and playing video games all summer.
I think its unlikely I will find a replacement for a 7-week tenure--although maybe I will stumble upon a college student home for the summer. The more likely option is to put the twins into day care. Where they will be the oldest kids there and stuck away from home, all day, every day. And PS will be stuck at home all day, every day. Ugh, I don't like that plan.
It is just so frustrating to have to go through this again. I interviewed at least a dozen candidates for this position, and it took me weeks to find the right one. I emphasized that I needed someone who could commit through the summer--that my girls were still struggling with their last nanny going to college (she visited last week and they were so thrilled to see her!) and that they needed continuity. And I had asked several times recently if she needed any particular days off over the summer, and when she would be starting school in the fall, without response.
I don't know what to do. I'm tired of thinking about it. At least we have a couple of weeks.
* The book, "Into Thin Air." I plowed through it in less than 24 hours after picking it up from the library yesterday. It is about a deadly 1996 expedition to Mt. Everest. I became interested in the book after reading a news article last week about several recent deaths on Mt. Everest, and the shocking number of lives the mountain has taken over the years. I had no idea the climb was so deadly, and now I'm obsessed and moving on to books from the other participants in the '96 expeditions. I've never really had any particular fascination with Everest, and I'm not sure why it's suddenly piqued my interest, but I did enjoy the book.
4 comments:
It's not ideal, but what about an old fashioned summer camp (not for a week, but for a month or more)? Something confidence boosting, exciting, but close enough that you'd have visits on the weekends?
Or take them into work with you... :p
A few of our law students have been nannying during the summer while studying for the bar, especially now that more are doing the at-home BAR/BRI option. If you just need someone to bus the kids around to places, that might be ideal. I bet law students would love to have the chance to both earn some money and have a local attorney as a reference.
@Michael - that's funny. My kids think law is the most boring profession in the world. But we could use some help with the filing...
@AAL - that's a great idea, but it is astronomically expensive for 3 kids. They each get to do a camp or two, and that's about all my budget can take.
@Proto - another good idea, but we live 30 city miles from the law school. Nobody wants to come out here for a part-time job.
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