friday, 7pm. the very last thing i expected to hear out of my nanny’s mouth.
“um, yeah, it’s okay if today is my last day?”
um, yeah, if by that you mean that today is your last day…until monday. except that she didn’t. she quit. no two week notice. nothing. according to her, she wasn’t unhappy. she didn’t have another job in the works. and she didn’t care that we were not longer going to sign papers for her.
and poof. just like that. she’s gone.
we call the agency to see if there was something we didn’t know about. because it came out of nowhere. she’s been such a hard worker and she’s never told us she was unhappy at all. she, we thought, loved the kids. and the kids most certainly loved her. the agency knows nothing. the last they heard, Michelle was happy.
i was upset. upset for Isabella. she didn’t even say goodbye (to any of the kids, actually). on monday morning Isabella’s going to come downstairs and say, “shel! where are you? a’morning!” and she’s not going to be there. she’s going to have to learn to love yet another nanny. upset for Josh, who couldn’t fall asleep on friday night and actually said to us, “Michelle left because of me” is your heart not completely breaking right now?
i was pissed. pissed that she totally blindsided us and didn’t even feel badly that she was leaving us in the lurch. on monday morning, the husband and i are supposed to go to work…and what the hell are we going to do with our three children?? pissed that i opened up my home, my family, my children to someone and she totally took advantage of our openness and our trust.
i was annoyed. annoyed that she may have been swayed by another employer in the park. i’ve heard about this….nanny swiping. women who have fewer kids and more money. I’ve heard about it, sure, but i never thought my nanny could have done it. until we saw her walk down the block rolling her suitcase behind her. until we spoke to Emily who told us a new ‘friend’ was talking to Michelle in the park this week.
i was panicked. panicked because i had little time to find someone new. someone we like. someone we hope won’t flee after 2 1/2 months. panicked that i was going to have to hire someone new. train someone new. take off more work to deal with this. days that i don’t have. days for which i won’t get paid. days for which i could get fired.
we quickly got on the phone with 12 different nanny agencies…but since it was almost 8 pm, it was hard to find someone still open. luckily, one of the agencies had an emergency number, which, naturally, we dialed immediately. she sent us two possible nannies this morning. and we hired the second one on the spot. we got a really great feeling about her. she went straight to the kids, and they seemed to love her. she asked a lot of questions and she gave me all the right answers. her english was GREAT and she was just …sweet.
i know years from now we’ll look back and we’ll remember Michelle, the nanny who was with us for a couple of months. and it’s sad, really, because we thought she was here to stay. we thought everything was right. I feel like Elle Woods when WArner dumps her. a total fool.
our new nanny starts Monday. keep your fingers crossed. please. i don’t think my children can take another break-up.
**EDIT**
we’ve officially been nanny-snatched!
we found out from one of the other nannies in the neighborhood that Michelle took a job for another family. she was wooed in the park by someone who had only one child, and was possibly offering her more money.
so, that ‘friend’ that was talking to Michelle in the park…was no friend…she was an evil, evil bee-otch. i wonder how the two of them sleep at night. does Michelle feel remorse that she just up and left us for greener pastures? did she not care that we opened our hearts and our home to us?
and the snatcher…i wonder how she would feel if that happened to her? i wonder if she thinks of me. of our family. of poor Isabella, who lost her nanny and her friend.
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