What does everyone do when their nannies have doctor appointments? Do you just take off work? Do you ask them to make up the hours elsewhere? We love our nanny, but she just got braces and has to go to the orthodontist A LOT. Like every two weeks lately. Today, her band broke. We live in Brooklyn, and her ortho is in Manhattan, so it's a 2.5 hour ordeal every time. I don't know what to do. I can't keep taking off work, but I don't see a solution! I would feel like it's overstepping to ask her to change orthos at this point, and she's probably already paid for the services. She was very upfront about this when we hired her, but I didn't realize how often it would be. We do love her otherwise though!
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@raintreebee: Oh dear. Thankfully our nanny has been able to schedule her normal checkups on weekends (her doctors have Saturday hours). The few times she hasn't, for minor procedures and the like, she's scheduled them at as good a time as she could (like last appointment of the day or early in the AM) and DH or I have worked from home for half a day. Is her ortho near where she lives at least? Can she make sure to get the first or last appointment of the day (whichever makes more sense for your schedule)?
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Can she at least coordinate them so you are either just missing the first couple hours of work, or leaving a bit early for the day? Since it is a frequent thing, I think I'd expect the hours to be made up in some way... unless it was expressed to you that it was part of the deal that those hours would be paid time off when you hired her.
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@Beehive: @mauxie: She definitely works with me, but she goes to a student run clinic to save money and they have limited hours. I usually work around 6, and I think their last appointment is at 4:30. So that means I have to take off about 2.5 hours from work. Earliest appt might work better because she could probably be in by 10 and that means only 2 hours off from work. Ugh. There probably is no great solution.
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I normally just take the kids with me. I do have a group of awesome nanny friends and when I had to take an unexpected trip home they stepped in and watched the kids for me. Maybe your nanny has some friends who would be willing to help out. Could your nanny maybe work half day?
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@travelingnanny: She's new to the area, so she hasn't made many friends yet but great idea about taking LO with her. That could work for the quick appointments.
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Is her orthodontist anywhere near your work? So you could meet her and she could take LO from you in the morning or something? Or if your LO is ok at appts, yeah I do take mine to my dentist appts, but I think that depends on the kid.
I did Invisalign as an adult and I totally underestimated how many appts I would have, and they even worked with me to spread out the appts as much as they could (gave me extra trays so I didn't have to come as often). It's tough.
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Lots of orthodontists here are open on Saturdays and also have evening hours. She may need to push for better timed appts, and may not think it's a huge deal because you haven't said anything yet.
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@Foodnerd81: No, its about 45 minutes away from both work and home. It takes forever to get anywhere in NYC.
@blackbird: No weekend or evening appointments at this clinic, but maybe I should press her for better timing. She just got the braces, so maybe going forward for adjustments she won't have to go when the doctor is there. -
I second the idea of taking your lo with her. Maybe they can use it as a field trip day and do something fun nearby those days?
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@raintreebee: bummer- but yeah I get it. I feel like anytime I go anywhere t takes me at least half an hour here in boston.
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@raintreebee: I had braces as an adult and remember several initial appointments that were back to back. At some point the appointments became monthly and worked much better with my work schedule.
Agree with those that say to have her take your LO to the appointments. It's not like an orthodontist office is filled with a bunch of sick & contagious people.
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I would not ask her to take LO with her! That is asking far too much, imo. When I had braces I had to sit with my mouth open looking at the ceiling for a very long time, how would I watch my child doing that, let alone someone else's?
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When our nanny had appointments she scheduled those that she could first thing. For the others my daughter and her LO went with her. Not ideal but with some snacks and an iPad they managed.
I just had a transvaginal ultrasound with both my girls in the room because MIL flaked out at the last minute. Was it my favourite day, no, but we managed. -
I just take a half day or work from home when our nanny has appointments, but they are so infrequent that there is zero inconvenience for me. I would have a discussion about the frequency of the appointments going forward so you can figure out a schedule that works better for everyone.
I would not have her take LO with her - like a previous poster said, you're in a chair for an undetermined amount of time. Unless you have an older child that could hang out in the waiting room unsupervised, I can't imagine this working. Also, I've been to 4 orthodontists in my lifetime (2 in MA and 2 in NYC) and only 1 had separate rooms for each patient. The others had a waiting room and a few dental chairs side by side in another larger room, so there wouldn't have be a safe place to set up a child with some books or toys like there is a doctor's office.
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Are you able to make up hours at your work? Or flex your time? Our first nanny had a lot of doctor appts after being diagnosed with breast cancer (obviously we have to be accommodating for those appts!), so between DH and I we took time off or flexed our time by working longer on some other days. It ended up being mostly DH because his job was more flexible than mine. It did help that his schedule then was to work 9 out of 10 in a 2 week period so he could move his day off around her appts too.
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If its a quick appointment, maybe she can take your kids with her, then go for an outing in the city?
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I can't imagine asking a nanny to take a child to a dr appt with them. You can't watch a child while being examined/worked on. She'll have her mouth open and not be able to talk.
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