Living the good life

This year, my housekeeper/nanny decided to take a whole month of vacation in August. When she told us this back in May we just assumed we would easily find someone to stay at home with M and R would go back to school (her school is open 12 months a year). But as August came closer we realized we had no one to stay with him and no clue on where to hire someone. We started to panic.

Then a couple of weeks ago my younger SIL asked if I knew of a Summer job she could take during the last 3 weeks of August, because she has no exams in September this year and she could use the extra money. I couldn’t believe my luck. I told her I needed someone to take care of Manel until September 1st and would pay her the same as I would pay a hired nanny (to which she immediately said she would do it for free, but of course I couldn’t accept that and I’ll pay her the fair amount). I told her she would have to be at my house a little before 9am and I would be home at 7pm to take over.
A couple of days later she says she has something to ask me. She says she would prefer to move in with us during those 3 weeks, so she doesn’t have to wake up so early. And she would also prefer to keep both R and M at home because she thinks R should have more than 2 weeks off school and it’s actually more fun with her than just M (which I totally agree).

So now we’ve had a live-in nanny for a week. And I’m loving it. I come home from work and I don’t have to do everything myself, she is always willing to help with bath-time and dinner and bedtime. We even went out for dinner on Wednesday and didn’t have to worry about being home at a specific time. After this, I can understand why most of my friends are hiring live-in housekeepers.

Last night my older SIL (the one who’s getting married) called to ask us (me and younger SIL) if she could leave my niece at my house for 3 days next week. The kid has been staying with her father but she wants to come back to Lisbon and my SIL has nowhere to leave her during the day. So she wants to drop her off before she goes to work and pick her up in the afternoon. Of course I said yes (and so did SIL) because we don’t want the poor kid to be left alone in an apartment with dh’s grandmother for 3 days (which is the alternative). But it really pisses me off that she didn’t even say anything about splitting expenses (she’ll be having all her meals at my house, SIL is driving my car, I’m leaving money for zoo tickets, snacks and stuff, etc) and she always gets what she wants. She even took the opportunity to complain a little more about my MIL and how unfair it is that she will only have 90 guests at her wedding. Ugh!