Love Thy Neighbor but Don't Covet Thy Neighbor's Nanny

Since last posting, Laura has left us...and started her new job just around the corner from us at our neighbor's house!!!! Yes, you read that right, and if you are even somewhat as appalled as I am, you understand my frustration. Here's the background:
As Laura's last day with us the week before Thanksgiving approached, I started finding out more about her reasons to leave, 99% of which had to do with her thinking she was working too many hours and not getting paid enough. Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure we are still in a recession, and last I checked, I don't get a raise from my company after just 6 months of employment! But apparently Laura's husband wasn't working so much and she needed to make more to support the family. So she told us that she had found an afternoon job working 12-6 pm 4 days a week so she could do housecleaning or something else in the mornings to make extra money. I felt badly and gave her a nice going-away present: products from work, some extra cash and a big hug with a "we'll call you for babysitting!" send-off.

Thanksgiving week came and went (my mom came to town, we ate a lot, played with the kids and had a fun week) and I stressed out over the nanny situation. I was still considering Laura's friend, Silvia, for the job, but I had reservations about her (as Laura's friend and she was asking for more money based on her previous job). I continued to field calls and screen candidates, and then, a small glimmer of hope: I was speaking with another nanny at Abby's gym class, Patricia, who Laura had become friendly with. I told her that I was looking for someone and gave her my number should she know of anyone. I got a call the next day from a woman named Cora, who said Patricia had passed along my information. With the holiday the next day, I took a few days to call Cora back but when I did, I couldn't believe I had waited so long.

Cora and I spoke briefly on Saturday morning via phone and I invited her to come to meet us that afternoon. By the time she left our house, I knew she was the One. Cora is a bit older - my guess is early 50s. She has worked at the same daycare in our town for 23 YEARS! She also babysits on the side and has a ton of references. She has been background checked, she has taken all of the childcare classes/workshops, is CPR certified, drives and lives IN MY town! Ours would be her first real "nanny" job but I know she is up for the task. We made Cora the offer and she very happily accepted and will start next week.

The day after we made Cora the offer, we found out that Laura is working for our neighbor. I also came to find out that she was soliciting business and trying to find a job at Abby's school - nice. And as if it isn't bad enough that she'll be working in my community and seeing my kids around, she won't call us back, presumably because she knows we found out and she feels guilty.

In the meantime, I let Silvia know that we couldn't hire her due to Laura's deceitfulness and I said I'd help her find a job because we did really like her, but it would not be a good idea to have Laura's friend working for us when Laura was working in the same small community. Hopefully, Silvia will pass along the message to Laura so she knows what she did was wrong - but judging by the fact that she won't return our calls and didn't come clean in the first place, she definitely knows she was wrong to do what she did.

All in all, I have a good feeling about Cora and our fresh start next week. So my kids won't grow up learning Spanish as their second language, but they'll hopefully be taken care of by a responsible, honest and caring woman who has more years of experience with children than us!

And may this be a lesson for all in the future: if you are in need of a new nanny, ask your neighbor's nanny for a referral for a friend, but don't hire their nanny as it certainly doesn't bode well for future run-ins in the neighborhood!