Our caregiver is leaving at the end of the month. How did you overlap a replacement?

dusk_sketch_89826 Sept 2026

She has been with us for a few years and is going back to her hometown to be with her own family. We're happy for her, and slightly panicking. I have late clinic sessions most days and my partner's school day is long, so she covers 3 to 8 for our two girls (class 2 and class 4): snack, homework, park, dinner. The part-time helper does the house, not the children. How long an overlap did you manage with the new person? And did you tell the kids early, or only once someone was found? The younger one is going to take this hard.

6 comments

mango_bottle_40566 Sept 2026
We managed only one week of overlap when ours changed, and it wasn't enough. If you can, pay your current caregiver for an extra week and have both of them there together. My son was older than your girls and still tested the new person for a month.
silver_gecko_9356 Sept 2026
This was fifteen years ago for us so take it with a pinch of salt, but what I'd do differently is write down everything she does that you don't notice. Ours knew which friend's mother to call, which shop delivered late, that my daughter needed her bottle refilled before tuition. We found out about each one only when it went wrong :)
- cobalt_paper_12896 Sept 2026
  Add the kids to the list-making too. Mine would tell you things about their afternoons that no adult in the house knows, mostly about snacks.
maple_paper_5556 Sept 2026
when he was little the woman who looked after him moved away and we told him early. it helped him say goodbye properly. he's nearly done with school now and still asks about her sometimes
fern_piano_58196 Sept 2026
A practical point on the overlap: try to make the overlap days ordinary school days, not a weekend or a holiday. The new person needs to see the 3 o'clock arrival, the homework negotiation and the 7 pm dinner, not a quiet Sunday. We learnt that from a trial week that fell during exam leave and told us nothing.
- dusk_sketch_89826 Sept 2026
  That rules out the festival week for the overlap, then. Will aim for the week before. Thank you ❤️
linen_drum_54837 Sept 2026
tell the younger one early but give her a job, like making a card for the one who's leaving or showing the new person where her things are. mine copes with change much better when she's in charge of something
pebble_marigold_86927 Sept 2026
No caregiver here, ours is in daycare, but we went through a teacher change there in June. What helped was the old teacher introducing the new one herself, in front of him. If your caregiver is willing to do that handover with the girls watching, I think it would carry a lot of weight.