25 hours, give or take

I was a bit annoyed yesterday, when I went into the office to meet the people I'll be directly reporting to. I'd been told I'd be working 25 hours per week, and had duly organised childcare for those hours. But now it seems that I'll be needed (and paid for) for only 20 hours per week, occassionally going up to 24 hours per week during the month-end panic.

If I'd been told this a couple of weeks ago, I'd have been estatic - I'm all for 5 hour days. But having promised my young and enthusiastic - and probably poor - nanny a set number of hours, I'm loathe to renege and take away several hours of pay from her each week. But if I don't, then I'll be paying for childcare that I don't need.

One option is to just cut the nanny's hours anyway, to the bare minimum. But then she might get pissed off and burgle our house.

Another option is to keep those extra hours of childcare and use them as child-free leisure time. But oh, the guilt!

A third option is to explain the situation to the nanny, shorten her hours but keep her fortnightly pay the same, and ask her to make up the unworked time by babysitting for the boy and I while we go out in the evening. This would mean that the boy and I would have to get off our arses and actually organise evenings out; plus, it'd mean a big increase in our entertainment outgoings.

On the plus side, once TLM turns 3 in August I'll get my 20 hours of free childcare and paying for a few unnecessary nanny hours won't seem quite so extravagant. There's also the chance that I'll be so wonderful and efficient in my new job that they'll give me more to do and increase my hours as appropriate.

Hey, thanks for listening. I think I know what I'll do now.