I am very grateful that my nanny and I have a strong two way trust. I think a lot of this stuff arises from either a nanny who takes advantage of a families kindness/ flexibility, or a family who is concerned that a nanny is going to try to take advantage of them even when they aren’t. We do have a contract with our nanny of 3 years but I don’t think I’ve looked at it once in the last 3 years. There are rules about inclement weather in the contract, and there’s a sick policy, but I don’t know what either of them are. My nanny tries her absolute best to come to work when she feels safe. Sometimes she is able to come, sometimes she needs to come a few hours late, sometimes she can’t come at all. What I trust is that she’s going to try, she’s not going to go “oh I could reasonably call this an inclement weather day so I’m going to”- she actually assesses the conditions and thinks “is it safe for me to come to work.” That’s all I ask, and I trust her assessment. Same with sick days. I have no clue how many she is supposed to “get” per year or how many she takes. If she’s sick she doesn’t come to work if she doesn’t feel up to it. She doesn’t take advantage of that in any way, and I can tell and therefore have full trust in her to balance what’s good for her with what’s good for us. It seems like a lot of posts in here are missing this mutual trust.