Outgrowing the sitter...

After about two years of agonizing,  I have decided that my family no longer needs a regular babysitter. It seems like an unjustified extravagance, so I have decided to let her go after the holidays. Sounds easy, right? Just tell her our needs have changed and we no longer require her services. Give her a couple weeks notice and a few extra bucks and call it a day.

Real life complicates things. Emotions enter the picture.

Our sitter can't drive and doesn't really cook. Two facts which greatly affect her employability. The economy is in the toilet. The classified ads in the local paper have about ten ads for nannies seeking employment each week, and almost never an ad seeking to hire one. Did I mention our nanny moved here from a foreign country and sends money back to her mother who looks after the sitter's two children? Did I mention she's a really nice person, whom I've grown very close to over the last four years? It's hard not to feel responsible.

Am I responsible? How responsible should employers be for their hires? Do CEOs who fire hundreds of people at a time feel personally accountable?

I guess what I really want to know is: what is the most fair and ethical way to fire our sitter? How can I end the relationship and still have us all feeling relatively good about our time together?