The nanny you're better off NOT hiring........

Received Sunday, September 17, 2006
This nanny is from Africa and speaks French as well as English. She has a name that starts with a B. She is in her late 40s, I would say. She worked for us for a short time. Before then she worked on the Upper East Side in the ‘60s for a family with 2 girls. She took my child (who is just over 3) out and he came home with bruises on both of his arms. She said maybe he got in a fight with another child, but he told me that she didn’t like the way he was playing so she grabbed him really hard. Not only did he have lines like bruises where her fingers were, but he also had red spotting on one of his wrists, presumably from the force she used or the duration of time she was holding him so tightly. He said he tried prying her hands off of him but he could not. Two days before this incident, I saw her with him at the park. When she didn’t know I was watching anymore, she stopped holding his hand and was instead holding him by the wrist, sort of dragging him around. I should have recognized this was an indication of her lack of respect for him and of the way she would treat him in my absence.