Received Monday, October 23, 2006
Jeepers in Baltimore, Maryland. On Saturday. Feel somewhat sorry for the nanny who looked exhausted. She probably works a 7 day week. She was taking care of "Evan". Jeepers is an indoor park with migrained inducing intensity. They try to reasonably ensure the safety but Evan was all over and his nanny was right behind him. She was there when my wife and I got there with our kids. We take turns. The nanny begged and pleaded with Evan to come and sit down and have something to eat. He said no. The nanny told Evan she was thirst and wanted to go get a drink. Evan said "go get one". The nanny did not leave him. She looked like she was close to tears and she fulfilled Evan's every wish. More money for Evan. "Hold my shoes", "Give me my shoes". As we were about to leave, the nanny was trying to get Evan to wrap it up to go home at which point he said "I demand that you call my mother, she will say that I can stay longer". The nanny didn't call too. Hell, even I knew why that mother would let Evan stay longer. I appreciated you nanny's patience. Do you? A saint would have lost patience with him but this slender African American, tall, with a very short pony tail, wearing levis and carrying a brown suede bag never left his side or even looked at him cross eyed.
12 comments:
It seems like the parents are to blame for this behavior. Obviously they need to teach their child some manners and how to respect their nanny.
Someone should poach her, she deserves a better job!
Odd. No one is screaming "how do you know it was the nanny" or "Stop assuming".
Funny...but when a child is demanding that you call his mother...one would assume the caregiver is then not in fact his mother!
Gogo Power Nanny..you deserve an all expense paid day off at the Spa!!! Hope your employers appreciate you!
np: true, "but when a child is demanding that you call his mother...one would assume the caregiver is then not in fact his mother!" but I like to believe that something the people see helps them to indicate in every post who is a nanny and who isn't. I can always tell. It's insulting to motherhood that you are claiming that a day worker can step in to the actual role of mother. Yet another slam against working mothers and women in general.
To the poster above-I am a nanny and people are constantly, constantly thinking I am the child's mom. You can't always tell-give it a rest.
Ditto -- I am a professional nanny and have been for a little over five years. Probably once a week, someone comments on how cute my "daughter" is or asks how old my "son" is or makes some other statement clearly assuming I am the mother. When I correct people, they usually respond with something like, "Oh, I never would have guessed! You seem so natural with them -- have you been with them since they were born?"
I don't think that is in any way a slam against working mothers or women in general. I think it's a compliment to the type of care I give. I love the children I care for and I give them as much affection and attention as I would my own child. People observing us can see that. I don't understand how that is offensive to anyone.
No thank you. It is important to me that everyone involved know she is the nanny.
anonymous -- I don't understand you comment. No thank you to what? And it is important to you that everyone knows your nanny is the nanny, or that everyone know the woman in this post is the nanny. Sorry, I was confused by your comment.
New commentator here- I am guessing she means it is important to her that everyone knows the nanny is the nanny. In the community where I live and stay at home with my children, many women (who could afford the very best of nannies) choose to hire not the very best nannies because they do not want to have any competition. Additionally on a physical basis, these women are known to hire an ethnicity that would represent an obvious nanny. And don't flame me, I don't agree with it. I know it to be true and am just reporting my observation of such.
I know moms who do similar things -- hire nannies who give substandard care so that their children won't bond with them. Or they fire their nanny every six months to a year so that the kids don't have time to bond deeply. It's really sad.
I agree that it is important that everyone involved knows their role. I NEVER try to overstep my bounds or steal a child's affection from their parents. I also never let others in public assume they are my children -- if someone calls her my daughter, I'm the first to say, "Oh, I'm not her mom. I'm her nanny." And when I worked with older children, I taught them to do the same thing politely.
To me, it would seem obvious that a parent should want the very best care in the world for their child. That should be the first priority, not making it clear to perfect strangers that she is just a "day worker".
(As an aside, since I do a lot of overnight care, I don't really think the term "day worker" applies. I prefer..."nanny".)
Good job Annie. I really like your comments.
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