Tuesday

Madison & 61st. Street in NYC

Received Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Your nanny just made it outside to the street and pushed carriage off to the side. Furiously dashing through her belongings. For what? Cigarettes. She lit one quickly. Hand shaking. Sucked down a deep drag. Blew out a long stream of smoke. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. While holding cigarette in right hand reached to adjust pacifier with her left hand. Bottom of the barrel for me - a smoking nanny. What happens when the nanny can't get her frenzied fix? Who pays? The darling tow headed child in the navy plaid pram?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Calm down people are allowed to smoke. Granted it isn't good to smoke around Children but your acting like she's drug addict.

Anonymous said...

how do u know she is allowed 2 smoke? R U her employer?

Anonymous said...

Why would the parents tolerate this? They must smell the smoke on her.

Anonymous said...

Maybe she is a better nanny because she DOES smoke?!

Really, though, wouldn't the parents smell smoke on the child?

Anonymous said...

How do you know she is not? She sounds as if she is an open smoker> Someone like that would smell of cigarettes so the employers must know. The issue here is not whether smoking is good or bad. We are looking to alert parents re abusive nannies

Anonymous said...

Disgusting-I am an ex smoker and cannot stand to see someone smoke around a child. But, I know many parents who walk down the street with their kid in one hand and a cigarette in the other. If she is that open with the smoking and does it near the child like that-the parents must know. BTW-again, are you sure this is a nanny and not a mom?

Anonymous said...

"Bottom of the barrel?" The woman is a smoker; she'd been inside for a long while and needed a drag. Big deal. It sounds like she took the precaution of standing apart from the baby. Your complaint seems less about the baby's well being and more about your own odd moral outrage about smoking.

Travel to any other country in the world, and you'll see that mothers and nannies who smoke are a dime a dozen. It's only here in the US we've decided this is a mortal sin.

Anonymous said...

Jeeze - you people need to chill out

Anonymous said...

My father and (much) older brother were chain smokers. At eleven years old I started to have respiratory problems (developed allergies and then-mild asthma) which got progressively worse until I left for college. Around the age of fifteen, my asthma got to the point where I frequently had to use my inhaler during tennis matches and would wake up during the night, struggling to breathe. I went to a asthma and allergy specialist who blamed second-hand smoke for my breathing difficulties. Since moving to New England, where nobody smokes, my asthma has simmered a lot and I tend to only get bronchitis once, maybe twice, a year. Not everyone who is around secondhand smoke reacts the way I did, but I'm not an anomaly. I feel like most parents would be reluctant to hire a smoking nanny. The parent(s) may very well be aware that their nanny smokes, in which case they would benefit from being informed of the dangers of that. Either way, a child is being exposed to avoidable risk.

tallulahtomato said...

FOR CHRIST SAKE THE CHILD SHOULD BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE STANDING OUTSIDE OF BARNEYS NY AT THE TIME THIS HAPPENED - JUST KIDDING - WHO GIVES A CRAP IF THE WOMAN IS SMOKING AS LONG AS ITS OUTSIDE -LET ALONE AT THIS CHIC LOCATION - THERE IS NO WAY IN WHICH THE CHILD COULD BE HARMED WHILE SHE SMOKES OUTDOORS OR THAT THIS CIG. BREAK IS IMPAIRING HER JUDGEMENT OR ABILITY TO CARE FOR THIS CHILD OTHER THAN MAKING A NOT SO GOOD IMPRESSION ON ALL PERSONS AROUND!AND WHO IS THE IDIOT THAT SAID NO ONE IN NEW ENGLAND SMOKES? THATS LAUGHABLE AND... THEY DONT DRINK EITHER, DO THEY?

Anonymous said...

All caps poster- I hate reading things in all caps. Blog owner-please don't publish all caps comments.

Anonymous said...

Who's to say that the parent's aren't smokers. They would tolerate a nanny who smoked if they did it themselves.

Anonymous said...

As long as the nanny isn't smoking around the child or within smoke distance I don't see the problem. Sure its socially unacceptable but some habits are really hard to kick.

Anonymous said...

OH THE PARENTS SMOKE TO SO WHAT MIND UR BUINNESS AND GET A LIFE
U PROUBLY SMOKE POT YOURSELF!

Anonymous said...

^ It's called the CapsLock button. Try pressing it once and see the magic!

Nobody should allow their kids to be around a smoker. It's not healthy. My smoking MIL actually gets angry if anyone mentions second-hand smoke damage and its relation to asthma and other illnesses. She's that attached to her cigs and her addiction. Next time you go to the doctor, look for the poster that explains ALL the ailments directly related to first and secondhand smoke. My MIL has chronic bronchitis actually caused by smoking, but she won't acknowledge that it's bad for anyone else, not even her grandkids who stay with her weekdays and nights and are exposed to her stinking apartment (no open windows of course). And of course half of them have asthma. No surprise there.

Keep your kids away from smoke!

Anonymous said...

im a nanny and i smoke, but I would NEVER smoke in front of the children, I chew gum and have scented antibactieral hand lotion...as parents would you hire a nanny that smokes even if he/she doesnt do it EVER on the job?

Anonymous said...

Wow, this post really angered me. It is both the poster and the nanny that are the cause of this anger. First of all, the nanny shouldn't be smoking in front of the infant and if she can't handle going without a cigarette then it isn't the job for her unfortunately. The poster angered me because of the generalization. Not all smokers treat the child differently when they are not able to get a cigarette. I am a nanny and I also smoke, but I don't smoke during the day because I choose not to. Yes there are times during the day when I think I could really go for a cigarette, but that doesn't mean I would EVER let it out on the child. It upsets me to think that a person would make this generalization mearly because the person is a smoker. Especially when she did not see the nanny displaying any kind of physical(I mean second hand smoke is a form, but I mean hitting) or verbal abuse but assumed that it would be in store if she could not get a cigarette. The post in itself is good to alert the parent that their child is exposed to smoke, but in my opinion, the added comment was uncalled for.

Anonymous said...

I want you to know I am not hiding behind anonymous like you are! said...
Anonymous said...
OH THE PARENTS SMOKE TO SO WHAT MIND UR BUINNESS AND GET A LIFE
U PROUBLY SMOKE POT YOURSELF!

I cannot believe that you made the leap from smoking a ciggie, to accusing the blogger of smoking pot, you are not the one to judge anyone, that is the job of a higher power. You sound like a very angry person, and I hope to God, that you are not a nanny!!!
I could only imagine the things you would fill a small child's head with! shame on you, if you have children, I also feel bad for them, I am sure you judge them, your neighbors, etc... this site is for abusive nanny's that are seen in public, I am also betting that you judge people, that happen to do anything that annoys you and call them names, like if they wear perfume that you do not care for. I do not agree with smoking around children, but I would never tell someone else, how to conduct their lives, I used to smoke, and know how difficult it is to quit. the nanny went outside, she did her best to keep the smoke away from the child, BTW, car exhaust is poison also, should we all stop driving? or not take our children outside when cars are on the road?

report abusive behavior not your own moral opinions. and follow your own advice, "Get A Life". but please report negligent or abusive behavior, after all that is why they went to the trouble to make this site, to help parents. (still laughing that you had the nerve to say mind your own business lol)

P. S. when telling someone to mind their own business, it comes across better when you spell business and probably correctly.

Anonymous said...

Personally cigarette smoke is you own preferance. I do not care for children if their parents smoked, my parents both smoke and my 3 siblings and I have respiratory issues from smoking I have asthma,and a lot of allergies. If the parents want a smoker to watch their children then that is fine, that is there perogative. Granted they will have to pay in the long run with inhalers and allergy meds and humidifiers but that is them. Children did not come with a book!!!!!!!! So in chapter 6 pg 79 it does not say do not smoke within 500 ft of a child.
Thanks - Mandy

Anonymous said...

Our nanny smokes, 4 or 5 cig a day. As long as she goes outside (to the balcony) and washes her hands when she comes back I am fine with it. Do you still think it is a problem?