Received Friday, May 4, 2007
Yesterday, May 2 at approximately 4PM a very young Nanny, Caucasian, Blond Hair, 5’3”, young- maybe 23? Allowed her young charge, about 1 year old, to run up and down the hallway of her apartment building of 831 SW Vista Avenue, Portland Oregon, while wearing only a diaper- the hallways are very cold, I myself was wearing several layers of clothing. I actually stood and aloud wondered “Where is the person in charge of this young boy?” I hear vacuuming coming from the apartment down the hall, and went to go find out what was going on. This nanny was vacuuming and cleaning her apartment with the door open and told me that she had purposely let this child run free in the hallways while she was cleaning her apartment…on her employers time. I admonished her that this was not okay to let this child room free like an animal! She continued her cleaning and otherwise ignoring of this child, and allowed the child to continue to run up and down the halls in a building full of strangers. I fear for the safety of this child, the nanny was oblivious to anything but her cleaning, it was like she told him to go play in traffic. You should fire this nanny.
I AGREE WITH YOU 100%....
ReplyDeleteDont you have anything better to do
ReplyDelete"I admonished her that this was not okay to let this child room free like an animal!"
ReplyDeleteMy dog would'a been on a leash.
Babies in diapers ARE dressed and hallways are for running.
Maybe you should vacuum your place?
While I do appreciate that you sent in this story (because I get bummed when I sign on here and there are no bad stories), I do wonder why you didn't slip an anonymous note under her door? If you saw her cleaning-you know where she lives. Never fail. Print out this and slip it under the door.
ReplyDeleteNothing that a good PUBLIC STONING couldn't change.
ReplyDelete1:39 and 2:03, i am shocked that anyone thinks this is acceptable behavior! any one of the other tenants in the building could have ran off with the child or taken them into their apartment! wearing just a diaper is NOT being dressed and yes 1:39, i'm sure she had plenty of other things to be doing, but she chose to let the nanny know this was not ok and post on this blog in hopes that the parents would see it! there are a lot of sick people in this world that would not hesitate for a second to snatch a child!
ReplyDeleteI love to admonish people.
ReplyDeleteI live to admonish people.
Why don't these people ever cross my path? I would give them an ear full.
It's a good post.
ReplyDeleteIt's another bad nanny.
of course all parents are exceptional and never do anything and I do mean nothing questionable during their child rearing days
ReplyDeletedude,
ReplyDeletesometimes i have to mail a package. maybe it is a box of socks and a picture frame and a crate of dates. maybe. so maybe i package it all up and put it in my car to take it to the shipping store. Then I forget about it for two days. Then I make it inside the shipping store but I trip on the box first and step on it.
Ok? Are you following me?
Dude, pretend the package is a child. Call The Post Office they pick up at your house. And they don't trip on and step on your stuff. Or leave it in their car for two days. I can do whatever I want with my package. But when I pay someone else to do it, they best damn do their job.
7:32 PM
ReplyDeleteGood analogy. I'd like to add that overnight express registered costs more than regular snail mail. And so with nannies, you get what you pay for. Believe me, the bad nannies reported on this site are lowly paid off the books women who are not professional nannies.
If it was cold in the hall, a little body will lose heat fast and should be dressed.
ReplyDeleteMore worrisome is: was there an elevator or open flight of stairs in the hall? I bet there was. Could a nanny vacuuming her apartment hear the child rolling down the stairs or the ding of the elevator? I bet she couldn't.
Express air mail is super exp. I think if your going to pay for the best shipping you wouldnt have to worry about the post office leaving it on your stoop
ReplyDeleteHousewife, I really hope you are not a mom. Seriously. Allowing a child to run in the hallways of a house, ok. In an apartment? Big no no. And a diper IS dressed? What part of HICKVILLE are you from? As a mother, I would not allow my child to run around in a cold hallway in a diper. The child was probalbly barefoot, too. I don't even want to think about how dirty apartment hallway carpets are!!! And JMT is right, what if there were a stairwell or elevator the child had access to? Ugh, bad nannies suck!!
ReplyDeleteI think Housewife meant:
ReplyDeletemy trailer hallway is for running
a little paranoid i might say? the baby has a diaper on and babies usually run around and if the nanny could see him/her then whats the big deal?
ReplyDeletea baby in a diaper only is so trashy. so disgusting. ewww.
ReplyDeletei think that a baby in a diaper is fine, depending on where they are. I don't think it is 'eww disgusting' I find that statement to be terribly rude. A child is an innocent being and a free spirit, if you are at home or in your front yard on a warm summer day, your baby is fine in a diaper. Think how much more comfortable that child is other than in too tight pants squeezing their sensitive bellies.
ReplyDeleteI think you have too much time on your hands and are too judgemental.
ReplyDelete757 and 450: The big deal is that, according to the OP, it was "very cold" in the hallway so the baby was underdressed, and the nanny couldn't see the baby because she was inside vacuuming while the baby was running up and down the hall unsupervised. If there were open stairs the baby could have fallen down, or if there was an elevator the baby could have gotten on it or fallen between the doors and down the shaft like several young children have done so far this year in NYC. At the very least the baby may have been disturbing neighbors with its noise, which is rude.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who uses the expression, "lays out" is too lowbrow to have a nanny. People who cannot afford nannies, hire immigrant and unskilled, uneducated women and hand them the title of nanny. It is these miserable middle class people that are responsible for our parks being packed with psuedo nannies!
ReplyDeleteI don't have a friend among me that has a nanny less than sublime.
If you don't like the way your nanny behaves... get off your lazy hind end and watch them yourself!
ReplyDeleteactually, if you don't like the way your nanny does her job and you FIND OUT, FIRE HER and hire a better nanny. Better nannies are everywhere. Poach one if you have to. Why should your child be stuck with a miserable sap?
ReplyDelete"I don't have a friend among me that has a nanny less than sublime."
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a few friends with more class than you have demonstrated here.
I realize that this is an old posting but, I really do have to comment on some of these postings.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I can not believe that people in Portland would think that is it ok to let a child of any age run up and down the hallway of an apartment building. There could be elderly tenants, tenants that work nights and are trying to sleep, and anyone else that the child could be disturbing. I understand that the child has rights to but, the nanny should take that child(with clothes on) to a park to run around. If she had to clean she should do it while the child was taking a nap or put in a educational dvd in for him to watch or give him some toys to play with while she cleaned.
Second, A diaper alone is not dressed. The only place a diaper alone is ok, in my opinion is inside your house, not the front yard, inside the house. I think of the diaper as the childs underware and you would not go out in your front yard with just your underware on or run up and down the hallway in just your underware.
Next, I dont think you should compare a package for shipping with your child. I would hope you would treat your child better then that. I would expect myself to treat my child better then a caregiver. Of course I dont have many non-related caregivers for my children. The ones I do have are very good friends and are as close or closer then my family.
Last, I could not imagine having a child and not raising them myself anyways. Children are a gift and they will be grown and gone before you know it. One day you will wake up and they will be moving out and getting married and you will be wondering what happened with thier childhood. I understand somepeople have to get caregivers for their children and I am not judging them. I am talking about the ones that choose to have a caregiver before they even get pregnant. they never intended to be a parent. From very early on someone else was raising their children. They are the ones that I have a problem with.
It really would not have taken a long time to put a pair of pants and a shirt on that child. Please take better care of the children.
I AM THIS NANNY!
ReplyDeleteAnd YOU are the dirty wench I told my boss about later that afternoon.
This is the story:
I bring the kiddo (who was 2 at the time, btw) to my home sometimes during the day. It's a nice change of scenery, especially in Portland, where it's often drizzly and going to the library every day gets old. The apartment building I live(d) in is secure: requires a key to enter, has only 8 or so apartments on each floor, and most of the tenants are gone during the day. Doors to the stairs and elevator are a struggle for ME to open, much less a 2 year old.
So I bring him over this May day, and I let him play in the hallway while I have my door open, so that if I peek my head out, I can always see him. Perhaps the vacuuming wasn't the best decision, I'll give you that. As for the diaper, the kid likes to run around without clothes. It wasn't cold enough to pose any sort of threat, and I always ask him if he wants clothes, and when he's cold he goes for them. Not a big deal.
So he's singing and doing his little thing down the hall, when this late-20s girl shows up in my doorway.
And contrary to what she says in her post, she did NOT "admonish" me.
"Um, does this belong to you?" she says, pointing with disgust at the happy kid.
"Are you making friends?" I coo to the smiling kid who says, "hi!" She, meanwhile, looks at me as though I've just suggested she be friendly with Osama Bin Laden.
I tell her I'm his nanny, I know where he is, and she leaves.
We continue in our merry ways.
She comes back thirty seconds later. "Um, I have a friend over," she says.
"Oh!" I say. "I'm sorry-- was he knocking on your door?" thinking the little guy was disturbing her.
She snorts and looks at me with contempt. "No, I'm just not a... fan." Incredibly rude, I dismiss her as some person who hates kids.
Regardless, I bring the kid inside and we continue with our merry day.
Later that day, I tell my boss (who has been to my apartment and had told me previously, "it probably gives you a good chance to clean while he's there") about the whole ordeal, and she groans and we agree that the neighbor is a bitch and some people just.don't.like.kids and have to let you know.
A few days later, my apartment manager runs into me in the hall and, rolling his eyes by the way, he tells me that a distraught neighbor said she saw the kid running around in the hall and told him about it in hopes that he could "do something about that."
In short: given the parenting method of the parents I work for as well as the openness with which I tell them about our day (in detail), along with the natural consequences outlined by Rudolf Dreikurs in his book, The Challenge: Children (this in direct reference to the child's dress or lack thereof), I did nothing wrong.
Well, except that after that day, whenever the kid and I walked passed this woman's apartment, we made a point to stomp loudly. That, I admit, was wrong.
Fire me.
Oh darling,
ReplyDeleteI can't fire you...
I would never hire you!
The only reason I tend to believe this is real is that you seem to be okay with justifying taking someone else's child and letting him roam half naked among strangers. I cannot believe you have a job. You are not a real nanny, that is for certain!
The child should never have been alone in the hallway, never should have been half naked and a REAL NANNY would never take her charge to her house so she could clean her home!!
Are you seriously still employed?
Your employer has to be DESEPERATE
1:52 am, it is really nice of you to come forward. Every story has two sides to it. IMHO I do not think you handled the situation really well, though, but I think this is really up to your employer to decide.
ReplyDeleteHow funny it is that the nanny came to this site...even funnier that the OP was fibbing about 'admonishing' her.
ReplyDeleteMany of you consider nannying to be so low class that you feel you have the right to belittle caregivers. If they are so low class- what do you consider your children to be??? A question I ask myself frequently- you can't think too highly of them can you.
It is quite obvious that the parents approve of the way this nanny handled this child- who are you to judge?
You wouldn't hire her??? It is highly likely you can't afford one.
Or perhaps there is none who will work for you.
You seek out a nanny based on your own standards maam.
I was once on a job and the father (who didn't want to give me much credit) pointed out that his older son had a great nanny- when his mother was praising my work.
He continued 'even though she didn't get down on the floor with him, and didn't teach him anything.'
I was appalled. It was quite apparent to me that clearly they could not appreciate me. Oh, they knew I was a good nanny but the lack of appreciation finally wore me thin.
I was eventually poached by a family in Portland and here I am...and thankfully they can appreciate my hard work- afterall they boast a lot about me to everyone. Finally! a family worth working for
831 SW Vista Ave, Portland, OR 97205 is linked to a scammer phone number.. me and many others in the portland area are getting repeated unsolicited calls from a scammer that wants you to give information over the phone to buy cheap insurance.. which ofcourse is BS.
ReplyDelete