Received Tuesday, May 22, 2007
I was at Central Park this afternoon when a nanny, apparently in an attempt to answer repeated phone calls from her boyfriend, turned her back on her child and allowed the child to leave the play area. The child exited the play area by the grassy area nearest the 79Th Street entrance to the park. The nanny gathered her friends and they started walking around and calling out for "Isabelle" and asking any of us if we had seen the TWO YEAR OLD child. The child was found down by the duck pond by a STRANGER. The child's showed up in tears. If you are familiar with this area of the Park, then you realize the distance from the play area and the duck pond is easily a football field and half! I did not get a chance to speak to the mother who showed up at the park in tears. When the child was found, she was grateful, still upset and sobbing. She left holding her little girl. I hope that Isabelle's mother realizes that this was indeed a nanny error. The nanny was in charge of ONE child. One small child. And she could not handle that? I just read the Rite Aid post so I thought I would share this story with you. It happens all of the time. Don't wait for something to happen. Surprise your nanny at the park, drop in on your daycare provider, double back home and see how things are when no one expects you to be around. I am very happy for Isabelle and her mother. I don't want anyone else to have to get a phone call from a negligent nanny saying, "I lost your daughter."
15 comments:
I am beyond shocked that the nanny would turn her back on a 2 year old. Granted, they are fast little buggers, but not THAT fast that the baby could go that far so quickly. Once again a nanny was grossly negligent. Not only that, but why woudn't the nanny call the police FIRST before calling the mother? Time is valuable when a child goes missing. Common sense.
Thank Goodness the stranger was not a pervy predator. Luck was on her/their side.
Is it that hard to simply pick up the kid and hold her while answering the cell phone. People who can't peform this simple task should not use cell phones. I am actually pissed. There is nothing worse than a parent crying his or her eyes out at the thought that they lost their little one. A friend of mine had to be sedated when her kid was killed in an accident.
Things like this can happen so quickly. In the case of one so young, it is important not to let them out of your sight. I once lost my daughter in JC Penney's, the worst twenty minutes or so of my life. When I found her she was sitting up on one of the counters with a sales clerk, having been found by two nuns.
My mom lost me in a Sears & Roebuck Department Store. They paged her and she was at the candy counter. She waited to have her french burnt peanuts weighed and paid for them and then she came to retrieve me from customer service. My therapist suspects this is the root of my abandonment issues.
How do you know that? She volunteered the info? I think she would have been better off to just leave the store and never look back. You are clearly nutz.
S:
You poor thing. Your mom should get a bag of French burned peanuts for mother's day every year, since those candies meant so much to her.
My parents lost my brother in one of the World Trade Centers, many years ago... I'd guess 1989 They had three of us, and had split up, each one thinking the other had my brother Scott. When they realized it my Dad slid down the middle of the two escalators and found him where he was last seen, staring at a big boat structure in glass (I think that's how the story goes). Its scary to think of all the things that could have happened. It can happen to anyone, but it shouldn't!
My friend and I "lost" my daughter in a park. I had just had my 2nd and was trying to figure out how to watch my high-energy first while breastfeeding the newbie. My friend offered to watch my oldest while I concentrated on the baby. Poof! She was gone. As soon as I asked "where did ___ go?" and got a panicked look from my friend, I called the cops. I mean, literally, I dialed and spoke to 911 as I went dashing across the park. I'll never forget the feeling. It was horrible. I found her playing in the sandbox very far from where she started out. I sobbed my guts out. I couldn't look at my friend for a long time after that, and I would never allow her to watch even my pet turtle knowing that my daughter could have been gone forever that day.
That nanny should be dismissed and not given a reference.
S-that made me laugh, thanks!
and I still like my French burndt peanuts
I just wanted to say from a different side that sometimes these things happen...as a lot of you have mentioned you were once "lost" and that was with your own parents...we don't always know the full story. I in-fact, was briefly lost in a store as a child with my mom, and my mom was an amazing mother...kids don't always listen and sometimes just take off.
A couple of years a go I was nannying for a little boy after a recent injury (a severely dislocated ankle) he was 3 years old, and in that very defiant stage. We were at a park where off to the side their was a HUGE steep hill that led into a Forrest area. Even with my ankle hurt I did not sit down once at the park and was helping him climb up the the little jungle jim, when he asked me to go on the swings. I helped him down to walk with him over to the swings, and asked him to hold my hand to walk over to the swings because they were on the other side of the park and it was our rule to always hold hands walking outside, any way he screamed "no" and promptly took off up the steep hill and into the forrest (I suspect because he knew it was off limits, so it intrigued him--but it was off limits because it was a dangerous area for a little guy with tons of forrest and fallen trees etc) to make a long story short he was 10 times faster than me and even though I hobbled up the hill as fast as I could I still managed to lose him, and chase him in a blind panic all around this HUGE park. I was terrified he was going to get hurt, my heart was racing, and I was imagining strangers behind every tree...I was calling his name and begging him to stop practically in tears. Finally I turned a bend and he was standing their laughing hysterically. I picked him up and explained to him that what he did was wrong (he did not listen when I said no, and had put himself into danger and because he didn't listen we needed to leave) I then left the park carrying him screaming (he didn't want to leave) but he had to know that running a way was dangerous and that if he ran a way we wouldn't play at the park that day. Perhaps, if you'd only seen the end of this scenario you would have jumped on me. I did in-fact, have a woman glare at me as I left the park (she only witnessed the end where he was begging to stay at the park and I took him out any way), and it hurt because I have always taken my job so seriously that people ALWAYS mistake me for the children I care for's parent. What you wouldn't know and what she didn't know, is that I was constantly supervising the child, and did not even turn my back for a minute, he simply out ran me, and he was only crying because I cared enough to let him know that their are consequences for our actions. It was in fact very hard for me to make him leave even after misbehaving because I cared so much about him and felt bad, but I knew I had to because I have trouble with discipline (I'm a softy) and it was teaching him he could get a way with what ever he wanted. I have never been so scared in my life, a lot of Nannies DO CARE!
4:14AM, Sounds like you are WAY BETTER than the cell phone addicted nanny. You were paying attention to your charge, whereas the nanny in the post chose to chat on the phone. The bottom line is, YOU kept and eye on the rebellious kid at all times, whereas this nanny didn't. The kid you took care of is actually very lucky that his nanny was not a cell phone crazed person.
I had a charge about 6 yrs old and he was getting a book in full view and i was swith his siblingl. i told him where i was and he could see me. but he sat away from me but still in view. at one paoint i got up to get a book and he got up soon after didnt see me and started to search the store. i was behind a shelf of books he didnt see me so he went to the end of the store searching. He didnt call out my name and when i couldnt find him i panicked slighgytly but inwardly. i calmly searched th store with the assureance that the guard would never allow him to reach the store. as i got back to where we were before i met him with a smile. wher were you he asked and i ansered right here where were you. he said he went to end of store. i asked why didnt the guard see you. i hid from him he said. i was so proud of him. he did what i always taught him. dont talk t strangers, always come back to the scene of the crime, dont get scared too fast, check first. btw he is an extremely intelligent individual. we hugged one another and spend he weeked otgether. i explained him again that he was not suppose dto leave where i told him to stay in full view of me because i would never leave him.
I was lucky when I took my nephew out at this age. He wouldn't let whoever he was with out of his sight. We went to the video store and the manager we've known since before he was even thought of much less conceived lol was clearly in his view but he started screaming bloody murder cause he wasn't in our direct sight. I took to singing softly when we went to the small library so he could play and hear me but stay in the kids area. He was never one to wander off and the best behaved of the bunch :)
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