Tuesday

A Nanny's Tale

Received Tuesday, May 22, 2007
I should have known, when I went to interview, that it wasn't going to be a good job.

"We've had five different nannies in the last four months, we've had to dismiss each of them, and we're just looking for someone to provide the kids with a little stability in their lives."

It should have been a red flag. I can understand firing one nanny. Or two. But five in four months? This had to be some kind of bad nanny record.

But it was January, it was Wisconsin, and the electric company had just sent a very nasty note to my third-floor, drafty walkup apartment. And I did love kids. Besides, I'd been temping for a year and was "between" horrific office slave temp jobs -- at least being a nanny had its perks. Like not paying income taxes.

Whether I got the job because the interview went well or because they'd exhausted the town's nanny supply, I'll never know. The next week, though, I met my three charges.

One was named after his father, so let's call him "Junior." The middle child, a girl, was named after a borough of New York, and the youngest girl was named a bizarre hillbilly name. Junior was four, Borough was three, and Hillbilly was 18 months old.

I soon learned that the procession of nannies had made the kids holy terrors. They were used to getting what they wanted, when they wanted it, and if I didn't give it to them, they all had strategies. Borough would stand in the middle of the hardwood floors and pee if she got really angry. Hillbilly would let out a wail that could have brought the police department.

But Junior had things down pat. "I want oreos."

"But it's breakfast time."

"I WANT OREOS NOW."

"We can have oreos after lunch if you want. Lunch is at 12:30. That's not very long! We'll watch The Lion King and play a game, and then it'll be lunch time. Then we can have Oreos."

He'd glare. "I don't like you."

"That's just fine, Junior. You don't have to like me. But I like you, no matter what!"

"No, you DON'T understand. I don't LIKE you. I'm going to tell MY PARENTS that you're a BAD NANNY."

Pretty slick for a four year old, but he didn't get his way and I didn't have to suffer the shame of being bullied by a toddler.

Three weeks later, the parents announced that they were traveling to Whistler, British Columbia, for a vacation. Whistler happens to be my favorite spot in the world, so I hoped they'd take me and the kids with...but no. I was to stay with the kids in Wisconsin for seven days, 24 hours a day. However, the parents promised, there would be a "sizable" bonus upon my return.

All my objections were shoved aside by the prospect of a bonus. How much would it be? $1000? More? I could finally fix my car's radiator! I was giddy with the thought of having dinner out, or seeing a movie, with my newfound fortune.

Once the week began, though, my worst fears were realized. The kids had never been away from Mommy and Daddy for more than a day before -- and they thought that if they were evil enough, Mommy and Daddy would have to come back, if for no other reason than to punish them.

The week is a blur, I've blocked most of it out -- I do have a memory of waking at 4 AM to discover that the three of them had emptied every cosmetic, perfume, and lotion in their mother's bathroom onto the floor. The smell could have knocked out elephants. I remember Junior and Borough destroying their closets and the hallway linen closet, leaving clothing and towels strewn around the house. I remember getting 3 hours of sleep a night as I tried to clean up after them, since they absolutely refused to clean up themselves. On the last day, they were worse than ever. As much as I cleaned, they could make messes twice as fast. They wouldn't let me get near them to dress them or brush their hair, and since I didn't want to get child abuse charges, I couldn't even grab them to hold them still.

Then, the parents got home, and I got my check -- for the EXACT SAME AMOUNT I usually got, every week. "Given the condition of the house when we returned," the dad said, "we didn't feel that a bonus was appropriate."

I went home and cried.

I came back to work the next day. I had nowhere better to go. At 11 AM, the phone rang. I let the machine pick it up. A female voice was on the other end of the line:

"Hey, I was wondering if you'd put the ad in the paper for the new nanny yet? I think it needs to be done A-S-A-P, you know? I mean, I can't BELIEVE she'd leave your beautiful towels unfolded in the linen closet! And you say Borough's hair wasn't even brushed when you got back? How terrible! You've had just the WORST luck with nannies! Give me a call when you get home, ta-ta!"

I stood there, shaking. I had taken care of their children, essentially for free, for an entire week. I had been utterly taken advantage of, and now they wanted to fire me. And I still had nowhere better to go, and nothing better to do than wait for the inevitable.

Two days later, they let me go. "We expected a nurturing, loving home for our children when we're gone. We expected more than just mediocre care," said the dad.

My contract called for severance pay. I never got a dime of it.

The next day, I went to a pawn shop in another town, another county. I got five hundred dollars for a very state-of-the-art, very expensive camera. It was a camera I could never have afforded myself. That night, I went to a movie, and I ate crab legs at a real restaurant. I bought myself a pillow that wouldn't make my neck hurt. I fixed the radiator on my car.

In the end, I got my bonus out of them after all.

81 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shame on you, nanny-thief.
You took a shitty job, deal with it. Nothing gives you the right to steal. Take them to small claims court for your severance (since you were too stupid to put your bonus in writing), but stealing and fencing the stolen item(s) doesn't make you a hero in this little tale.
Sounds like you ALL deserved each other.

Anonymous said...

That was a great little piece - I bet it helped to get it out on paper.

Even though JMT is a bratty little snot, I do have to agree somewhat - you should've figured out the bonus BEFORE the vacation. And keeping other people's kids for a week? Yikes.

Anonymous said...

Someone made up this story to see how people would react. People are so gullible, do you believe everything you hear and read! Even if it were true, who cares, the people were a-holes and their kids will get through it with lots of therapy, drugs, and booze.

Anonymous said...

I have had nannies working for me for 16 years. And I have heard stories that would make you shake in your shoes. This is nothing!
You must be six degrees seperated from anyone who has a nanny or is a nanny- or you would know that!

Anonymous said...

But despite all the horror stories about bad nannies--my own first attempt at a nanny-share, a few months ago, resulted in our hiring someone who turned out to be a pathological liar and possibly a con artist--the deepest fear of some parents is actually that their nanny might be "too good." (I've heard of families who switch nannies every year or so to prevent the children from becoming too attached.) "Fall into a truly bad nanny, and you'll lose the children to a grisly death," muses Andie, the mother in Benjamin Cheever's new novel, The Good Nanny. "Fall into a truly marvelous nanny, and you'll just lose them."
-Ruth Franklin, Nanny State

Anonymous said...

I don't like this story. No matter what happens it's not okay to steal. It is the nannies fault she didnt sign a contract or communicate with the family. Stealing is wrong no matter what and it's this kind of stuff that gives nannies a bad name.

Anonymous said...

GOOD FOR YOU...
BUT VERY SAD FOR THE KIDS...WHAT HORRIBLE GROWN UPS THEY WILL BECOME BECAUSE OF THIS ROTTEN, ROTTER PARENTS......CHILD NEGLECT AND ABBUSE...

Selena said...

IF this story is true, then it's partly the nannies fault for not having a contract that specifically outlined overtime and anything like this situation. But seriously.. what kind of parents leave their 3 small children with a stranger for an entire week?

Selena said...

PS.. you admitted to theft, so if they or someone they know sees this you're screwed.

Anonymous said...

I hated that book "The Good Nanny". The mom and dad characters were awful and the book was just depressing.

Anonymous said...

I was very disturbed by this story... There are many rthings the nanny should have done differently, notably gotten everything in writing! Also, maybe video taped the chidlren being michevious so then the parents couldn't balme it on her. But hey hindsight's 20/20 right?

The parents were horid, the kids were worse, and the nanny was clueless.

Anonymous said...

Say what you like about me, 11:58, but I'm not the cowardly bully hiding behind "anonymous" while attacking people.

Anonymous said...

To JMT: shame on you for being boring. Get off the site. We're sick of you.
To the OP: good for you. Those asses deserved it.

Anonymous said...

Wait! That's not the end! Are you back to temping at "horrific" office jobs? That would be poetic justice.

Anonymous said...

Are you telling me some asshole named their kid Borough?

Anonymous said...

This is what I am reading from this:

-Inexperienced nanny takes crappy job becuase she is to lazy to do research on what makes a good nanny job

-Woman who bounces around from job to job gets fired, big surprise when she has no control over the children and does not have any experience with children

-Stealing nanny, I would fire her too

-Lets kids watch TV and play games all day, not very structured

-Does not hear the children dumping everything out untill it is done...this may have taken time, once again, a sign of someone who should not have had the job in the first place.

Anonymous said...

No, the kid's name was Brooklyn. She worked for Posh Spice.

Anonymous said...

So JMT is boring? Yeah, she's a boring, upstanding, good citizen concerned about the welfare of children. You could take a lesson, 347.

Anonymous said...

No, they named their girl after one of the NYC boroughs. I'm guessing "Brooklyn".
So if there are awful parents in Wisconsin with the oldest boy named after the dad, the middle girl named Brooklyn and the baby boy named Billy Bob (or something hillbilly), WAKE UP your nanny has stolen from you and admitted to it. Go file charges (when you're not away on vacation).

Anonymous said...

And to the "anonymous" idiot:
"Get off the site. We're sick of you."
My work is done! I have annoyed you to the point of ultimatums.
I'm not going anywhere. And by "we" I'm sure you mean just you. No one else on this site would be that rude, and assume that their personal beliefs are true for EVERYONE. So stop imposing your values on all of us, open up your ears and maybe you'll learn something. Or not. So far you sound like a lost cause.

Anonymous said...

think this is obviously fiction, and quite entertaining!

Anonymous said...

Because it is written with proper punctuation, it has to be fiction?
Oh how little you know! Nannies with posion pens are the most dangerous nannies of all. I would never hire a nanny with too much savy!

Anonymous said...

What a BS story! Honestly who could believe this? It's not even a good read!! Hmmmm why don't you try another story..this one gets one star from me.

Anonymous said...

I don't think this story is fiction: it reeks of truth.
I feel bad for the nanny and I sort of think those people deserved having their camera stolen, although it's not really right to steal. In that situation, I would not have stolen and I would have quit sooner. And I never would have agreed to stay for their vaca bonus or not, but I can see how someone in financial hardship would do that.
Jmt, I also think you can be quite boring at times.

Anonymous said...

I call bullshit on all you naysayers. Those people were horrible and got exactly what they deserved. If I had a client like this, I would have done the EXACT same thing. Clearly you stupid parents and your ridiculous sense of entitlement means that you think you can use and abuse people with your bratty, spoiled, nasty children. I feel sorry for the nanny, but more so, I feel sorry for you idiotic parents that think that she was in the wrong. Puh-lease.

Anonymous said...

I call bullshit on all you naysayers. Those people were horrible and got exactly what they deserved. If I had a client like this, I would have done the EXACT same thing. Clearly you stupid parents and your ridiculous sense of entitlement means that you think you can use and abuse people with your bratty, spoiled, nasty children. I feel sorry for the nanny, but more so, I feel sorry for you idiotic parents that think that she was in the wrong. Puh-lease.

Anonymous said...

I agree w/ the "anonymous idiot" that jmt should get off the site.

Also, poster, good for you for stealing the camera and getting what you deserve, bc no matter how many small claims you filed you would never have seen your money. Those rich folk are manipulative sob's. Good riddance!

Anonymous said...

A gay hillbilly?

Jane Doe said...

JMT's comments are an asset to this blog.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Jane Doe, and JMT hates me.

Anonymous said...

jane doe is boring too.

Anonymous said...

That's the best you've got? Boring?
How rich.

I buy the nanny's story. However, regardless of how awful the people were she worked for, a thief or theiver in general; well it's just so low. I certainly wouldn't be bragging about it.

Anonymous said...

I think some interlopers were about today, sprinkling their accusations of being boring while they, themselves, had nothing interesting to say. Just insults.

Anonymous said...

JD u don't have to take that, u know

Anonymous said...

Nanny, you just incriminated yourself. Just because you worked for a bunch of demons does not mean that you should steal from them to punish them. Their punishment is already in the works. They are molding their children into psychopaths who will be in jail for life as soon as they hit 17 years old.

Psychopath:
A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/psychopath

Anonymous said...

Who's the psychopath?

Anonymous said...

JMT is not boring! You may not always agree with JMT, and JMT may not always agree with you, but JMT IS NOT BORING. Please don't be so hateful. Lets debate without trying to bully each other off of Jane Doe's site.

Anonymous said...

The parents in the posted story are raising their kids to be psychopaths. Very sad.

Anonymous said...

It's certainly a sign of a lack of intelligence when anonymous posters attack on a blog. Seriously!

Anonymous said...

I doubt JMT's a very boring person, and in fact, she's probably somewhat off a party animal. She doesn't mind acknowdedging her liking for a drink or two!

Anonymous said...

OP you made your own justice and felt entitled. Still, your lack of integrity was appalling.

Anonymous said...

watch out for Karma

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love it...a theiving nanny. We've had whores, nannies that actually PLAY with their charges, parents who leave their kids in a hotel room and now a clepto nanny. This blog is wonderful. This makes for a good Jerry Springer show!

Anonymous said...

I always liked jmt...

Anonymous said...

I'll bet the nannies and mothers would really have a go at it

Anonymous said...

i doubt the authenticity of this...but providing its true...you shouldve taken more than a camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

As a mother of three who has employed six nannies in my lifetime, I have to say that the naysayers have me chuckling! I had a nanny who retrieved all of my credit cards from my bedroom and went shopping at every store. These were a wide range of credit cards, all department stores, including Sears, Limited, Express, etc. Total spree= $6,000 (approx).
I also had a nanny who seemed great with the children but my husband kept complaining that he was short on cash. He set up a home video camera in his closet and low and behold, nanny comes in and rifles through his pants and jacket pockets. 2/6 of my nannies were thiefs. 1/6 was a lunatic who went in to our medicine cabinet and took whatever she could get her hands on, including ADD meds which she crushed up and snorted. She admitted this all and asked for help. After 4 months working for us, we simply gave her walking papers. Of the remaining three nannies, we had a sweet young girl from Kansas who was wonderful but so homesick that she would burst in to tears on a daily basis and often frightened the children. 1 nanny was pretty good and we looked the other way when she had her boyfriend climb in her window at night. Out of 6 nannies, I had one great experience. Wondering what happened to her? A good "friend" of mine reccomended her to a celebrity pal of hers. She ended up taking the job. We couldn't fault her, the pay, perks and travel were amazing.

So to summarize, a nanny who steals a digital camera and brags about it in her "I win" manifesto is hardly shocking.

Anonymous said...

Im not sure if anyone is legally savvy on this site but... I would not go as far as to say that was an admission of guilt.. she didnt actually say WHERE she got the camera from... she may have implied it... but... honestly... legally... that is a long shot...

I must make this anonymous bc i dont have a user account. -marie

but honestly.. im not a huge believer in stealing either... but, it is unfair to assume that everyone "knows" about their rights, contracts, and the law.. I can not honestly say that I blame her. I can say that I wouldnt do it. But.. who am I to pass judgement?

Anonymous said...

It's funny that some posters are blaming the nanny .. What they feel to realize , is that each child is a one time creation , a special gift ... Would you treat your landrover or your house / apt cheaply if it needed repairing ... Why not take the same care applied to material possesions to your children . You want the nanny to watch the kids for a week , so give her 1000 to $2000..

No i am not a nanny , and if i was and had to watch kids like those, immediatley i would have called the mother and father , and told her to come home and i am out. But i can say this , because i have no need to do this type of profession ,but when poor people need money , which most nannies are ( how many nanny mcphees or mary poppins type are around) ,dealing with kids seem to be a easy alternative to easy money .

How can people have kids and not be able to take care of them? you will always run the risk of a nanny being bad ... It is up to you as a parent to initiate the necessary check and balance procedures to protect your investment .

Anonymous said...

It's funny that some posters are blaming the nanny .. What they feel to realize , is that each child is a one time creation , a special gift ... Would you treat your landrover or your house / apt cheaply if it needed repairing ... Why not take the same care applied to material possesions to your children . You want the nanny to watch the kids for a week , so give her 1000 to $2000..

No i am not a nanny , and if i was and had to watch kids like those, immediatley i would have called the mother and father , and told her to come home and i am out. But i can say this , because i have no need to do this type of profession ,but when poor people need money , which most nannies are ( how many nanny mcphees or mary poppins type are around) ,dealing with kids seem to be a easy alternative to easy money .

How can people have kids and not be able to take care of them? you will always run the risk of a nanny being bad ... It is up to you as a parent to initiate the necessary check and balance procedures to protect your investment .

Anonymous said...

11:46 (but when poor people need money , which most nannies are ( how many nanny mcphees or mary poppins type are around) ,dealing with kids seem to be a easy alternative to easy money). Bull crap!. I have 2 degrees, am working on another one and I could be making twice as much money as I am now. I could also not be doing all the housework and taking care of 2 toddlers at the same time. My oldest is 3 and can already read. Where do you get off saying that we are all poor and therefore we must take this profession to make easy money. Do you know that is would be so much easier for me to go back to working in an office than dealing with throw up and diarrea. Don't presume to think that good nannies are poor and therefore we have no choice but to take this job. I love my job, I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Its not always about the money people.

Anonymous said...

1:04,
you sound kind of psychotic.
If you are such an educated nanny, why are you doing housework?
My nanny made $72K on the books last year and we pay her health insurance and she doesn't do laundry.

I find it hard to believe you have as many options as you suggest.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a case of getting what you pay for (or what you deserve).

The parents obviously didn't care about finding a qualified, professional nanny. They have no one to blame but themselves. They hired an incompetent, unqualified, unethical woman to care for their children. What did they expect?

At the same time, the poster has no one to blame but herself for her predicament. She had no experience with children and didn't take the job seriously. She allowed herself to be totally overwhelmed after accepting a job and responsibilities with no contract, work agreement or even verbal agreement regarding compensation. That is just common sense. Under what circumstances would a thinking person agree to work around the clock for a week without first establishing compensation? And any "nanny" who sees being paid under the table as a PERK has serious issues. (I would NEVER work for a family who wanted to pay me under the table.) When she realized that she got screwed, she should have cut her losses and walked away wiser -- WITHOUT any belongings not her own. The fact that she seems to be proud of her unethical, illegal behavior only further proves that she should never be entrusted with the care of anyone's children.

Anon 11:46 -- there are plenty of poor (often illegal) women working in domestic positions. But professional nannies are well-compensated and usually are well-educated with plenty of career options. I have a degree in journalism and political science from one of the nation's top public universities. I've worked as a reporter and a lobbyist in Washington. I nanny because I love it. I was looking for a teaching job when I was offered my current nanny position, making substantially more than I would make as a teacher. I love my job and my employers routinely tell me I have exceeded all their expectations. As I said earlier...you get what you pay for.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Nanny B. I too am a nanny (who for 1:04 made $125 000 last year with full medical and dental too,so your nanny is not the only one who does not do laundry). I could also be in a different job but I choose to be a nanny too. And to the original poster, people do not become a nanny "as an excuse for not paying taxes". We do it for the job satisfaction and enjoyment.

Anonymous said...

Nanny thieves do not rule!

Anonymous said...

It seems there are a lot of parents on here who don't understand what a professional nanny is. We are not poor people who take the job because it is "easy money". Most of us are college graduates, many with degrees in early childhood education. We work on the books for decent salaries, pay our taxes, love our jobs, and work hard to give our charges the best possible care. And we don't steal!
Irregardless of what her employers called her, the OP was not a nanny! What were they thinking when they hired someone so unqualified? Probably that they could take advantage of her ignorance of contracts, overnight arrangements etc.,and they did.

Anonymous said...

OP:

So are we to buy the fact that the family was a bad, bad family, and you are a good person?

Guess what? Good people don't steal.

You are scum just like the family is scum. You were all meant for each other.

Anonymous said...

No matter how competent or kind or authoritative a caregiver is, some kids are TERRORS. I worked at an elementary school once, and some of those kids were violent and crazy. More than once I had to pick up a kicking, screaming 6-year-old and take him out of the room because he was attacking another child or throwing furniture. And not just one bad kid in the class--there were SEVEN of them. Good thing they were small enough to pick up (well, some of them). Anyone that thinks you can just sweetly reason with children and they'll make the logical choice--well, that person is crazy. Sure, some kids work that way (I did) but not all.

If the OP woke up at 4am to see that the kids had dumped the makeup everywhere in the middle of the night, how could she have prevented that? Somehow predicted it and tied them to their beds?

Perhaps the nanny could have contacted the former nannies to see what the deal was. However, she didn't. And the parents thought the behavior of their children was perfectly fine. Perhaps stealing is unethical, but I can't say I disagree with the nanny. Those parents are heinous people and their kids will probably be in jail before they're in high school.

Anonymous said...

1:04:

How does this relate to the nanny's decision to steal and then gloat about it on a public board?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps nanny was just tired of hearing employers gloat about their ability to hurt, ruin, destroy or villify the nannies that once so lovingly raised their children?

Was nanny right? Hell no.
I think it was just a big general FU to powertripping employers.

Anonymous said...

1:34--

I'm saying that I feel her behavior was justified. If the employers decided to be unethical by withholding the promised bonus and severence pay, she had to recoup her money somehow! Aside from that, it relates to the earlier comments blaming the nanny for the children's behavior.

Anonymous said...

Why do so many people think that nannies are illegal, poorly educated people who only take care of children because they are not educated enough? Wake up and smell the coffee!!!!!!!! We are nothing like that. We do not work as cleaners or housekeepers.....behind every great woman there is an even greater nanny.

Anonymous said...

1:36 well said. It was a big FU. And well deserved, too. I disagree with the poster who called the nanny "scum" just like the family. She isn't, from her story, anywhere near the scum that they are.
And also, just because you steal doesn't mean you are automatically a bad person. It means you made a bad choice, did a bad thing.
To the poster who said good people don't steal: take a chill pill or have a drink or have sex. You sound angry.

Anonymous said...

I find it ironic that many are villifying the nanny for stealing, whilst totally ignoring the fact that the parents also stole! They withheld money legally owing for services rendered. Money that belonged to the nanny. Thieves and bellicose aresholes, in my book!

Anonymous said...

I am anon 11;46 , a lot of people who are posting are not hiring the educated nannies , they can't afford it maybe , I don't know . But from the sound of it , the preparation , and the interviewing is limited.. And I bet you there nannies clean the house , because they cannot afford a house cleaner and a nanny

But I tell you if I was forced to hire a nanny , i would want one with a college education , one that would take the care , and pay the attention that I would. Hiring at a discount is not going to cut it ...


When you have a child you have to plan. You have to network , most of my friends who needed a nanny found good nannies by networking.

Anonymous said...

Assuming this story is true, you're a fool on several levels. No contract, no pre-determined amount for the bonus, you blew any ability to sue them for unpaid wages by stealing from them, and you admited in a public forum that you avoid paying income tax, so hopefully the FBI is listening in.

Again, assuming this story is true, it seems to me those parents were right to fire you.

Anonymous said...

11:51,
I agree. The parents were thieves as well.

Anonymous said...

yeah 11:29, you keep saying "assuming this story is true". Do you live in a sheltered world? Did you read how one woman fired her nanny but she claimed squatters rights (because she was a live in and STAYED in the house with the family for 30 days after being fired). Real stuff happens. Stealing a camera is so nothing. I mean I am laughing thinking that you think that is anything!

Anonymous said...

To all the people defending the OP's theft: It doesn't matter what kind of awful A-holes the parents were, the moment she stole, she became an a-hole as well. There is a line to cross here. If the parents stole from the OP she had recourse in the court system. Now, so do the parents since she decided to steal. She lowered HERSELF to their level.

Anonymous said...

well said again JMT.
If you want to bitch about an employer check out the abusive heiress in PA. Not only did she beat her nanny because the refrigerator was messy, but she grabbed her pocketbook and stole the nanny's $800 cash out of it.
Of course, she was drunk. But still-
that is a nanny i could defend and an employer I wouldn't mind slapping the crap out of!

Anonymous said...

As a caregiver and a mother of 3 I actually have to giggle at JMT's story. Whether it's true or not, only she knows, but it was great.

I find that when parents are hiring they believe that paying $9/hr is sufficient wages.

Give your heads a shake people. I can work at Starbucks for $10. Aren't your children a little more precious than that?

I think JMT got taken advantage of, she should have gotten paid at least her wage and a half for that week despite the condition of the house. The parents should have kept to their word on the bonus and the severance and yes she could have gone to small claims court and put in a bunch of money to hopefully get some back. In reality is it really worth it? No. Taking the camera, although not a very classy thing to do, gave her the extra little bonus that I believe she deserved.

Good for you JMT and if you are ever a nanny again, make sure you watch your ass :)

Anonymous said...

All they lost was an expensive camera? Those greedy jerks got off cheap.They're lucky they didn't come home to find the nanny had sold one of their kids.

Anonymous said...

I have heard this exact same story somewhere before, maybe in a book somewhere?
Does the story sound familiar to anyone else?

Anonymous said...

If this pathetic story is good enough to be in a book, then I should have a million dollar book deal. I worked for four families. Three of them were crazy.

Anonymous said...

Uh, Celyne, that was not my story. I'm, not the OP, just a commenter.

Anonymous said...

I believe this story 100 percent. Though I don't agree with stealing and never would (if that's even what the OP meant by the bonus) I do believe that a family could be this crappy and kids cold be this ill behaved. Why? Because I have nannied for 7 years, and have had worse than this happen!!! Yup, that's right WORSE...worse kids, worse parents...you name it, it happened. And before in of you jump down my throat and ask what I did to deserve it, get a clue, their are bad parents and trouble children just as much as their are bad nannies! Some people are nuts, and I was lucky enough to work for them!

Anonymous said...

4:36 AM (so early! whew!)
Do tell! Write a story about your crazy employers, we'll all read it and learn something. Especially include the warning signs that should have told you to run away ASAP, if there were any.
I'm looking forward to it.

Jane Doe: Why don't you do another contest like you did for nanny bonuses, but for whacky stories? That would be a good read.

Anonymous said...

jmt,
what about me???

Anonymous said...

Well, damn girl, if you have a crazy story, let it rip! I am all ears. I love to commiserate with people who had to deal with nuts at work.

Anonymous said...

jmt is an ass and Jane Doe is her friend so she sticks up for her

Anonymous said...

I have worked as a nanny three times now, and I absolutely understand where you are coming from. It's definitely a thankless job, any way you look at it. Good for you!