Thursday

Strange, Little Things

Received Thursday, May 17, 2007
I was a substitute nanny for a family in Framingham, MA. I knew two of their live in nannies over the years. Both girls bewildered by a laundry issue. They would put their laundry in the empty watching machine and start it in the evenings after the parents were home with the kids. Every time they took their laundry out of the machine they would find a pair of the children's father's underwear mixed in with the nanny's things! It happened to both of them over and over again!!! How weird is that??? Have any other nannies experienced anything strange while working in their boss's home???

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have not, but I will say that if it happened to me enough times that I realized it was no accident, I'd either confront both parents together or be out of there ASAP. That's sexual harassment, no question, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

I had a mother (married and happy) who would consistently leave her very pricey lingerie and intimate apparel for me to wash. The only laundry I did was children's laundry. She asked me to do this as a favor since all I needed to do was wash it and hang it to dry in the laundry room. But the condition that I received some of those garments in. I seriously think she was demented. Sick. Perverted. I would only handle them wearing yellow kitchen gloves. And that was even after they came out of the washer.

Anonymous said...

i'll tell you whats a strange little thing. when all of a sudden people start acting like they're all broke when you know they got money. but all of a sudden they're all chintzy. what's that about?

Anonymous said...

I came home with the little girl I watched and we came through the noisy garage door as always at that time of the day and what is waiting on the other side of the door? I'll tell you what, the little girl's father sitting in his recliner with nothing on but a shirt. I wanted to die on the spot! I pushed the little girl back out the door and stood there on the verge of tears. After a minute he yelled that it was Ok to come back in and apologized. Needless to say I quit the next week. I've also had a father ask his boys for a goodbye kiss and then turn to me and say let's see if nanny will give daddy a good bye kiss. I said no she will not and walked away.

Anonymous said...

1:33 - I would love to hear more details! Seriously, who would feel comfortable asking someone else to take care of these things.
2:37 - he was just sitting there, naked? Was he watching/looking at porn too? Bizarre!

Anonymous said...

Ewww...these are bizarre!

Anonymous said...

That sounds disgusting. I would have kept all underwear placed in with my stuff until Dad had to go commando. Let him come and ask for all his undies back. Or better yet give back the stack in front of Mom too, with the explanation of how you got them.

Anonymous said...

He was watching regular TV, I think, as soon as I saw he had no pants on I backed into the little girl and pushed her back out the door. It was a weird situation, his wife would send me to dinner with him and the little girl and we would go to really expensive resturants just the 3 of us.

Anonymous said...

You haven't heard weird until you have heard my story:

I worked for a divorced mother of a 3 year old and she had another one on the way. She was my sister's co worker so I thought everything was cool. I worked for her, for about 8 months. It would take me ALL day to tell you the hell I went through with that lady I will call Sarah. Sarah had just went through a divorce. I was hired during the week as a regular nanny but also on the weekend as a middle man for her and the ex husband (I had to give the baby to the dad) I didn't mind it. Sarah was psycho! One day Sarah called the police on the dad after he showed up on a scheduled visit said he tried to kidnap him. She also called the police on the father at the baby's birthday party because he parked his car on her property. She told the police that she didn't know who's car it was and it had been parked there for a week, not true. So the dad comes out of the party and his car is gone. It got towed. She also called the police on the dad after she spotted him in Target. He REALLY wasn't but she claimed he was stalking her. The local police have a record of her calling the police on this poor man. She claimed that her ex was abusing the baby after the baby fell WITH me at the playground, he scraped his knee. She would tell me that she wanted custody because her ex was really rich and she needed to move. She would have bad mood swings, she called her kid a cash cow TWICE. I quit after she wanted to me tell the police that her ex was abusing her kid. I refused to. I quit. She told me that I was never going to get another job working as a nanny because she wasn't going to give me a good reference. She also said that she was "missing" some valuables and she thought I took them. She was going to bring me to court. She also gave my sister hell at work. I could tell you more including what happened the day I quit, but it would be oh too long. I hope the dad got those kids because the woman was wacked.

Anonymous said...

First of all, it is not sanitary for people to stick their underwear in your laundry.

Second, sounds like this couple has some kind of nanny fetish. Be very careful. Let them know that you feel uncomfortable finding things in the laundry that you did not put in there. If they keep sneaking the hubby's underwear in your clothes, you just have to leave them because next thing they will be offering you a French Maid uniform. Very creepy.

Anonymous said...

I used to babysit for a family and one time I picked up the little boy from school and the Dad was naked in the kitchen. He knew we were going to be home at that time, as we were everyday. He just stood there making no effort to cover himself up, etc. I left on the spot and never went back.

Anonymous said...

is it possible that the dad was having an affair, and would come home right after the act and toss his underwear into the laundry (not realizing it was the nanny's) to clean up the evidence? perhaps he figured he was throwing it in with the family load, and that no one would be any the wiser?

Anonymous said...

8:59 .... BINGO! As I was reading this post, that was the 1st thing that came to mind. He is trying to wash away any evidence of a mistress. Maybe he already has a suspicious wife and knows she'd be (ewww!), smelling his drawers.

Anonymous said...

or the wife has already asked him why he smelled like a woman and he had already used the excuse that his clothes got mixed in with the nannies. so he tosses them in now just to make his case.

strangest thing I ever had happen to me when I was working as a temporary nanny. I was filling in for an older nanny who had been with the family for better than a decade and who was out having surgery. The mother would call me in her bedroom to ask for my (I'm from Iowa and shopped at Target back then) and ask me for my opinion as to what blouse she would wear. It became pretty clear that all she wanted was for me to stand around and watch her disrobe.

My first and last nanny gig. I was there for three months. For no amount of money in the world would I ever go live in someone else's house again. I'd lay awake at night worrying that there were cameras hidden in my bedroom.

Anonymous said...

Oh dear! The affair thing seems to make a lot of sense. The thought that this guy threw his really sinfully filthy boxers into the nannies' laundry is really disgusting!

Anonymous said...

To 10:55pm:

Strangely enough there are people who seem to get a kick out of disrobing in front of others. My own adult sister had this habit for many years. Then she'd go around complaining to people that she never saw me disrobed. She complained to a family friend who told her off "what's in it for you? Why are you so desperate to see her naked?" from that day, she stopped complaining about not having seen me disrobed. I don't know if she still does it, I have removed myself.

Anonymous said...

I'll tell you exactly what is going on. The father is tossing his undies in the laundry because he is trying on YOUR underwear. After he's "completed his mission", he cleans up with his shorts and then leaves them behind as he runs butt naked to his room. He is very sick. Throw the offending garmets in the trash, and oh, btw... QUIT.

Anonymous said...

6:08pm Sounds to me like the wife was trying to get you to hook up with the dad, maybe some sick twisted fantasy of her own

6:11pm Please do tell us more!

As for me the strangest thing that ever happened was on a interview. I was interviewing with a Indian family from india, here in san diego. During the interview they told me i was not allowed to eat meat while in there home since they were vegan (fine with me) then she goes on to say i am not allowed to bring my pots and pans to work (wtf) then tells me if i do want to eat while working i have to do it out front (again wtf it was a 10 hour day i have to eat outside) then goes to tell me that my bf was not allowed at the house at all (um ok i dont have people visit me during work anyways) then tells me im not allowed to have a cell phone and i am not to give there number out (i dont think so, how is my family to contact me during a emergency) Then she goes to tell me she would just like that i not eat meat at all while i worked for them. the whole time i was trying to blow the interview and it wasnt working. i even straight out told her that i was sorry and wouldnt be able to take the job and she still wanted to hire me.

Anonymous said...

How about, to prevent the mixing of the laundries, that once you put on the load to wash, you seal the lid with masking tape and write "Nanny" on it. Then if the seal is broken you know it was on purpose. But he would have to be really sick to still do it anyway, so the result would be: no more Mr. Underwear invasions.
I would decline absolutely to wash any else's undies. God know what stuff lurks there.
The Indian family reminds me of several "slave labor" criminal cases that have cropped up lately. People have one or two women working in their vast homes as slaves, who inevitably escape. Now, after reading the above poster's description of her interview, I understand why they don't just hire someone - no one would work under those conditions for love nor money. The latest was on Long Island, near Muttontown. Hey, that mansion isn't gonna clean itself, you know?

Anonymous said...

Disrobing, being attentionally naked for other to view, is actually a form a sexual abuse b/c the pervert gets kicks from seeing the reactions of others....sick.

Anonymous said...

Thats creepy. I mean this guy probably gets off by thinking of you finding his underwear. Weird.

My strangest nanny story came when I was working for a family and they fired me and had the new nanny do it. Everything was going good...so I thought. When I usually show up the mom is gone and the dad is still there. I saw a different car in the driveway. I had a key so I go inside and this girl is sitting in the kitchen feeding the baby. The baby was 13 months so she was happy to see me. She turns around and says "Oh you must be Allie, Debbie(the mom) asked me to tell you to leave the key in the office, and your pay is on the desk." I was puzzled. I was like huh?? She was SO embarrassed. She figured I didn't know and tried to explain that they didn't need my services and that they wanted to try something new. I was shocked and took my money and left. They did give me over $1000 when I left with a note that said "good luck with everything" but I was still pissed. When I would call them no one would answer and I saw the mom in the supermarket and she would ignore me. To this day I still don't know what I did wrong. The kicker is that I worked with them for over a year. Thats my weird story.

Anonymous said...

That isn't that weird, actually!
I took a nanny job once where I interviewed with the mother and father at a restaurant 10 miles from their home. They explained they had a nanny that they had a good opinion of but something happened and they wanted to make a change. I didn't ask many questions, then. I ended up passing on the job because it was a live in job and I didn't quite understand why they would be getting rid of their nanny of three years. She lived in their home and was one of the child's only caregivers since birth. Down the line and through a nanny who took the job, I found out why that nanny was let go. The family had a nanny camera (why after 3 yrs would you need a nanny camera?) and caught the nanny in, how do I say this delicately- an intimate moment. The family was away on vacation and the nanny was home housesitting and petsitting. If you ask me, this family had no business training a nanny camera on their nanny when they and their children were 2000 miles away. I wonder what they did with the tape and how many people saw it. No wonder the NNP advocates nannies setting up nanny cameras on their employers! The point of this story is that poor nanny- she never knew why she was fired. They used the whole "going in a different direction" speech. And then they burned through nannies who were not at all unlike her. I have to wonder if they were covertly recording their nannies too- in their off hours! So nannies beware, if you are in someone else's house- even if you are not working- they could be watching.

Laura Castle said...

could it be the mother trying to make it look like you are her husband are having an affair? maybe she hopes you will ask then she can accuse you of it?

or maybe the husband is doing it in hopes that the mother sees it and flips out?

Anonymous said...

1227:
what delicate moment?
what the hell is the NNP?

Anonymous said...

How many nannies can say they have seen their employer's butt ass naked? I bet the results would be suprising! I have a nanny for the first time in my life but she has 7 years of experience and you should hear her stories!

Anonymous said...

If an employer wants the new hire to fire the old nanny without notice, don't work for them because they will do it to you too. The employer needs to hire and fire her own employees. That's not part of the nanny job description.

Anonymous said...

I have seen my employer naked 2 times.
Mom left door open for me every morning, and he knew that.
But he didn't care and just was walking us it was normal.
I told the mom, and she talk to dad, and it never happen again.
It was very good family, I worked for them for two years.
I don't know why he did it.

Anonymous said...

This is strange and bizarre and not innocent, by any means. But I would carefully check the washer before using it and stay close by. Someone is very, very sick. Be careful.

Anonymous said...

You could set up your own nanny cam to see how those briefs are ending up with your laundry. It could be the father is some sicko, or could it be the kids? Either way, you would have your answer.

Anonymous said...

I think the OP's story could be totally innocent. This happened with a roommate I had once. I had my laundry in the machine, she blanked and thought she'd had laundry in there, threw in some pants and started it. Once it was moved to the dryer, we figured out what was going on and it was no big deal. If you haven't talked about it with them, how do you know they didn't just assume it was a family load and throw something in there that was dirty? It's an easy mistake to make, and even if they did realize it had happened previously and nothing was said, they might think it's not a big deal to throw something in with the nanny's load. Seriously, it's just cloth. Bleach kills everything, anyway.

True Blue Me said...

My hb liked to hang out literally naked or walk around with only a robe on and make sure I knew it. I told him I don't go with men who have another girl but he seemed to think I would be interested. Also offered to buy me a personal toy because I was too uptight. His wife thought I wanted him and made things difficult at the best of times and that's why I was uptight.