Tuesday

72nd Street tunnel in Riverside Park, NYC

Received Tuesday, June 5, 2007
I saw your nanny this morning at approximately 7:45 AM. She was pushing your blue & grey McClaren Stroller and walking your medium sized white dog, breed unknown. The nanny wore white tennis shoes, no socks, twill shorts & a purplish, large, loose t-shirt. She was a heavy-set white woman with brown hair in a bun, age approximately 35. I could not place her accent, perhaps Dutch? The child in the stroller I did not get a good look at, although he/she was blonde. The nanny had obviously not had her coffee as I watched her ahead of me struggle with the dog's leash, curse the dog, curse no one in particular, rattle the stroller and kick the dog. She didn't kick him hard, but it was completely uncalled for. I called out ahead to her "Hey" and she just walked faster. Like so many others, I wonder if this is how she behaves in public how does she behave in private?

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can totally imagine how many nannies are expected to walk and pick up after the dog as well as the children. It would explain all the piles of poop creating the stinky obstacle course that is NYC.

I know already all of the professional nannies will say they would never agree to walking the dog.

I have seen lots of doormen walking pooches on 5th Ave. (hoping for a great tip?)
I think that the class of mother who has children but doesn't want to raise them is exactly the same person who buys an expensive dog and hires someone else to walk and feed it. The kids and pets are all decorative trappings.

Anonymous said...

Not to excuse her - kicking a dog is unconscionable - but this nanny probably resents being asked to be a dog-walker when her job description should properly only include taking care of a CHILD. Dogs are a lot of work and I wouldn't want to be responsible for someone's dog if I were their nanny. Maybe she gets paid extra for her dogwalking duties, but I doubt it.

Again, not to excuse her, but it seems from a lot of what I hear about nannies that it is common to treat them as all-purpose household help. I think we'd see a lot fewer "I Saw Your Nanny" horror stories if people thought of nannies as professionals and hired people who are suitably qualified, to do one thing: take care of children in a kind and developmentally appropriate manner.

Anonymous said...

If the nanny doesn't want to walk the dog, the nanny should refuse to. The nanny has at least some responsibility for defining her job -- if she won't, her idiot employer will.

If she kicks the dog, she'll hit or shake the child. She's almost certainly done both before, if she's behaving this way in public.

There's no excuse for the nanny, even if her employers are exploiting her. She's going to keep on abusing the dog (and, undoubtedly, the child) as long as she lets her employer abuse her. Everybody gets what they deserve -- except the dog and the child.

Anonymous said...

When I first got divorced, I dated a man who hated my dog from the get go. Told me to get rid of it. Send it away. I should have seen that as a clue. He came to treat my children the same way. Now I judge people by the way they treat dogs. Especially, fluffy toy breads..

Anonymous said...

Animal abuser=child abuser.
Case closed.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, I know many of you will jump at me for saying this: she may have accepted a job that included walking the dog, she may have requested to walk the dog on a one off basis, or she may be working for somebody that expect nanny to walk the dog wthout it having beein agreed during the interview (in this case she should justly feel agravated and needs to speak with the mother).

I don't know you but I dont immediatelly feel victimized or insulted by doing something that may not be in my job description. I am a senior manager and feel quite happy to bring a cup of coffee to both my boss (a senior executive) and to any of my direct reports.

No excuse for kicking a dog, regardless of the situation.

Anonymous said...

I agree. My job is NOT to get my boss coffee. So when I do, I always make sure it doesn't taste good. You'd think by now the prick would stop asking me for coffee.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, my boss used to ask me to lie for him and say he was out of the office when in fact, he was in his office reading the paper and drinking coffee. When I'd had enough of that job and became resentful over all the lies I'd had to tell for bosses throughout my working years, I began telling them that he was in his office having his coffee and reading the paper (or whatever the truth was) and it wasn't long after I quit, which wasn't long after I refused to lie anymore, he got fired!

Anonymous said...

I think the nanny should not have to walk a dog and push a stroller at the same time. It's not her job to pick up after her employer's pooch. They need to hire a dog walker.

And I'm not a nanny. I walk my dog in the morning before my nanny comes so that she has one less thing to worry about.

Anonymous said...

Whether the nanny resents walking the dog or not, or even whether she SHOULD be walking the dog should not be up for debate. What the issue here is the fact that she finds it okay to kick/abuse creatures that are smaller and weaker than herself. This is inexcusable...as if the dog deserves to be abused and had a choice in the matter of who walked it!

You know what I say? Quit being such a wuss and tell your employer you can't handle walking the dog and the baby at the same time!

People, think for a minute, and stop making excuses for a grown woman who can't handle saying 'no" but can in fact handle harming those that are weaker than herself and entrusted in her care!!

Anonymous said...

re:
People, think for a minute, and stop making excuses for a grown woman who can't handle saying 'no" but can in fact handle harming those that are weaker than herself and entrusted in her care!!

Awesome & dead on.

Signed,
Mother who has lost more than one nanny by being too forthright but I still won't apologize for it. I am sure the nannies not working for me are happier wherever they ended up. Someone has to act like an adult!

Anonymous said...

OMG - kicking a dog is a nasty thing to do, but that DOESN'T mean that the same person would hit a child! I know that hard-core animal lovers think that dogs are equal to humans, but that just isn't the case.

Anonymous said...

While there is no excuse for the nanny taking her resentment out on the dog, I have known several nannies who were working for a family for some time before they acquired the dog. They even ended up housebreaking the puppy....the parents aren't home all day, so who did they think would do it? They never thought about it. It is easy to say they should refuse, or quit, but then the family would probably not give them a good reference and thus it would be hard to find another good job.

Anonymous said...

It's a known fact that women and men who take good care of their children take good care of their dogs. If the parents are not involved in the child's life, sure as shit, they aren't involved in the dogs. I would never work for a parent who lacked compassion or parenting skills. I can't stand to see a dog ignored, much less a two year old boy. I don't have the stomache for it. I do happen to work for one of the hippest, coolest, friendliest, most outgoing and generous stay at home mothers in NYC. It's a virtual love fest. LOL.

Anonymous said...

To 8:42 ~
I disagree ... someone who has the audacity to kick a dog, has the propensity to hit a child.

Anonymous said...

This nanny rattled the stroller & kicked the dog!. She clearly doesn't have a conscience. People like her also ridicule or abuse dogs and babies for simply having a bowel movement, as if they (dogs and babies) have any control over nature.

Anonymous said...

8:42,
I disagree. I think some dogs I know, my brother's dog Homer for one, is much more of a human than you.
I agree with the poster who said that if you are capable of harming a living breathing creature (a pet) than you are capable of harming a child.

Anonymous said...

Many animal abusers also abuse children. Most people who mistreat pets are taking their feelings of worthlessness, resentment or anger out on the animal. Said persons often do the same to humans and children are, of course, an easy target. While I don't think dogs are equal to humans, I believe they are wonderful, loyal, and loving companions to mankind.

Anonymous said...

JMT:

I don't think most nannies are "forced" to walk dogs. They either accept the responsibility going into the job, or in the case of my friend's nanny, they bark (no pun intended) when a dog walker is paid because they want to pick up a few extra bucks to do it themselves. My friend's nanny gets $20 extra a day to walk the dog for 45 minutes. It was the nanny's suggestion.

And really, it's not all that difficult to push a stroller and walk a dog. I've done it myself when I've done dogsitting for my neighbor.

It truly is not rocket science!

Anonymous said...

Poor dog. Kicking an animal is never acceptable, and I definitely believe that someone who abuses animals has the propensity to hit a child. If I were this child's parent, I'd fire this nanny immediately.

My employers have two dogs. I knew this when I accepted the job. They have a dog-walking service that comes to care for them, but I let them out as needed and feed them in the evening if I'm working late. I don't mind at all.

If I didn't like dogs and didn't want to deal with them, I wouldn't accept a job with a family who had pets. Or I would mention upfront in my interview that I don't work with animals, and if the families had pets (or got one later), caring for them would not be part of my job description. That way, if they got a dog later, I would have already made my position clear.

Nannies need to have some foresight when interviewing. And if something comes up that you didn't prepare for -- talk about it with your employer, don't take it out on an innocent animal.

Anonymous said...

what a monster