Received Wednesday, October 17, 2007
I just read about your blog today would like to report something I saw on Thursday, August 30. I was at the children's park/water park off of the West Side Highway near Christopher/Gansevort Street. It was very hot that day and I was there for a couple of hours with my child and Nanny. We saw a group of nannies obviously gathered together to hang out with one another. One was 40's, African American, I believe she had long dreds, in charge of two children a boy and girl, blond curly hair looking to be very close in age somewhere around two or three years old. They were in a black double stroller. Over the course of two hours this nanny never allowed the children out of the stroller to play. They were obviously boiling hot, sitting in the hot sun, restrained and unable to move. She ignored the children and talked with her two other friends the entire time. At one point when the children were crying she turned them around to face her and hit each of them in the face with a towel. The only beverage or food I saw her offer them was a bottle of milk. If you know who the parents of these children are please notify them. This woman is abusive and neglectful. The children's faces were bright red and obviously overheated. Her only concern was hanging out with her friends and probably told the parents " they had a nice day in the park".
Anonymous Very Concerned Mommy
She hit them in the face? Horrifying.
ReplyDeleteKeeping a toddler strapped in a stroller for an extended period of time is like torture, even if its not in the blazing sun. When I say that its torture, I mean I am sure you all know how badly toddlers need to move! how hard it is for them to sit still, and to sit and watch others play and not be able to get up?
OP,
do you ever see this nanny around your neighborhood? If so maybe you could snap a phone pic.
I bet she really did have a nice day in the park... but those poor kids didn't! Thank you for posting, this is a great "I Saw Your Nanny" sighting.
ReplyDeleteIf you were truly concerned, you would have called the police. Even if you wanted to walk away for a minute and talked in private, so she wouldn't know it was you that called. The police would have walked over to see if everything was okay. If it was that hot and they were strapped in for two hours its very dangerous, and could lead to dehydration or heatstroke.
ReplyDeleteI live close to the city, so I know police are always walking around there.
Oh dear. I would like to toss this nanny into the Hudson river. The nerve of her hitting her charges. I wish more people could drop in on their nannies.
ReplyDeleteYes, don't be afraid to call the police!
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible, but it was nearly 2 months ago? Have you seen this nanny since, OP?
ReplyDeleteIf you have a baby or young toddler, ESPECIALLY if you have an older child too, the likelihood of your baby/toddler coming out of the stroller at the park seems quite slim based on what I have observed. It is quite typical for nannies to park the stroller child near the bench where they sit, leaving the child strapped in the seat the whole time, and ignoring the older child at play while she reads or talks with her nanny friends.
ReplyDeleteNot that EVERY nanny does this. There are some good ones. (I have encountered only ONE.) But the VAST MAJORITY of the time I see the babies and young toddlers stuck in the stroller during park visits.
I have lived in California and Texas, where it is also the norm to have Mexican nannies. Most don't seem to speak English. I don't know if they're legal or not, as I don't do green card checks at the park. And yes, they swat at the kids quite frequently. Not police worthy hitting, but I doubt their parents have any idea.
I'll bet if MOST people with a nanny could somehow observe her at all times they would be horrified at times. Everyone thinks "not my nanny," and yet here are all of these kids we see and read about everyday being mistreated, ignored, and endangered.
Hope it's worth it folks!
The parents are to blame- hire qualified/educated people and pay them fairly.
ReplyDeletehey
ReplyDeleteSO WHAT
some kids just NEED a good slap in the face every now and then
it's how I turned out the way I am
DON"T JUDGE MEEEEEEE
1028,
ReplyDeletepleae realise, that anyone can be fooled.
maybe she is paid well, maybe they thought they were hiring a qualified person
people lie
This sounds over the top, but not unheard of. You really should have called the police, this is def. horrifying. And I agree, the parents are to blame,butstill...that woman had no right to fry the kids, and hit them-in the face- with anything,ugh!
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed at people who respond to postings like this, without mentioning, that there is a responsibility to report abuse of a child. If you really saw someone hit a child in the face especially....you would just sit there??? I know that I would have said something....anything.
ReplyDeleteIn any event...if this is real...that nanny needs to be fired.
This is horrifying.
ReplyDeleteI agree that anyone observing such mistreatment of children has some responsibility to intervene. In fact, it seems like it would be easier with a nanny than with a parent - parents have more "rights", unfortunately, to do as they like with their children.
What do you all think of going up to a nanny like this and after telling her that children are not to be abused like this, asking who is her employer? After all, if you saw an employee of any business being dangerously negligent, you would try to determine who their manager is. The nanny probably wouldn't tell you who she works with but it might strike some fear into her. And with a sighting like this I think I might have followed her home when she left the park, to see where she works, and tried to figure out some way to contact the parents.
Honestly, though, NYC must be the world's greatest cesspool of abusive and neglectful nannies. It seems like there is a nanny "culture" of doing as little as possible for the charges, up to and including letting them roast in the sun and not letting them play. The most awful daycare center seems preferable to such nannies. And yet these parents are paying a *premium*. How can they not know, that at any given NYC playground, most of the nannies are sitting on their butts? How can they be so confident that their nanny is different?
i agree with one of the comments above!!!
ReplyDeleteALL KIDS NEED SLAPPING
i did a test with my twins... one of them i slapped=she went to harvard. the other one i didn't slap=she went to ncc
You never had twins and if you did, I doubt with your intelligence that you tell one from the other, therefore making such an experiment impossible.
ReplyDeletePlease review our comment policy. We'd prefer not to have to start censoring comments...
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Surely, JD, your above comment is not directed at the poster who noted that the woman who performed the diabolical slapping vs non-slapping experiment on her twins lacked intelligence, for that is mild criticism for what was child abuse.
ReplyDeleteJust an across the board reminder as there have been complaints.
ReplyDelete:(
yeah I don't think slapping a kid is funny. even if it is a joke. and "jane" would never see the humor in that. trust me.
ReplyDeleteI understand. You must play the role of the "recess monitor"!
ReplyDeleteThis is horrifying and the nanny deserves to be fired at the VERY least. I hope the parents see this.
ReplyDeleteIs it an exaggeration that 6:54 posted? Why so many horrid nannies in NYC? I see SO MANY excellent nannies everywhere I go baround here. Loving, active, involved, attentive, the way they are supposed to be. What gives?
Everyone in NYC are tougher than most areas. I just think its people in general there. Not just nannies, everyone. Theres so many people and you can't be too friendly or talkative. Its safer to look tough when there.
ReplyDeleteI live right across the Hudson River, and its a different world, when you cross the GWB
how can you "believe" she had dreds???? either she did or she didn't!!!! make up your mind!!
ReplyDelete"Everyone in NYC are tougher than most areas."
ReplyDeleteOh dear... Eric's Mom,
I don't think you've ever been to Wyoming!