Received Saturday, November 17, 2007
About 2 weeks ago, on a Saturday, at Dartmouth Totlot in Albany,CA; a Tibetan nanny named Dulma (not sure of the spelling but we talked a bit), taking care of a 4 month old baby boy named Robin. She smiled most of the time, sang to him, bounced him, played with him, cuddled, hugged and kissed him, and called him her little pumpkin and her little monkey. As young as he was, she put him in the baby swing, making sure his head and all of him was supported firmly by tucking blankets in around him, and rocked him gently. He smiled alot and was very wiggly and active for such a young baby. She said she also sometimes takes care of a baby girl that is the same age as him. I hope the parents know how good she is and treat her accordingly.
A nanny named Julia who takes care of a boy named Jack who is 4 1/2 or 5 (I don't remember exactly). I have seen them MANY places-Habitot, The Hall of Health, Totland, various other playgrounds, walking on the street... She is always very involved and engaged with him, talking, explaining, singing, playing. I have seen her engage a whole group of young kids in a game, leading and mediating the whole game so everyone has fun and is included and can release energy and do what kids do with no one getting hurt. At the Hall of Health she was very matter of fact and informative in response to his curiosity about a model of the digestive system, showing the intestines and colon, anus, etc etc. You get the picture, but she was perfectly straight about it all. She seems great and smiles a lot, I hope the parents appreciate her too.
Finally, a young, 25-ish Asian, possibly Tibetan nanny whose name I don't know but I see her frequently at Thousand Oaks playground in Berkeley, taking care of almost 1 year old identical twins whose names I cannot remember now.(One might be William.) She keeps them safe but encourages them to explore and try new things, and resolve obstacles like how to crawl AROUND a swing instead of just getting their head bonked by it and sitting and crying at it. It's a difficult job, as they are getting very active and moving off in 2 separate directions, but she handles it well. She is very gentle and sweet and warm with them. I have seen the twins also with their grandparents but never with the parents.
I'm so disappointed.
ReplyDeleteIt never occurred to me that CaliMom might be from *gasp* Northern California.
I wanted you to be from LA so we could look at shiny things together.
*sigh*
No worries, I love shiny things! but sparkly things are even better.
ReplyDeleteLOL ... too funny you guys (shiny things).
ReplyDeleteCali mom - you sure seem to get out alot, good for you! I wish more parents would get out of the house and do things with their kids. I assume you have younger children (same as me). Thanks for all the sightings - I do enjoy your writing!
so funny how you see only whitish nannies guess the other ethic groups are invisible but coming from you color blind means so much
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, one of these sightings is Asian and secondly, what is whitish?
ReplyDeleteThese are great sightings Cali Mom!
9:24 AM
ReplyDeleteGeeezz, can't anyone put up a happy sighting without any snarky responses?
Thanks Cali, these were a pleasure to read.
You can't control the color of the people you see on the street.
ReplyDeleteSo she didn't see any black or mexican nannies. Don't blame her.
I love you people who just HAVE to have drama ALL the time.
I'm a nanny in N. Cali and I personally don't know any Black or Mexican nannies... I think you are most likely to find Asian nannies here followed by White nannies.
ReplyDelete9:24, not sure what you're upset about. 2 of these nannies were Asian and Julia is Caucasian ("whitish"?). All the kids were white, sorry if you're offended by that (not.) I do see many Hispanic nannies and the occasional black nanny, mostly from Africa, but these were the ones I've seen that were so good I wanted to write about them.
ReplyDeletecali mom - don't even pay mind to that ignorant person who posted before. some people really just can't stand it when there is no drama and insist on making some.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for these lovely sightings. as I've said before, it always warms my heart to see that there are other nannies out there who are loving and caring for their darling little charges!
Cali mom,
ReplyDeleteIf you were a nanny, you'd probably be blasted for spending too much ime observing others and even *gasp* interacting briefly with other adults. Nice sightings though.
9:24 AM
ReplyDeleteShe could have spotted me, I'm always with my kids, I'm constantly mistaken for a Nanny (I'm darker than they are) and I'm perfectly horrible at odd intervals.
Aye chica!
9:24 AM
ReplyDeleteShe could have spotted me, I'm always with my kids, I'm constantly mistaken for a Nanny (I'm darker than they are) and I'm perfectly horrible at odd intervals.
Aye chica!
Thanks Cali Mom for good nanny posts. I think sometimes people forget this is "I saw your nanny", not "I saw your nanny do something bad". But, I guess I'm just as guilty. I saw two great nannies in CVS in Eastchester, NY last week and failed to post on them. (for anyone in the area--They were black, accents sounded definitely Island, possibly Haitian or Jamaican and they were obviously shopping together, buying craft and projects I assume for the kids they cared for--one a white boy about 2 and the other a white girl about 18 months, both brown hair, little girl with two pony tails high up on her head. I noticed the first nanny first--straight hair, tall,average build, wearing a black jacket--because she made me smile with how she was playing with the little girl who was obviously a new walker after she took her out of the cart. Her friend with the little boy joined her shortly after that--she had short straightened hair with a reddish dye and was more towards middle aged, average height and plump, but not fat, and was cheerful and smiling to the kids even though the boy was a little fussy and had lost patience with the line.)
ReplyDeleteAw, you make me want to go back to nannying.
ReplyDeleteRE:Aw, you make me want to go back to nannying
ReplyDeleteWhy would you want to do that??!!
Thats one of the worst jobs to have
3:04
ReplyDeleteLet's hope you are not a nanny then. The children could do without you.
Don't worry little duck at 6:13 I am not a nanny
ReplyDelete3:04
ReplyDeleteSome of us love our jobs. It is only a bad job if you have bad employers. Very few professional nannies are in that situation, because we are selective about whom we work for.
Singing, dancing, laughing, reading, doing art projects, playing in a park with children,......that is my idea of a great job!
A Nanny
Oh my god, Dolma, the first nanny in your post, is a dear friend of mine! She is a wonderful nanny and I can't wait to tell her I saw her on ISYN!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the nice words. I am pretty sure her boss reads ISYN, too.
Lisa, how cool! :) She clearly loved being with Robin.
ReplyDeleteI wish more parents who comment about how positive i am post on h ere, then maybe just maybe that stupid post about ALL MALE NANNIES being pedophiles might see some light instead of sexist sterotypes.
ReplyDeleteUpdate on the great nannies: I saw the one with the twins again today, at Studio Grow. The twins are 16 months old now (I had remembered their age wrong when I first posted), their names are Jeremy and Benjamin. I believe the nanny IS Tibetan, because she was speaking a language with another Tibetan nanny I know, which I assume was Tibetan. So if this is your nanny, I hope you are giving her a nice holiday bonus or at least a big huge heap of sincere appreciation and a thoughtful gift, and if you don't, I hope she finds a better employer!
ReplyDelete