Received Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Your nanny is an angry, busty, devil and she treats your little boy like garbage. How can you not know? When she arrives in the morning, he has to cower in fear from her. I'll never understand why unfortunate looking people don't strive harder to be cheerful and kind. At any rate, if your nanny who is by the sounds of her accent from the Caribbean, with a broad nose, hair dyed to appear the color of a tangerine and wears an inordinate amount of toxic, inexpensive cologne was shopping today, (12/3-Monday) at CVS on 58th at Columbus, you should know she spoke unkindly to your child, yanked him by his wrist and at one point dragged him to his feet by the hood of his jacket. Why? The child said he was cold. He was "freezing". She told the child to "oh please you don't know what it means to hurt for a day". If that doesn't make sense to you, it didn't make sense to me, either. The nanny was wearing a thick grey jacket with a white and grey scarf, but her jacket was open to reveal a skin tight-spandex appearing body suit or ultra tight shirt. The nanny was shopping in the Christmas section of the store, I don't know if you sent her there or if she is running her own errands, but either way, she had no tolerance for your little boy. The boy was about 3-4 and Hispanic, very well dressed and has a slight speech impediment or problem.
That poor little boy. It was FREEZING cold out today!
ReplyDeleteAs far as "you don't know what it means to hurt for a day" I'm fairly sure she was trying to insinuate that he is a "pampered/spoiled child" or something like that. The comment is probably stemming from her resentment towards her boss's because she comes from a less comfortable upbringing.
For the record - I hate it when Nannies that are bitter about their situation in life take it out on their charges. It's not the kids fault!
Anyway - Hope the parents see this!
I was prepared to just make the standard remark on this post. What else can you say except, "I hope the Parent sees this". Until I saw the last line:
ReplyDelete" he has a slight speech impediment or problem" ...
I truly believe there is a special place in Hell for any person who abuses disabled children.
And shame on Mom if she doesn't realize this Nanny is pond scum.
Poor baby.
She is probably thinking of her own hungry, unwashed children in the Caribbean, living in poverty until she is able to send home some of her first paycheck to help them eat and maybe get an education. She is probably thinking that with that education they will grow up and be able to get a decent job in their homeland and stay with their children. She is probably thinking of how she sacrificed being with her family to come to America to provide for her children so they would not end up like her, miserable and lonely taking care of the children of priviledged Americans. It seems the parents of this little boy, unfortunately, aren't willing to pay for an American nanny. And so their little boy suffers. It is their fault.
ReplyDeleteThere is NO POSSIBLE EXCUSE that is good enough to excuse this. If she is presenting herself as person able to care for children, she has an ethical responsibility to treat him decently at all times. (Not to mention her moral obligation as a human being to treat the child decently at all times.)
ReplyDeleteShe probably does resent the life this little boy lives. She needs another line of work because she sounds far too immature to separate her resentment from her responsibilities.
The parent aren't paying her to teach their child firsthand what a hard knocks life feels like. Sounds like she remembered to bring a coat for herself anyway.
And if she is as hard and angry as it sounds, the parents must be complete dingbats not to see the signs. Is this all because some parents don't take enough time to follow up to make sure they know how their children are treated? Or do this many parents really, seriously just not care all that much? Seems impossible to believe that SO MANY people could be so completely oblivious to their children's suffering despite doing careful checks, a lot of observation, and drop-ins.
This is disgusting..
ReplyDeletebut I have to say to a commenter... just because a kid has a speech impediment doesn't mean he's disabled.
Aunty rhea,
ReplyDeleteOp said, "speech impediment, or "problem"' ... disabled or not, I stand by my comment.
Actually there is more blame to be had. The nanny is garbage, but if she is from the Islands she is probably taking home around 275.00 per week for a 50 hour or more work week. (That's the standard Au Pair pay in NY and NJ) She likely took that job because there's no work to be had in her country. The woman who employes me constantly hears how foolish she is to pay me 18.00 per hour when she can get a "black girl" for less than 300.00 per week.
ReplyDeleteAnd please other nannies, don't tell me I'm not making enough at 18.00 per hour. I'm perfectly happy earning that amount and I love the family I have. Would not trade them for the world. I have excellent qualifications and know I could earn much more elsewhere but I don't want to. I have offers all the time. It's what my family can live on and what she can afford and and we are all very happy so please butt out!
As far as speech impediments/problems go...
ReplyDeleteNOT a big deal.. I am a Speech and Hearing major with a focus on pediatrics and unless it was so severe that he is completely not understandable/people are teasing him constantly, he is not much different from the majority of the children I have seen! I have worked with about 30 different kids in the speech acquisition stage of their lives (1-3yr) over the last couple of months through temp jobs and I can tell you that only about 2 of those kids were actually on track as far as typical speech development goes! I'm not even exaggerating! With the amount of time parents let their kids watch TV (a child should watch NO TV before the age of 2, and after the child is two up to ONE hour a day is acceptable) and the length of time they allow a baby to have a pacifier (it should be out of his/her mouth by 12 months), very few kids are developing their language skills at the same rate that we used to!
That doesn't make what this "nanny" did was right, I just wanted to make a point about language because so many parents (not on this blog, in the "real world")...
Ahh... forgot to complete my thought, I'm running late (incedentally- for volunteer work at a school for kids with speech problems!)...
ReplyDelete"because so many parents..." are clueless about langauge development these days.
Thanks CN, for clarifying. But I would like to elaborate since you just posted all of your Info.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking when I read this post (and your comment about children with speech impediments/problems), is they have a difficult enough time as it is with their peers. I also do volunteer work with special needs children at my sons elementary school (mostly slow developing, but quite a few actually have speech problems that they see a specialist for). My concern is, with all they have to deal with, why should they also have to put up with an adult that they are supposed to look up to, who is supposed to guide them, and care for them ... so it got me on the 'developmentally disabled' mindtrack. And that's why I was a little upset about reading this post ... I brought my emotional baggage from work to it. It's heartbreaking, because you know after working with certain children long enough, which ones would thrive if they only had a parent at home that would take the time to work with them.
I agree. If only some of the parents researched speech development as much as they do other things in their children's lives and didn't take the easy way out (letting their child have a paci overlong because he whines without it or letting him watch excessive tv because it gives them free time!), very few children would have speech delays!
ReplyDeleteAnother discussion that degenerated into "blame the parents".
ReplyDeleteWhat did the OP do to help this child? Did she ask the nanny to be a little nicer to the child? Or did she take notes so she can run to the net and post those comments?
4:13
ReplyDeleteNobody blames the parents on this blog "all the time" -- Just as we don't blame the nannies on this blog "all the time". (We've heard the same comment said about Nannies, also).
It's an open forum, and we are allowed open discussions.
Whenever we read such a sad post, what do we as the readers have the power to do? Nothing ... But sit back on our computers and complain, and say the same thing over and over. I.e., "I hope the Parents see this". Why not learn something once in awhile? I have read so many well-thought, intelligent, informative posts from other people on here.
What's wrong with that?
4:13
ReplyDeleteI don't know if your post was directed at me/the person I was discussing speech delays with but if that is the case...
I wasn't blaming the parents for the mistreatment of the child, or even saying the speech delay was their fault. Of course there are kids with speech delays/impairments which are no one's fault; however, the majority of cases I have seen are because the parents are unaware that some of their parenting techniques can be harmful to speech acquisition.
4:13
ReplyDelete"Did she ask the nanny to be a little nicer to the child?"
Do you seriously believe that would be effective? A stranger, telling a woman who obviously hates her job, and has no affection for the child to be "a little nicer" would probably result in and angry confrontation, and that would not bode well for the child.
7:51 CN
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Some impairments do fall squarely on the shoulders of lazy parenting, and it's the sad truth.
7:54
ReplyDeleteI was going to say that also. I have had an occasion or two with a confrontation, all it seems to do is piss them off - and then your left wondering if they took it out on the child. Now I just gather as much info as necessary and report it to CPS (There have been 2 cases in the past 6 yrs. I thought needed that call). If I ever see something that warrants an immediate call to the police, I would do that, too.
Both of my friend's children have speech delays. Both of them watch cartoons/Disney movies/whatever at least six to eight hours a day. Basically the whole time her husband is at work. It's so sad to see. She doesn't do anything, and won't try the suggustions their speech therapist gives her. When the mention of autism came up, she said she'd want to kill herself rather than deal with that, and decided to not investigate furthur. I should mention I use the term friend loosly. So I agree that too much television is a bad thing. Just wanted to add my two cents worth. Hope this nanny doesn't have a job for long. Even if she is working to support her family, it is not an excuse to mistreat a child. Bah!
ReplyDeleteI resent whoever said that this nannys children are unwashed
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the Caribbean and had a wonderful life
I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world
My husband who is American was spoiled but my growing up was so much richer
I'll never understand why unfortunate looking people don't strive harder to be cheerful and kind.
ReplyDeleteYes, ugly people have to work twice as hard, and that's how it should be.
I just re-read Ops post. I can't believe I missed that line the 1st time around:
ReplyDelete"I'll never understand why unfortunate looking people don't strive harder to be cheerful and kind."
I completely understand being angry at the nanny, and wanting to give her a "dig", but honestly, that's a bit of a cruel thing to say - and for you 1:11 to agree with. It truly shows your character.