I am so angry! I was at the Children's Zoo this morning. I witnessed a Hispanic nanny with medium skin, dark lipstick, reddish brown hair and she was holding her charge naked from the waste down over the sink, running water on the child's bottom to get what looked like diarrhea off the child. In the sink! The sink where children was their hands. I can't bare to describe to you what was coming out of/off of that child in to that sink. It was stomach turning. I am not going to tell you what I said because I totally lost my cool, and in front of my child. This woman is a nanny. The child was wearing a pair of tan corduroy overalls with a pastel purple shirt. She had curly hair just below her ears, was Caucasian, with rosy cheeks and and a mouth full of teeth. I would guess the child to be 16-18 months old. The nanny had a mint green carry all bag with silver accents on it and the nanny was wearing black boots with her pants tucked in to them. The boots were leather looking with divots on them.
Tuesday
Bathroom at the Children's Zoo in Central Park (NYC)
Received Tuesday, March 11, 2008
I am so angry! I was at the Children's Zoo this morning. I witnessed a Hispanic nanny with medium skin, dark lipstick, reddish brown hair and she was holding her charge naked from the waste down over the sink, running water on the child's bottom to get what looked like diarrhea off the child. In the sink! The sink where children was their hands. I can't bare to describe to you what was coming out of/off of that child in to that sink. It was stomach turning. I am not going to tell you what I said because I totally lost my cool, and in front of my child. This woman is a nanny. The child was wearing a pair of tan corduroy overalls with a pastel purple shirt. She had curly hair just below her ears, was Caucasian, with rosy cheeks and and a mouth full of teeth. I would guess the child to be 16-18 months old. The nanny had a mint green carry all bag with silver accents on it and the nanny was wearing black boots with her pants tucked in to them. The boots were leather looking with divots on them.
I am so angry! I was at the Children's Zoo this morning. I witnessed a Hispanic nanny with medium skin, dark lipstick, reddish brown hair and she was holding her charge naked from the waste down over the sink, running water on the child's bottom to get what looked like diarrhea off the child. In the sink! The sink where children was their hands. I can't bare to describe to you what was coming out of/off of that child in to that sink. It was stomach turning. I am not going to tell you what I said because I totally lost my cool, and in front of my child. This woman is a nanny. The child was wearing a pair of tan corduroy overalls with a pastel purple shirt. She had curly hair just below her ears, was Caucasian, with rosy cheeks and and a mouth full of teeth. I would guess the child to be 16-18 months old. The nanny had a mint green carry all bag with silver accents on it and the nanny was wearing black boots with her pants tucked in to them. The boots were leather looking with divots on them.
What city is this in?
ReplyDeleteCentral park is in NYC. Duh
ReplyDeleteGross. Why couldn't she have just used a bunch of wipes? I see no excuse for this, unless she was out of wipes, which she should have made sure she had enough before leaving the house.
ReplyDeleteNo big deal, do you think those sinks are clean to begin with? I once witnessed someone cleaning a public bathroom by dipping a mop into the toilet water and then using the wet mop to wash the sinks. It's not like the kids are eating off of the sinks
ReplyDeleteYeah maybe next time she can just dip the kid into the toilet and flush 0_o
ReplyDeleteWho is commenting on this thread? Non new yorkers? These sinks are designed for children. They are set up so children can reach them, which means due to this shitty nanny- children would be able put their hands and elbows right in puddles of some idiot's doo doo.
ReplyDeleteRIIIGHT! Well...I will step up and admit, when my child and I faced a similar crisis (out of the blue, explosive diarrhea) and I didn't have enough wipes to handle the situation, I did the same thing. Yes ladies, crucify me! We were about 45 minutes from home at a children's zoo. It was a gorgeous sunny day and my daughter said she had to go NOW! She didn't quite make it and made a mess of herself, thankfully, I had her pants down. Her underwear were trashed and her lower body was covered. So I put her in the sink! I had been a babysitter for the neighborhood all my life but still was overwhelmed by the mess! And you know what? Not a single person berated me in front of my crying daughter. Instead, several kind souls offered sympathy and help and one even held onto my son for me while I tended my daughter so I wouldn't have to keep an eye on him. I see nothing wrong with a nanny, faced with a horrible situation, doing what she thought best. We don't always have perfect judgement in stressful situations.
ReplyDeleteI'm a NYer and I don't get the big deal. Do you not think kids touch the faucets after using the bathroom normally? The transmission of germs is the same. Yes, kids can reach some of the sinks, but they aren't clean anyway. What would you prefer she did with the girl? Dip her in the toilet? Pull up her pants and let it get all over her? Perhaps she brought a normal extra diaper and wipes with her, but the child got diarrhea unexpectedly and she used up all the wipes. There's not exactly many options for cleaning up this kind of unexpected mess in the middle of the zoo and I doubt many of us carry a huge box of wipes with us on a regular outing. I say good job to the nanny in being inventive and making sure she cleaned the poor little sick kid up.
ReplyDeleteYour ill prepared nanny is none of my concern!
ReplyDeleteI say shame on OP for 'losing her cool' in front of her own child and a young toddler who probably didn't feel good and was probably scared or confused. Did she honestly think that the sinks are clean anyway? I don't even let my children wash their hands in public sinks,we use wet ones and purell to get the job done.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is gross, I do feel for the nanny. I agree with the other posters that she probably had no other choice. I wonder if you would have jumped all over her if you thought she was a mom?
ReplyDelete:::gag:::
ReplyDeletethat is just repulsive. people can be so inconsiderate. where i live, there is a large asian population and apparently in their culture it's okay for their child to use the world as their toilet. i berated a woman at the pool just last night for having her son pee in the public shower directly next to my foot when there were actual toilets no more than 3 feet away. i see it all the time, sadly.
while i do feel for the nanny in question, no, she had no right to do that. how about paper towels or toilet paper dipped in water to clean the child up? those could be thrown in the trash afterwards and not be contaminating the entire wash station. what was described was a public health risk and extremely bad hygiene.
If this nanny had no other options (and I am sorry Lindalou, but I don't think horrid diarhea can be cleaned off with TP or papertowels, no matter how wet one gets them), then you, OP, were kind of a jerk for yelling at her.
ReplyDeleteNow, if she had a full thing of wipes, and was just not using them....
Public sinks are never truly clean. Poop doesn't help, but it isn't the end of the universe either. Carry Purell and handiwipes. Use them.
That poor child and then to have some screaming women assault her nanny. I am sure if that happened to me I would have done the same thing. Then after the child was cleaned up I wouold have used the SOAP and HOT water to clean the area up! You cannot use toilet water to clean up that kind of accident and you cannot let a child be dirty either. Wipes do NOT handle that sort of thing.I think that anyone that wold verbaly abuse someone for trying tot ake care of their child needs a wee bit of help.
ReplyDeleteSometimes wipes are not enough to get that kind of residue off a baby and you HAVE to resort to washing off because of prone diaper rash skin. Its a pity the nanny wasn't home to do this but you never know if it was a last resort and she save that baby a lot of pain. vh.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand.
ReplyDeleteHow else will you clean up a soiled child??
You had absolutely no right to scream at the nanny.
She's at a park, just how much wipes do YOU carry around?
I would like to hear what YOU would've done in that situation. Wiping the child down in wipes just sound ridiculous.
Who carries around that many wipes?
The nanny was doing her job keeping the child cleaning the child and you scream at her for that?
Shame on you!
How clean do you think the sink is? It's a ZOO!
All kinds of kids wash grimes off their hands.
It's not as if the nanny would have left the diahrrea sitting in the sink.
OH and great racist comment you posted lindalou.
Apparently, where you live, asians pee everywhere.
So a child peed in the shower. It's a CHILD not a grown adult.
jeez.
As many posters have pointed out, this was not ideal, but what do you think she SHOULD have done? Maybe she had already gotten the bulk of it off with wet wipes or paper towels and this was the final cleanup. Were there actually any paper towels or toilet paper in the bathroom? Public bathrooms tend to run out of that stuff alot. Maybe she had already used up all the wipes, and needed to deal with more of the mess. For all we know, the child got sick while they were out and had explosive diarrhea, with a major cleanup, and as soon as she was cleaned up and all the supplies were used up, it happened again.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the nanny did not enjoy the predicament and I'm sure neither did your child or the other child enjoy witnessing the altercation YOU caused, and I don't see how it helped. And yeah, you always have to assume the sinks and faucets are just as dirty as the toilets and flush handles in public bathrooms. After all, people use the toilet and then touch the faucets to wash their hands, right?
I am the OP of this thread. A woman who had just left the restroom with a small child had given the nanny a brand new pack of travel baby wipes. There were also paper towels in the restroom. The nanny was splattering s-it all over the place. She wasn't even keeping it contained to the sink. I only said something when it was apparent she was walking out and leaving the bathroom in that condition. And she didn't even wash her hands.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell me I am wrong about this. I saw the nasty bitch with my own two eyes. I regret losing my cool but there are ways to clean up and ways not to clean up a child.
Perhaps if you had included these latest additions in your original sighting, you would not have gotten as many negative reactions as you did. Had she used up all the wipes in the pack before she started cleaning the child in the sink?
ReplyDeleteIf she didn't even wash her hands after all that, yes that's gross, and if she walked away without even rinsing it all down the sink or tidying it up, that's gross too. But you always have to expect and be prepared for the worst in a public bathroom.
Of course not cleaning up after herself and the child is wrong, but you did not include those details. And call me a skeptic . . . but I'm not inclined to believe this was such a horrendous scene as you are now revising. I think you saw a dirty child being cleaned in the sink, nanny mid-cleaning, and jumped to the worst conclusion. You specifically posted "what was coming out of/off of that child into that sink." I really think if poop-splattered walls were part of the issue you would have mentioned that originally. It also doesn't make sense that you would have witnessed the whole thing from start to mid-cleaning to waiting until nanny started leaving with her charge (especially as you said it was another woman who offered her wipes).
ReplyDeleteEven assuming your update is accure, it doesn't sound like you offered any assistance. That seems like the most heartless part of all. You had no problem observing her ordeal and jumping on her to judge, but perhaps it could have been avoided if you offered to hand her these wet paper towels or assist in so many other ways. Plus, calling her a "nasty b*tch" isn't doing much for you either.
Even with the update, I really feel a lot of empathy for this nanny and not much for OP.
Yea, it was gross- but shit happens? LMAO. You seem like an angry lady.
ReplyDeleteI can see being disgusted, grossed out and even enlightened- but livid to the point of confrontation?
Chill, there are kids around. 2 wrongs and all that.
NYC Mom, excellent post.
ReplyDeleteOP, I think you were way out of line for confronting the already stressed out Nanny that was trying to help an obviously sick child.
And I have to ask ... you were there long enough to watch and then bitch this Nanny out (in front of the kids, no less) -
I think you should've offered to help since you seem to have been so concerned ...
not.nice.
OP, I think your revisions are a BullS- attempt to try to turn the public opinion of you on this site around. And YOU sound like the nasty bitch here. I don't believe things happened as you say either. I think you overreacted by screaming at her, if nothing else, for the sake of her poor sick charge. And you under- reacted by not offering to help her.
ReplyDeletePoor kid, poor nanny.
ReplyDeleteOP needs anger management perhaps.
And I agree with all of you...her addition to the story sounds a bit exaggerated.
This is nothing more than an uptight, angry germaphobe being unrealistic and judgemental.
What else could this nanny have done? If she was given wipes, she either used them up or they weren't working. I doubt, if she had the choice, she'd choose to strip the kid down and clean him in a sink...Wipes are a lot easier than that. It seems pretty apparent that she had no other choice. The wipes just weren't cutting it.
And even if this nanny DID leave a mess on the walls and sink, that doesn't make her a bad nanny..it just makes her an inconsiderate slob.
Get a grip, OP.
1:07
ReplyDeletehave you ever traveled in asia? have you ever researched the topic? it is, in fact, a cultural difference and i am not a racist for pointing it out. in china, parents dress their children in completely crotchless pants just so they can have access to squat down and potty whereever they are, even if it's on street or public transport or whatever. please know what you're talking about before making your assinine accusations.
oh, good grief.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me OP.
ReplyDeleteWhat was she supposed to do?
How dare you berate a woman who is washing crap off a child?
Just who do you think you are?
Consider yourself lucky it wasn't me with a toddler who had the gall to get diarrhea. You'd still be in therapy trying to recover from the words I'd have for you.
Way to make a bad situation worse.
People, get a hold of yourselves.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, DID get the impression that poop was going everywhere when I read the original posting. For me, the OP's additional posts just confirmed that, and didn't give me new information really. I imagined a terrible scene with poop everywhere. I think the attacks on the OP were very much not deserved. It sounds like what the nanny did was truly disgusting. It sounds like a better solution would have been to have left the child on the toilet while getting wet paper towels to clean her up while on or next to the toilet.
Second, Lindalou is correct about China. It is okay for children to poop pretty much anywhere. When they get the urge they poop on the street where everyone is walking around and this is considered very normal and acceptable.
why are we referencing china? communists, baby killers and civil rights violators.
ReplyDeleteThis is AMERICA not China. They also discard their girls there in favor of attempting to have a boy. Don't tell me I am wrong, my cousin has three adopted girls from China from orphanages. All were left there so the parents could try for a boy. She is going this summer to get a fourth girl who is going to be sent to Taiwan in a year at age 8 unless someone takes her. I won't go into the fate that awaits her and thousands of other discarded girls in Bangkok. But this has little to do with the original issue.
ReplyDeleteIn situations like this, wipes and wet paper towels don't cut it. If there even were paper towels to begin with. Many zoos don't have paper towels in their toilets and instead have the air-dryers to prevent the paper from ending up in the animal habitats. It is also virtually impossible to leave a sick child on a toilet while you try to get towels and wet them, so that grand idea is out. I don't care if poop was going everywhere! Had I been present, I would have offered help to the poor woman not scream at her. To echo another's post, OP is fortunate I wasn't the nanny or else she would REALLY would have something to complain about!
This is AMERICA not China. They also discard their girls there in favor of attempting to have a boy. Don't tell me I am wrong, my cousin has three adopted girls from China from orphanages. All were left there so the parents could try for a boy. She is going this summer to get a fourth girl who is going to be sent to Taiwan in a year at age 8 unless someone takes her. I won't go into the fate that awaits her and thousands of other discarded girls in Bangkok. But this has little to do with the original issue.
ReplyDeleteIn situations like this, wipes and wet paper towels don't cut it. If there even were paper towels to begin with. Many zoos don't have paper towels in their toilets and instead have the air-dryers to prevent the paper from ending up in the animal habitats. It is also virtually impossible to leave a sick child on a toilet while you try to get towels and wet them, so that grand idea is out. I don't care if poop was going everywhere! Had I been present, I would have offered help to the poor woman not scream at her. To echo another's post, OP is fortunate I wasn't the nanny or else she would REALLY would have something to complain about!
i have three children who have at times had unfortunate diaper blowouts and i've never had a situation where baby wipes were an inadequate solution. people in the care of young children should always carry an ample supply of wipes, diapers, extra clothing, and plastic bags. a nanny not doing so and them completely befouling a public sink where other children wash is beyond disgusting and i can't imagine why anyone would defend it. perhaps the new yorkers are just more inured to filth than the rest of us, but i while i don't expect public sinks to be pristine, i do have the expectation that they haven't recently been shat in.
ReplyDeleteCome on, people...we're talking about a very sick 16-18 month old BABY here. I would not have attempted to put this child on the toilet, sorry.
ReplyDeleteOK, so the nanny should have at least tried to tidy-up the mess this child made in the sink, but maybe she'd HAD it by the time the OP ripped her a new one. I agree with those who wished you'd offered assistance, OP. You act as if it were the nanny's fault the child was sick. Please!
Wow Lindalou, I didn't realize you were perfect.
ReplyDeleteTo suggest that the nanny was unprepared because she didn't bring an industrial sized box of wipes is a little silly. Every mother, nanny and babysitter I know (and I know A LOT), bring some diapers and usually a portable travel box of wipes with them when they go on outings...
You guys will nitpick ANYTHING if it means a quick jab at nannies.
And good job on the subtle new yorkers insult. Very mature.
Someone else suggested that the nanny leave the child on the toilet while she gets wet papers towels?
Hmm...if that happened, I GUARANTEE there'd a post bashing the nanny because she left the child unnattended...because she got shit all over the toilet..and because she allowed the child to sit in his own feces...
This poor nanny couldn't win with some of you, no matter WHAT she did...
Well, that does it. I was leaning the other way until Lindalou's last line. Now I am just laughing. Good point.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why nanny may have used the sink. There are times when you are suddenly overwhelmed with a crazy situation and you just react. Maybe later you think back and realize you could have handled it better, but in the moment you're just trying to survive.
However, she should definitley have cleaned up after herself as best as she could. That's only a matter of common decency.
I once left my husband outside by a fountain at a mall with our infant daughter, and 3 and 7 year old sons, while I ran into a store to make a quick purchase before heading to the airport. We were to meet back in 10 minutes in order to catch our flight. When I came out he was nowhere to be seen. (And for some reason, meeting up at a certain time and place has never been his long suit, so I assumed he had, as was typical for him, wandered into some nearby store and was browsing leisurely and assuming I could somehow read his mind and figure out which one, so this was already a sore subject.) He was later and later and I was getting madder and madder, worried that we would miss our flight. Finally he and the kids came out of a nearby department store. I was ready to pounce when he put his hand up and said, "Don't you even dare." I noticed his face was a little pale, so I asked what had happened. He said the three year old had suddenly announced that he had to poop...immediately. (He also wasn't used to having all three alone without my help.) So, he tells me, as he is trying to maneuver the stroller and the kids into the store to find a bathroom, the little guy unloads a giant steaming crap into his underwear. (My husband has very little experience in dealing with poop accidents, and is extremely squeamish.) He takes all three kids into the bathroom, sits the 7 year old on the counter and hands him the infant to hold. (Holy dangerous situation, Batman! But that's a whole other post.)He takes the three year old into a stall and slowly tries to maneuver his pants off without making him any messier than he already is, but OOPS, the entire giant, soft, mushy load of poop falls out onto the floor right in front of the toilet and makes a big steaming mess. My husband gags. Instantly the 7 year old begins to laugh and makes up an impromptu song about poop on the floor, which he proceeds to sing repeatedly, which only makes matters worse. Finally he gets the child's clothes off, manages to clean him sufficiently using paper towels, wipes and water, throws away the underwear, which are a lost cause (Remember, we're heading straight to the airport and our bags were checked earlier in the day) and dresses the boy again. He turns around to assess and tackle the mess in the stall, only to see a man in a business suit walk briskly into the offending stall and step smack dab in the pile of poop. Horrified, he grabbed all three children and ran from the bathroom, just in time, he feared, for the 7 year old seemed to have another song at the ready. He looked like he had been through a war. I still wonder what that poor gentleman in the suit thought about stepping in a pile of crap in an upscale department store bathroom. But we all made a beeline for the car, as we were cretainly not curious enough to wait around to find out.
We made the flight and I said nothing more about it, except for the little talk we had about small children holding an infant on an eleveted surface over a tile floor.
Lindalou-so you've had three kids with bad messes and you had enough wipes to handle the situation BULLY FOR YOU! I have one child and at my mother-in-law's house, when she had an explosive situation followed by the joy of 2 more within ten minutes at 22 months old, I didn't know what to do! There was literally shit everywhere! I had just cleaned her up and put on her change of clothes and guess what? SHE SOILED THOSE! We went through almost a full box of wipes, rags, and a roll of paper towels in the course of 20 minutes before I just stuck her in the shower while hubby and grandma went out to Target to buy a set of clothes. AS gross as it sounds, seeing any woman, nanny or not, in this situation, as a mom I would have thought ewww to myself but offered to help. I probably would have said let me help you clean up. She probably would have been very thankful for the kind offer. You were wrong OP. I think the nanny was doing what she thought was best in the situation.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back FNG
ReplyDeleteApparently not only do nannies have to make sure that they keep their charges as comfortable and happy as possible for fear of being called a negligent nanny. When doing what they feel best in a bad situation, they also have to beware the shit police
ReplyDeleteLMAO 8:56!
ReplyDeleteThanks MOM! And the same to you welcome back! Though I am not so sure either of us actually "left" ;)
That was funny!
ReplyDeleteOkay, honestly I wouldn't help the nanny clean up the mess. Gross. But I would help in other ways. OP if you had a small child as well, maybe you could have offered her some wipes. Or try and get some paper towels for her, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf this was another mother, would you have reacted this way? Or would you have felt sorry for her.
I think if this was a mother instead of a nanny, she wouldn't have reacted the way she did.
lindalou, you are wrong. plain and simple. your arguments are weak and you are completely outnumbered by the rest of the reasonable parents and nannies on here. you can continue posting various explanations for your beliefs, but it won't change the fact that the majority of people think the OP was wrong and the nanny took a reasonable course of action. so feel free to yell at the next person you encounter trying to frantically clean up a soiled young child in a way you disapprove of - but don't be surprised when you get an earful back from her and other people nearby.
ReplyDeleteFNG, I thought it was kinda funny that we both happened to post at the same time too ;)
ReplyDeleteAS a mom, I think you learn to have a little more patience when things go wrong with anybody's infant. You just can't always control what little kids do, and truthfully, I was always just thankful when it wasn't me covered in whatever just came spurting out of a child, from any end.
I also never blame parents when their infant starts to cry on an airplane. You know how embarrassed and miserable they already feel...and that they would give anything to have the baby be quieter just then. However, if you are going to let your 3-4 year old scream on the plane, we may have a problem. (Unless his ears hurt, then same as above, poor little fella.)
This was not deliberate. These are precisely the times we need to demonstrate compassion to one another.
ReplyDeleteMom - I totally agree on the empathy you develop as a parent yourself. Last year we were taking our kids on a trip to Disney. Shortly after getting on the airplane my 6yo started complaining of feeling sick. She proceeded to vomit at least 7 times in the two hour flight. We used up all the airsick bags and made numerous bathroom trips. Turns out she had food poisoning which is why we had absolutely no notice she was ill before flying. I felt *SO* bad for the passenger sitting directly next to us and was so grateful at her kind attempts to offer up any supplies she had and her refraining from getting openly frustrated with us (which I'm sure was not easy considering what she was exposed to). My daughter was 6 years old and in perfect health prior to the flight. I brought standard supplies including some wet wipes, paper towels, plastic bags, and ziplocs but there is no way I could have been adequately stocked to deal with that mess. I had very little notice before each episode and was really just lucky that she didn't throw up on anyone or anything. Thank goodness for kind passengers and flight attendants.
ReplyDeleteIf that stuff is not washed off pretty quickly, they can get quite the rash. I understand about the poop concern, but hot water and soap will kill it. I'd never assume a public sink was too clean to begin with...I certainly would want a nanny to wash my kid's sensitive hiney over him getting a rash on the way home (and those get easily infected in the diaper area) so she wouldn't offend someone. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteBut she shouldn't have left the place a mess! Yuck!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you were treated with kindness 'nyc mom' ... that's the way it's *supposed* to be.
ReplyDeleteFNG & Mom ... welcome back! ☺
10:42
ReplyDeletei'm fine being in the minority position and couldn't care less if anyone agrees with me or not. and i'm not the person who wrote this story so i haven't yelled at anyone, nor would i yell at a total stranger. i have to wonder what all you sanctimonious people would do if your children had to wash their hands in the shit filled sink.
Lindalou:
ReplyDelete"perhaps the new yorkers are just more inured to filth than the rest of us"
Are you high or something? What's with that comment? I would venture to say you don't live in N.Y., so that was a very crass thing to say. Do you have any idea how many people you offended with that comment? I'm sure you probably don't care, but it wasn't very nice.
The poster above who mentioned the rash possibility is absolutely correct. Sometimes diarrhea can burn almost instantly and very badly, and then the poor baby is miserable for days. (My sis-in-law and I called it "acid poop.")There is no solution but to get it off immediately and completely.
ReplyDeleteI also never let my kids touch ANYTHING in a public bathroom.
However, I still think the nanny ought to have cleaned it up...or, better yet, sought out a zoo employee with the proper disinfecting supplies to do it for her. (Who knows? Maybe she did.)
PS Hi Mary PP ;)
I'm sure if she wasn't being verbally attacked by the OP she would have made an effort to clean up but probably wanted to just get out of there and get the poor kid home.
ReplyDeletetx nanny
ReplyDeleteright on!
6:18
ReplyDeletegood grief! you need to grow a thicker skin than that in order to function at all. i've seen so much nastiness here that my comments shouldn't even make a ripple. have you been to NY? it is a dirtier city than most. get a clue.
People, I think you should stop attacking Lindalou. I am a New Yorker and her comments about NY did not offend me.
ReplyDeleteI think it is totally gross that the kid was being held up over the sink with poop coming out. That is disgusting.
It is really gross for someone to allow poop to go all over a sink, walls, etc. It seems to me like other ways of handling this poop situation would have been a lot better. It is a public health hazard to have poop all over the place.
fox in socks
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I don't see anybody attacking lindalou. There has been no name calling or insults hurled her way.
All of the posts that have disagreed with her were done with tact. And I don't mean to point it out, but she has been slightly rude in her retorts.
Anyway, I'm glad you weren't offended by her remark. Now we only have to ask 20,000,000 more people. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic).
Go ahead and crucify me.
ReplyDeleteI am a nanny and one day the child I was watching who was about 6 months olds had a bad bad diaper. even with all the wipes in the house it wouldn't cut it. It was dripping out everywhere and no way I would make it upstairs to the baby's bathroom so I went for the next logical place...the kitchen sink. I was still cleaning him up when his mom walked in. She laughed at me and helped me finish cleaning it up. She didn't get upset and yell at me. She didn't fire me. She just did what any normal person would do. Help.
We still talk about the redneck bath I gave him.
Lindalou (1:30 am), you're missing the point. The nannies and moms here would be prepared with alternate hand cleaning methods. Because public bathrooms are icky, and that applies to the bathroom sinks, whether poopy or not.
ReplyDeleteIf the nanny left a mess, maybe OP could have hopped off her high horse and found a custodian, explained the situation, and gotten the sink cleaned up.
There's more than one way to help an adult dealing with a child who has exploding poop. Berating them and/or making mental note of as many identifying details as possible so one can post one's outrage here are not helpful.
i haven't missed the point. i just disagree that cleaning a child's poopy bottom in a public restroom sink is ever an appropriate option.
ReplyDeleteWow. I thought the link to the rat out your nanny was a joke. This site is unreal. But then I am a New Yorker, points against me apparently. (At least I am not Asian, that apparently would make me really dreadful). Shame on me, I would have been sympathetic to the demon woman washing a kid in a sink (I would love to see some of these gals deal with a homeless woman giving herself a quick sink bath). It's called compassion, find some.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, mom! ROFLMAO and EWWWWW at your story. I cam just imagine the song...
ReplyDeleteFNG, that's what I was thinking-if diarrhea happens, it tends to happen more than once. So who's to say the nanny hadn't already used up every available resource she had cleaning up the first or 2nd rounds only to have it happen again?
12:12
ReplyDeleteThank you for you're lovely post ... and getting the point.
You rock!
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Hell's Kitchen, NYC before moving to Jersey, we always gave our kids baths in the kitchen sink until they couldn't fit anymore! Of course, we scour it before and after. Not just my family, but all the others we knew besides. It was the thing to do!
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought I was bordering on germaphobe because I would freak if my daughter put her hands on anything in the public restroom. In fact, I carry a spray bottle with alcohol in it and wash down the seat, the flusher and the handles on the sink before she touches it. Now, at 15 she carries the same little mist bottle, available in most stores for about a buck, and mists down everything without alcohol, then wipes it down with toilet paper before she uses anything in a public restroom.
nyc mom - Your 1st post were my thoughts exactly!! and 7:31 - I completely agree with you too. I do not believe the "additions" the op gave are accurate at all. I also don't think it would have been an easy thing to hold a 16 month old on the toilet to clean her up. She probably wasn't even potty-trained completely. I, as a lot of you, feel very sorry for the nanny and especially the child. At her age, she probably took the op's outrage at the nanny as directed toward her, since she was the one who pooped. Very mean, op.
ReplyDeletenyc mom,
ReplyDeleteMY five year old once sat bolt upright from a deep sleep he was enjoying across the lap of a grandmotherly woman who had befriended his sweet little self on a coast to coast flight, and proceeded to vomit profusely all over her. MY husband, who was sitting between my son and me, looked over to me for help, only to discover that I had, for some totally inexplicable reason, reacted to the extremely awful situation with uncontrollable fits of laughter. I didn't think it was one bit funny and could have killed myself for laughing, but I was completely powerless to stop myself. So, my husband had to not only try to figure out how to help this poor woman without any help from me, but he had to also try to shield her from me so she wouldn't think we were horrible, crazy people. Of course, the stewardess and everybody around saw me laughing and I felt like such an ass!
This is the same husband from the poop on the floor incident above. He was sort of a workaholic in the early years...so I guess God thought he needed a few "trial by fire" lessons in parenting!
LindaLou, I have a question. Since you have stated that you are always prepared why didn't you give her the extra box of wipes you had packed that morning in preparation for this very thing? I am a mom, and you are darned right I would have put my son's behind right in that sink if this happened to me. Afterwards, I would absolutely clean up our mess. And I would have found someone to report it to so they could provide me with something to use or go in and disinfect themselves...but I tell you one thing, if that was me, and some high and mighty ...flipped out on me...the man that stepped in the dept store doo wouldn't be alone.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you suggest she should have done? I'm a mother and I live in NYC, and yes, I've been stuck in a similar situation. I washed my son's bum using the sink - and then I cleaned it as well as I could and notified staff that I had had a potty emergency. Cut the poor woman a break!
ReplyDelete1:46
ReplyDeleteare you serious? why didn't *i* offer the nanny wipes? um, is because *i* live in seattle and was 3000 miles away, a good enough answer for you? seriously, @@. if i saw someone needing wipes, i'd always offer some. who wouldn't?
hahaha no excuse LindaLou! You should have used your telepathic abilities to THINK a pack of wipes to her!
ReplyDeletelindalou
ReplyDeleteI think I'm pretty sure 1:46 meant that instead of yelling at someone, why wouldn't you offer your many wipes? I mean, you say you come prepared, so there'd be no reason for going off on someone.
I though YOU of all people understood sarcasm. It seems to me that you love causing strife around here - and do hope you are enjoying yourself.
6:01
ReplyDeleteyou're nuts. i'm *causing strife* because i disagree that using a public sink to wash feces off a child is appropriate?
why would you think i would *go off* on anyone? i didn't write the freakin' post and i don't generally *go off* on any anyone. i'd have offered wipes and i'd have gone to get a maintenace person. that doesn't mean i'd have to think the nanny's actions were appropriate. i can think something is completely revolting and wrong without throwing a tantrum over it. i'm not two.
I think lindalou has suffered enough. So, most people disagree with her opinion, that in no way means she is evil or a horrible person. Enough.
ReplyDeleteSome posters on here are so idiotic that they cannot even read clearly enough to know that Lindalou was not the OP. DUH. That is why she has been blamed on this thread. Dopey people think she is the OP. Stupidity really annoys me.
ReplyDeleteGiving your own kid a bath in the kitchen sink at home, which you could then wash and disinfect afterwards if you want to, hardly compares to holding a poopING child over a public bathroom sink.
A homeless person taking a quick "bath" in a public bathroom sink hardly compares to a child being held over a sink pooping into it. It is disgusting to hold a pooping child over a public bathroom sink.
It is not disgusting for a homeless person to wash in a public bathroom. Instead it is sad that there are not better facilities for this person.
If the child can be held over something while poop is coming out, then the child should be held over the TOILET, not the sink.
I didn't get the impression that the child was in the process of actually defecating over the sink...I doubt the nanny held him over the sink to finish his business.
ReplyDeleteShe was using the sink to clean him because she had access to running water. I'd be very willing to bet he had his accident either in a diaper or on the toilet...don't stretch the story or exagerrate it to fit your argument.
The OP didn't give any indication that he was using the sink as a toilet...that was just an add on by you, fox in socks.
To Jersey,
ReplyDeleteThe OP said in the original posting, "I can't bare to describe to you what was coming out of/off of that child in to that sink." I have always had the impression that poop was coming both out of and off of the child ever since I read the original posting. I am not adding on to suit my argument. This to me seems extremely gross.
Big Whoop! She cleaned the child and that's really all that matters.
ReplyDelete