Received Tuesday, March 4, 2008Obnoxious nanny. Being obnoxious the whole time she was there. Yesterday, (3/3) at Spector PG in Central Park. Busy body. Helicoptering. Ordering about people near her child. She talked so much you would think she knew the right thing to do. Surprised was I when she helped her charge (boy, 3-4, short brown hair, blue nylon racing suit, with white top underneath. was originally wearing brown down coat with rustic look to it, but shed that to play) wait she helped her charge whip down his pants and whip out his penis and pee on a tree right next to the playground in plain site. No shrubs or greenery. Just the boy. I was giving her a look like, "ewww" and she noticed. After the boy finished, he ran to climb back up the slide, something the nanny was policing to the disadvantage of those who were trying to come down the slide. "Wait, let him come up first, he's climbing up. Now let him go back down and you can go". She was totally on my last nerve and saw me looking at her and asked if I had a problem. I suggested that it was called a restroom and she should utilize it. She then said in a booming voice so that everyone could hear her make her point, "it's a boy's penis, what you think that is going to hurt. It's natural 'cept if you have a dirt mind and I guess you do". Yes, this is what she said. I was less concerned about the boy's actual penis than I was her teaching to use the playground as a toilet, but okay. If your nanny is a heartily built black woman in her forties with braided hair that she gathered into a pony tail, who was wearing white on white tennis shoes and brown pants with a burgundy colored jacket, well I don't know what to tell you. You obviously have your hands full already. Oh and I didn't respond at her. I just shook my head at her like she was crazy. And I can't speak for anyone else who was there yesterday afternoon while we were but by their reaction, they were thinking the same thing.
This nanny sounds awesome to me!You people are ridiculous...perhaps he should have used the bathroom but occassionally you have a kid that can't make it to the bathroom...it's not like the kid took a dump on the tree! Have you ever traveled outside your little suburb OP, much less outside AMERICA? Maybe she was a little too helicopter, but at least she was paying attention to her charge instead of being lazy.
ReplyDeleteWould this nanny be so awesome if it was your kid who was on the slide first, and you had to wait 10 minutes for the kid to quit screwing around, while his nanny yelled orders at you and your child? Think about it.
ReplyDeleteThe person who posted it get a life
ReplyDeleteWell, I am all for helicoptering instead of ignoring, but 11:38, I can't take you very seriously.
ReplyDeletePeeing on a tree in the playground is nasty. At least go out of the play area and find a tree no one will be playing near.
Forcing every other kid to wait for YOUR kid is rude. There are a few unwritten playground rules, at least where I live, and one of them is:
Thou shalt not permit thy child(ren) to start climbing up the slide if there are any other children playing on the same slide. Thou must then obeyest the law of "up the ladder, down the slide", to preventeth injury.
The nanny might have been helicoptering, but not walking how ever many feet it was to the bathroom is lazy. If this child was a girl would she have had her use a tree?
ReplyDelete1:23.....good point. To keep my child care license current.....I must take a Universal Precautions class every 2 years. To urinate on a playground is absolutely unhealthy let alone disgusting! Hepititis (C, anyway) can live up to 7 days on a dry surface.... Nannies should be required to take a UP class......on the other end of this....how humiliating to the poor boy to expose him and have him urinate in front of strangers.....in my book, that's abuse!
ReplyDeleteMy husband won't allow pictures of my 4 year old (fully dressed) on Flickr. Why? Pedophiles lurk on the net looking for pics of kids. And their on the playgrounds too. Don't kid yourself. Just because they have a kid WITH them doesn't mean they aren't a pedophile.
ReplyDeleteIf adults pee on trees in the park, they are arrested. I would be furious if someone was teaching my child that that sort of behavior is acceptable!
ReplyDeleteoh, ugh. the peeing thing is one of my pet peeves. i understand if it's an emergency, but use the bathroom when one is available. what would have put me over the edge was her telling the other kids to wait while her charge went UP the slide. Um, no. kids should only go up the slide when no one is waiting on top, and even then, they should expect to be taken out by whomever is going down.
ReplyDeleteWould any mother really want her kid to be cared for by someone like this? Do these mothers understand what is going on?
ReplyDeleteWe all have to take into consideration whether or not there was a restroom close by . Majority of playgrounds do not have a restroom, which i think should be taken into consideration by city parks.
ReplyDeleteHow would u feel if u were in the child situation with no restroom near by and need to use one and u were allowed to go on yourself.
I think we should be coming down on the city and not the fact that a child was allowed by his nanny to urinate on a tree. Im a mom and i have been in situation like this where u are turned away when ask to use certain businesses washroom.
True. But really ... most every playground I know of has a bathroom facility nearby.
ReplyDeleteHow hard is it to walk the child over and let him do his business?
I think this is the height of pure laziness. Not a good example for this little boy. The hovering/helicoptering I could over look ... but the slide issue was just plain rude.
Chick - love your post!
Some parents (and nannies I suppose as well) utilize the freedom that little boys have to basically urinate everywhere to help in potty training. Not ideal, I realize this, but it was suggested to me by a parent of a child I cared for, and being open minded (a little too open minded I guess!) I let him do it, and he was potty trained in a week. Fully. People don't realize that it is not second nature for boys to train on playground toilets that are too tall for them to stand up and use. Potty training is intimidating and downright scary for some children, so I say whatever works, works.
ReplyDeleteAt least she wasn't sitting on a bench or sleeping... or lighting a cigarette in a baby's face... or, well, you get it.
Please don't excuse this nannies behavior. It wasn't abusive, but it WAS despicable!
ReplyDeleteOkay, so the nanny is a little pushy, but NOT with her charge, whom it seems like she cares a lot for. PLUS, how many NYC mommies do we know who *love* to helicopter?
ReplyDeleteAllowing a child to pee in or very near a place where other kids play = DISGUSTING, filthy and unsanitary. Ordering everyone else to stand back and wait while your child or charge cuts to the front of the line or takes the right of way when it is not his = RUDE, sets a bad example for the child and does him no favors by letting him think everyone should always stand back and let him have his way first.
ReplyDeleteI can see how a dilemma might arise if there is no bathroom nearby but a sensible nanny or parent will have a sensible solution planned, which letting the child pee right there in a play area is NOT. I have actually seen someone let their child poop right IN a playground, next to the fence, though she scooped it up later with a plastic bag, and I don't know WHY anyone would think that was acceptable.
The pee thing totally depends on where you are. At the park I take my charges to in DC there is no bathroom anywhere nearby and ALL of the kids just pee in the bushes/by the fence/wherever. I thought it was gross and weird but apparently it is totally acceptable at this park (in a very nice part of the city)
ReplyDelete2:52,
ReplyDeleteEven the girls goes in the bushes? That playground must smell, especially during the hot summer.
I nannied FT for a family with 2 little boys, one that I potty trained. When he was first learning to go, his mom told him it was ok to "water the trees" if he was outside and had to go. This was because we found out very early on in potty training if he said he had to go, you had about 10 seconds to get him somewhere! I usually carried him to a tree area (running!), quick pulled down his pants, and he went. I hovered around him as much as possible for his privacy, however, and NEVER let him go within 20ft of the playground.
ReplyDeleteA side note...we frequented about 10 different parks within a few square miles. No public restrooms near any of them. One of the parks was located a block from Starbucks, and since the Mom bought something there everyday, they let us use the restroom.
Sometimes kids just have to go...
To the poster who posted claiming that this was a way to pass Hepatitis C. You really need to educate yourself about that disease. It is folks like yourself who make it harder on folks like myself who actually do have hepatitis c and have to deal with uneducated people passing on poor info and turning others into hysterical germaphobics. You can believe that anyone who has hepatitis C is well educated and take the time to be sure to share the information and to make sure those around us are safe. i am almost betting if that child had it that the nanny would have been well educated by that child's parents on how to handle everything. While it is not sanitary there would need to be a lot of variables in place for instance child taking potty trip needs to be hepatitis C positive. The child who walked over it or even took it's hands and played in it would need to have a open sore and the child that urinated would need to have passed some time of blood in that urine
ReplyDeleteAfter all it is a blood bourne disease
It is very true that Hepatitis C will stay active on a surface when there is BLOOD on the surface. Now if shorty had a bloody nose and she wiped it on a bench
i would worry
Please please educate yourself and do not pass along wrong information.
burbsnanny, kids who can't hold it for more than 10 seconds and have to have their pants ripped down to piss on the nearest tree aren't ready to potty train.
ReplyDeleteGood point lindalou!
ReplyDeleteI agree...her oldest potty trained a little after 3, and she "didn't have time to wait" for the younger one (she was on the move and didn't like having to stop to change diapers).
ReplyDeleteMom decided at 2.5 the youngest was going to stop diapers. COLD TURKEY. I decided to make the best of the situation, since my approach was much more gentle (versus his being berated by dad for having an accident). I made a fun potty chart, we decorated it together, used stickers, and m&m's for rewards.
I had to work with the situation I was in...when mom gives away all the diapers and all you have is Elmo underwear...
This particular community is a different world...
I understand your point Burbs nanny. It is like that here too. People somehow find it to be a status symbol to have the youngest potty trained child in the neighborhood. There are 2 year olds having potty accidents all over the place, but if you say you don't agree with that idea, they look down their noses at you. (Not that that stopped me from triaing mine on a rational timetable, but they seemed to think my child was somehow defective because he wore diapers, at TWO!)
ReplyDeleteOK if you're into really sad frustrated kids, and pee all over your house I guess.
I live in a rural area, and have never let my 4 year old son pee anywhere but in a potty or toilet. We have a potty in the back of my station wagon, but that's OK. The park has a bathroom. I think that if girls have to learn how to hold it to the bathroom, boys should be held to the same rules. It's a bad habit to get into.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with chick that hovering is better than ignoring, but up the stairs, down the slide. Only way to take turns and avoid injury!!
I agree upstate mom. It's just a bad habit to let boys fall into and should be avoided IF at all possible.
ReplyDeleteThere is a household full of hippy-dippies next door to us (sorry if anyone is bothered by that term but these folks are just morons) and one time I heard the grandmother admonish her grandson in the backyard saying "XXX, that's not a place to pee. You should pee in the dirt!" And I thought, how about "you should pee in the toilet???" This boy was older than potty training age and at his own house so there was NO excuse for that.
I saw a similar 'peeing incident' once at a playground near Washington DC. The nanny helped the kid drop his pants and pee in full view of everyone on the playground on a bright sunny day, and I thought it was irresponsible and gross. I have four kids, three of them boys, and at minimum, if it's a genuine emergency, I walk them twenty or thirty feet away into shrubbery and stand behind them (blocking them from view) while they go. None has ever had an accident because I made them wait one minute instead of 'going' then and there. The OP is right that the nanny is teaching a dirty habit (playground as toilet). She's exposing the kid to weirdos with cellphone cameras and not doing her job of teaching the kid the basics of how to function in society. As funny as it would be if the kid drops his pants and pees next to the buffet table at the company picnic, making the parents wonder where in the world he got an idea like that, a little boy ought to be taught better than this.
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