Wednesday

Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Midtown, NY

Received Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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Who:Your nanny and three year old child at noontime. Nanny is svelte AA woman with a pink knott sweater, blue jeans and tan hiking boots. Child was a boy with short brown hair, green eyes, two tone brown jacket and brown jeans with black nike athletic shoes.
What: The nanny and child were sitting upon the bench. The nanny was talking on the phone and she opened a tote bag. The tote bag was crafted from fabrique and had a photograf of an AA child on it. Out from there, she pulled a box of food. I was curious. I watched the child open the food. Resemblance to plastic lunch box but cardboard. The child opened it all himself- nanny was busy. Then he begins screeching about not wanting it and wanting something better. The kid was screeching like a bird, honest to God I wanted to throw something at him. The nanny barely batted an eye. She reached over and took the box back, rooted around in the bag and pulled out a very large Snickers sweet bar, I am certain it was as said, king size and handed it to the child. The child opened the bar himself and started devouring it. The child was a bit of a pudge, I have to say for you to understand this post. The nanny sits on the phone talking at great lengths as the child is doing nothing but kicking about feet on the bench and eating the candy bar. The nanny pops opens the box of food and trots out a shaped sandwich on whole wheat bread and she eats that. She eats the fruit out of the box. All while talking on the phone and not even looking at the child next to her. The child starts to screech that he is thirsty. She roots around in her bag and produces a bottle of water. The kid throws the bottle of water on the floor. She tells him he has to pick it up. He kicks the bottle across the way. He screams that he wants soda. She ends up giving him a Starbucks glass bottle drink. She picks the bottle up, not him. They left only after after she finished her phone call. The kid is out of control and the nanny so disconnected with your child. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does the person who took the time to make such a healthy lunch for a child know that the nanny is eating it whilst feeding your child garbage ?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a spoiled rotten child who has been taught that the nanny is beneath everyone, therefore should not be treated with respect. The nanny is probably so disconnected from the situation, she is just counting her hours until she can get home.
Not excusing the behavior, I work with children and would not tolerate that attitude or behavior, but she is probably just used to it.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't sound like a bad nanny posting as much as a bad behaved child posting.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what to make of this scene. It does sound like the child is out of control and is not being raised with limits and consequences. Are the parents so indulgent and permissive that the nanny's job is impossible, and she has given up; or, is she so disconnected that the child has come to behave that way with her?

Anonymous said...

I worked for a mom before that allowed excessive amts of junk food in her house. I was shocked the first morning there. She gave her son some fruit loops for breakfast. Okay so thats not such a big deal. But then he had a can of soda and some sort of chocolate covered ho-hos.

Even what was packed for lunch was all crap. But what could I say . I wasn't the mother. She even told me it was okay that he could have this or that.
Because she heard me once tell her son why not have the piece of fruit. And he had a fit and started to cry.

Anonymous said...

re: "she pulled a box of food. I was curious. I watched the child open the food. Resemblance to plastic lunch box but cardboard. "

and "pulled a shaped sandwich"

This sounds like that company that does zone like meals for children to keep them healthy. They are in NYC. I can't think of the name, but they aren't cheap!

One Fabulous Nanny said...

A bottled Frappuccino is 9.5 oz and runs close to 200 calories, with over 30 grams of sugar. Add that to a king size snicker's bar, and it's completely scary. That amount of sugar should be taken in over the course of DAYS, not minutes!

Anonymous said...

Nanny is a pig.
Child is a spoiled brat.
Nanny should be fired.
Child should be taught boundaries and manners and given low-sugar, high-protein, veggie and fruit-filled healthy meals).

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute---nanny ate the kid's meal and gave him junk to eat because she couldn't handle his temper?
I agree, fire her!

Anonymous said...

I agree with 1:18. But I agree also with the people speculating that it's probably the parents that are teaching the child to have his spoiled, entitled BRAT attitude.

Anonymous said...

Yes, this may been an over indulged child ... but what if the Parents had bought that special lunch for him because he was overweight? And because the Nanny couldn't handle his temper tantrum, she gave in to the child and handed him the sweets and ate his lunch instead?

We don't know the whole story, but this may very well be a burnt-out Nanny. This kid sounds like a handful.

Anonymous said...

On the flip side. We don't know if the prepared meal could have been the nannies. Maybe, shes on a health diet.

Anonymous said...

This kid sounds like a nightmare. Of course she gave him the candy bar,his parent sprobably do the same thing. Is she a bad nanny? Who knows the parents created this behavior not her. So they buy him an expensive kunch? Do they care if he its eat? Probably not because it is a sure thing this kid acts the same way at home so they just give him what he wants so they are not bothered with his tantrums. Don't blame the nanny for this. Put it where it belongs .On the parents that don't want to be bothered.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm....I odubt the nanny bought herself a "shaped" sandwich.

I think it is very plausible that the parents have the child on the diet plan somebody mentioned above because he is overweight.

Nanny is either lazy or beaten down by the situation and does not want to take the time to deal with reraising the spoiled monster the parents have created, so she gives in and gives him what he wants to make him shut up. The lunch is there. The kid isn't going to eat it, so nanny eats it.

It's fine if nanny isn't interested in dealing with this situation (emotional warfare is probably not in her job description)...but if that is the case she needs to NOT be this child's nanny anymore. The ethical thing for her to do would be to either step up and go the extra mile that this kid obviously needs, or step down from her position and let somebody who IS willing to do do a good job with him take over.

I used to babysit A LOT because I have always enjoyed kids. But I have little patience for very spoiled obnoxious kids and would simply decline jobs for those families with unmanageable monsters. This sounds like a family I would not want to work with.

I ONE TIME (as a young teenager) babysat for a girl, about eight years old, who was extremely, extremely, extremely obese. So I got to the house and the dad said that she had eaten all she was allowed for the rest of the day and evening and I was to give her NOTHING to eat, except water, between then and when I put her to bed (several hours.) No sooner had the door shut than the girl began relentlessly begging, BEGGING and PLEADING for food....nonstop. It was miserable. She kept grabbing and pulling on my arms trying to get me to come with her to the fridge. Then when I put her to bed she refused to go to sleep and instead kept howling from her bed about how she was starving. Finally I gave her a piece of bologna because I couldn't stand it anymore and she promised she would go to sleep immediately if I did...and she did. When the parents got home the first and only thing the dad demanded to know, in an accusatory and sort of angry tone immediately upon my opening the door for them was, "What did you feed her?!" It scared me the way he asked, so instead of telling him the truth I said, "Nothing." He proceeded to grill me because he didn't believe me. (Not that I had been truthful, so I can't complain about that.) Having already lied, I was not about to change my story, so I stuck to it. Finally he said something about me being the only babysitter so far who hadn't given in to her. After I left I thought, "No wonder. You people are nuts!" I was never "available" to babysit for them again.

OPs story makes me wonder if that is how this nanny feels.

Forever Amused said...

Sounds like a feral child raised by idiot parents. Nanny is probably doing what the parents do and probably needs a new job.

Anonymous said...

Just an observation about Snickers Bars... every time I ever tried one it tasted like they put stale peanuts in them. Therefore, I always bought them for my family and husband who never agreed with me about that. It worked especially well when I was dieting. Happy Friday everyone!

Anonymous said...

I once worked with a child like this. The largest problem was the fact that mom and dad appeased him by giving in and giving him whatever he wanted. If he cried and screamed about the apple he was given, they'd give him a candy bar to shut him up. If he through a fit, hit and kicked because he didn't want water, he got soda pop. If he'd already ate 4 cookies and that was 'the limit', but he screamed for more he got more. I tried for 3 extremely miserable exhausting depressing months to be the firm kind nanny, who didn't budge, the rock that would change his life for the better. Only to be told by dad one morning to quit being so "firm" because he was tired of hearing his son scream and throw fits!!! I almost fainted. I quit 2 weeks later, I couldn't take the tantrums or watching this child continue on his downward slide as he grew more and more into the role of the real 'Eric Cartmen'.

Anonymous said...

Spoiled children become spoiled adults.
I bet every one of us has met a spoiled adult, right?
There's almost nothing more unpleasant than a whiny grown-up who can't tolerate the word "No".

Anonymous said...

Any parent who refuses to back up their nanny when she's trying to discipline their child should just raise their little brats themselves!
I think these parents secretly like the fact that their children are spoiled, they think it's cute and funny and think it proves how "special" and "unique" their snotty little spawn is.
Barbara Bush once claimed her son (the idiot in the White House) was "perfect". Well, she seems to have convinced him of that and look what he became---a spoiled, useless waste of space.

Anonymous said...

Yes, George and these people grow up and have children and nannies and they are incapable of managing either. They make lousy parents and worthless employers. They should go join a cult of other spoiled adult children (they never grow up) and leave the rest of civilized society alone.

I'm not from the East Coast, so I like to google these places and see what they look like. I wish more of you nanny sighters would take photographs!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but it sounds like this child is spoiled rotten. I've been a nanny for a family before who's children were little brats, although lovable in a rare moment, but I soon came to find out that their mother talks shit about her nannies. If the child sees the lack of respect the parents show on the nanny, he'll know he can do whatever it takes to get that snickers bar...but my only question is...why did they have a huge snickers bar to begin with?


I'm a nanny now for a different family and the change is remarkable! The parents respect me and so then, the kids do. So about this girl and that boy, how do we know that this girl was not pulled to her limits, do you think that spending time with that child would be stressful and maybe after some time and perhaps some good efforts on her part before that sighting didn't work so well, so she gave up.


I know that when I nannied for that family, before my current family, my attempts at despoiling their children proved impossible, when the parents would let them do whatever they pleased. When I'd say no, they would just say "well you're not my mom, you're just my nanny" and i would stand my gaurd and eventually the little girl, after acting this way..I sent her to her room for a timeout and halfway through her mom gets home, asks me where her daughter is and i said she's in time out for misbehaiving and to my shock, the mom goes to her daughter's room and lets her daughter out, disrespecting the time i had for her as punishment. I know its her kid, but i think that shows disrespect for the nanny overall, the child will know that her mom doesn't agree that she should have been in there and that her behaivor is now approved, thanks to mommy.


well, i strayed off the subject, just know that sometimes situations like that are out of the nannie's hands. And you can't tell just by some stranger's experience on ONE day of this nanny's job.