Your nanny Rita lost both of your daughters - Victoria and Charlotte.April 9th, 2009 around 11:30am at Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side I was with my students and fellow teachers (I am a teacher) and I saw a girl around 2 or 3 years old wandering around alone crying. She had curly hair. I asked her her name and she said her name was Victoria and that she was lost. I asked for her nanny's name and she told me it was Rita and that she had dark skin. I picked Victoria up and carried her around the park trying to find Rita. About fifteen minutes later she pointed to a woman with an empty stroller, she was dark skinned and had an accent. It was Rita. She said she had been watching the sister and that Victoria had wandered off. I asked where the sister was who was 6 years old and she said she was off looking for Victoria and that now she could not find the sister whose name she told me was Charlotte. I found Charlotte who was alone and looking for Victoria. Your girls are lovely girls and were very frightened - especially Victoria. What concerned me was that anyone could have easily taken the children out of the park and the Rita would not have noticed. She was not even looking for the children and was not upset at all when I returned Charlotte. I wish you the best.
17 comments:
I wish more nannies were like you- I hope the parents see this. This is very scary. I am glad you were there.
Yup, scary and right in my hometown park...
Its funny however the numerous posts that come in from this said park, and nannies are still cavalier about their jobs and the multitude eyes that are on them, and still so uncaring and condescending.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!!
I hope Miss Rita gets in a heap of trouble.
Once again, we have a lazy sloth nanny who has no regard for career, future, or more importantly, charges and family. How did she not notice the children were missing?!
Rita (in a panic 911 call) I am a nanny and the children I watch are missing! Help!!
911 Operator: Calm down miss, we are sending police immediately.
When police arrive, Rita tells them she turned her back for one second, and both children wandered off. The police buy her story and contact the parents, who are in a state of panic, fear, and anger.
Employer to Rita (after being contacted by police about missing children) How could you let the children wander off like that? Do you realize what could happen to them?
Rita: I turned my back to them and they wandered off.
Employer: These are my children and I pay you good money to care for them. This is unacceptable. You are fired.
Rita: I am so sorry I turned my back on them. I don't know what to say or do.
Employer: There is nothing you can do except leave, because you are fired. The reason I fired you is because you put my children in danger.
Rita: (in tears about what happened) I understand. I am a lazy, irresponsible nanny who needs a new career, since I can't handle this job.
Thank you OP. Thank you for finding these children. The other day I let J walk through the store ahead of me, however, I had my eye on him every second....
I can only imagine the nanny when she is not in public.
Kids do wander off, it is a fact of life. She should have called for help or at least been frantically searching and asking everyone she saw to be searching with her.
But to send the six year old off by herself to search for the younger sister??? Totally and completely unacceptable!!!
I know hindsight is 20/20, but I would have asked the six year old for her mommy's name and called her up myself. At least it's reasonable to think that the six year old will tell her mom what happened today.
Wow! She wasn't even up looking for the kid?? WTF???
I remember this one time my little missy sort of wondered off. We were in that very same park and I took her out of her stroller to go play on the baby play structure. While parking the stroller about a foot away, I took my eyes off her. She was just in front of me because I had taken her out only a second proir. When I looked up to see where on the play area she was, she was no where to be seen! I am talking about seconds here, I take her out park and look for her, She was gone.
I was a nervous wreck. We had just arrived about five minutes and I had every mom, dad and nanny flustered with my yelling and screaming her name. I saw her running to the other side of the playground about five feet away where the sings were. I almost had cardiac arrest. She was two.
My point is I was screaming for her and caling her name within seconds, running around the play structure and had everyone grasping on to their child and helping me look.
The whole incident lasted about three minutes max. When I did get my hands on her, we had a talk about running away from me and I was so flabbergasted I took her home so I could sit down.
I laugh thinking about it now but still blown away at the level of thoughtlessness nannies have for the children they care for, and the level of disrespect for their employers, their jobs and themselves on the whole.
Shame on Rita.
I have an almost 3 year old charge and cannot imagine being so calm if he were missing, what is wrong with some people? I really hope that the parents of these little girls see this, hopefully they do or someone they know does and informs them, having the names of both girls and the nanny should make it easy for someone to recognize them. Great job OP. Thank God you were there or who knows what could have happened to those little girls.
I have a three year old charge and my heart starts to race when it takes more than a second to locate her on the playground.
Kids do wander off but you look for them. I can't believe this nanny just sat there!
I hope the parents see this, or at least the six year old says something.
I swear to God I would've tucked the kids to one side of the playground that she couldn't see and then ask her if the man in the brown van was the children's Daddy, because he just came to pick them up!
You want to see a nanny freak?
OP-
Hi I am a the original poster- I am glad you all agree with me that this was atrocious. I mean the fact that she was so calm and wasn't even calling for the girl. It's nice to know that there are other great nannies out there.
I wouldn't have just handed over the child to Rita. She wasn't even alarmed that the kids were missing. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this same nanny loses them again. I think if I had a cellphone handy I would have called the cops on her. Just my opinion.
But I am glad OP it was someone like you that was able to help out. Imagine, it could have been a kidnapper.
Nanny Taxi...nice idea
LMAO.
How on earth was she not looking for the children? I would have kept Charlotte with me and ran around screaming for Victoria. People lack common sense! I pray that their mother and father read this!
Carl Schurz playground is large, can be very crowded in nice weather, and the main gate isn't even closed! My heart is in my throat if I lose sight of one of my charges for an instant. You can not sit on your duff and let a two yo run around.
Good post OP, the names make them easy to identify. I hope the parents hear about this before something happens to those little girls.
A past occasional sitter lost my then 4yo son at this park. He found his own way home which was about 5 blocks away and across a big avenue. That was her last day working as our babysitter. This is a big park and easier to "lose" kids in than some, but for the nanny to not even be looking or upset - outrageous!
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