So, I have been looking for new work recently and came upon a woman in Rockville Centre, Long Island. I got to my interview only 15 minutes early, but neither parent was home until about 45 minutes afterward, so I spent that time talking to their current nanny (who was a cousin) and the children. The children were absolutely delightful...they seemed very good and they enjoyed playing with me until their parents got home. As kids get when there are interviews, they were over-excited and a bit disobedient, but for 4 and 5 year olds, it was nothing out of the basic "hyper little kid" idea. The mother and father spent a good 50% of the interview screaming at the kids and screaming at each other. The mother was the worst horror, she would yell at her husband for anything. If he tried to send the kids to bed, she yelled. If he just let the kids do what they want, she yelled. If he told the kids they would get a spanking, she yelled. The husband at one point was just playing with his own kids to distract them so there could be an actual INTERVIEW and she snaps at him "WHY ARE YOU SO IMMATURE GOD YOU'RE NOT 5", just basically flipping her nut for no reason. The mother then proceeded to ask every question she'd already asked me over email, claiming she forgot (it's in email, look it up?), and then spent the rest of the interview telling me that her kids were really bad and needed a lot of discipline. I told her flat out that they didn't seem to be doing anything exceptionally abnormal for their age. The highlight of the interview was when she asked me how long I could work, and I told her my average of a year, and her husband commented that "he'd be out by then", and she suddenly turns to him and goes "yeah, good, leave" and he's like "yeah I'll have my own apartment." If you see this family, heavy, heavy beware.
The father is a nice guy, or at least he seems so, who does his best, but he lives with a witch who doesn't know how to control her children and thinks that yelling at them and bitching at her husband is the way to go. She has NO respect for your time at all and I can't imagine what it would be like to have to work with her. Furthermore? She's cheap. She actually told one of my references that paying me 750 a week for over 50 hours of work in MANHATTAN was too much, and how could she even pay me that much. Don't expect a moment's raise from this lady, or respect, like I said."
Two things: You left a name in there? Might want to edit that out.
ReplyDeleteAs for the the post...I don't have any clue how someone could find the nerve to tell a nanny's references that she was paying too much. Maybe they paid that salary because they adored their nanny and their nanny earned every penny of that money.
Glad you got out.
Thank you, Anni. It was Edited out.
ReplyDeleteSounds horrendous, and I'm glad you found out in the interview rather than 6 weeks down the line. The only thing I would caution against is jumping to the conclusion that mom is a witch and dad is some sort of saint. Relationship problems almost always involve 2 people, and I wouldn't be surprised if those problems are flowing into mom's interactions with the kids. They should probably be interviewing for a marriage counselor before a nanny.
ReplyDeleteGood warning, but I would say potential nannies might need more clues in order to avoid them. Street name? 2 kids 4 and 5 years old but: boys or girls or one of each? First initials of the mom and dad?
ReplyDeleteCali Mom-
ReplyDeleteMPP and I are so grateful to you and other regulars. Thank you for your continuing contributions to this blog.
Sounds like a total biatch!
ReplyDeleteOh my god that poor poor man. He needs to be rescued, he needs to find himself a pretty mistress. I hate shrew women. I have never once in my life disrespected my husband like that. I hate it more than anything in the world!
ReplyDelete@cali mom
ReplyDeleteThey have 4 year old twins (boy and girl) and a 5 year old boy. You'll know it's them because the mother is quite on the older side for having such young children...between 45-50. The father seems younger than her, but he's around that age as well.
@nanny beth
I call the mom a witch because she did 75% of the yelling during the interview. I don't doubt that the dad probably has his own issues, but besides trying to please her, he was just trying to enjoy his time with his children and she basically just kept screaming at him to act his age.
OP, how awful. The irony I think is that this crazy bat probably paid lots of money for fertility treatments in order to have children.
ReplyDeleteJane and MPP, thank you for running the site! I can't stay away once I get hooked on a site where there is always a lively discussion to read :)
@cali mom
ReplyDeleteI mean, I don't want to say that older parents are incapable of raising children, but honestly? When you're 45+, the last thing you want to be doing is chasing down very loud, boisterous little children. And young children can be quite obnoxious just because they don't know any better. She seemed to lack a handle on that concept.
I'd like to hear what the other nanny had to say!
ReplyDelete