Thursday

Vesuvio Park on Thompson Street - NY

Received Thursday, July 1, 2010
kissy emoticon
Vesuvio Park on Thompson Street in swing area June 29th about 4 PM

Two wonderful nannies (not together). I think you can easily identify the nannies from photos, both were smiling and engaging their charges.

Nanny 1 had two kids with her, a girl, 2? and a little boy, 1? She had them laughing and happy in the swing (back to back style)

Nanny 2 with the little blond girl (less than 1) was singing and clapping the whole time.

Both of their employers should be appreciative, they were super.
Photobucket
Photobucket

21 comments:

Morgyn said...

Wow, I've never seen a back-to-back swing like that... awesome!

emily said...

Ugh! I hate this every time I see it.

Good nannies do not deserve to have their pictures taken and published on a website without their express permission. I would be so very, very angry if this happened to me. Doing my job well shouldn't be anyone else's blog fodder.

I would feel very creepy secretly taking pictures of someone, for whatever purpose. Didn't the little voice in your head tell you that what you were doing wasn't quite right, no matter how you rationalized it.

Just because you'd like your picture on a website does not mean everyone would. I wish everyone would exercise a little bit more empathy.

let's get real said...

Well Emily, I can understand your point, but as an American, OP has the right to take a picture of anyone in a public space and post it on a blog if she wants to. Not everyone may want their picture on the Internet, but I know that, if I had to have a picture of myself on a blog, I would like it to be a picture like these ones, in which I'm doing something cute and being presented in a positive light.

me said...

I don't think it was meant to be a back to back swing, i think the nanny just put 2 children in one swing back to back. I wonder how safe that really is.

Really? said...

Is this really a good nanny sighting? I always interact with my charges like that but that's my job, isn't it? Just seems a bit strange that someone should get so much credit for doing something they should be doing in any case. It's nothing out of the ordinary....

let's get real said...

Me, I'm pretty sure the swing was perfectly safe. A two year old and a one year old put together would not weigh nearly enough to put stress on two heavy metal chains on a metal bar. And from the OP's description and the picture, it seems like the kids were smiling and having a blast, not feeling squashed or uncomfortable...as we all know, young children don't like to hide their discomfort with smiles and laughter. If they were older, heavier children I might be concerned, but this was probably more comfortable for them because they had each other to lean on and weren't flopping around all over the place!

Bostonnanny said...

When I work with twins I always put them back to back, its completely safe and there are more swings for everyone else to use.

As for the pictures on the blog, Im pretty sure if a person wanted to they can sue for slander or defamation ( assuming it was a bad report) if the blog didn't remove it right away. Especially this site since most of the pictures don't show the actual abuse.

i understand said...

I don't think Emily was addressing the legality, of course anyone can put up pictures of people in public on a blog like this. Her point was that many people would be greatly distressed to find their pictures online without their knowledge or consent. It makes sense to do it to bad nannies--but why use these women's faces when they were doing nothing wrong & minding their own business & charges?

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

I have the original photos... and yes, the children were happy and smiling.

Personally, I see nothing wrong posting pics of good Nannies.

What's wrong with a little pat on the back?

If I was a Parent of one of the children and saw this photo I would be glad knowing that my Nanny was doing her job. So often we think we have hired an amazing person... only to find out later our children were being abused.

It would give me peace of mind...

student nanny said...

will nothing satisfy you guys? bad nannies aren't bad enough, good nannies arent good enough, sheesh!

emily said...

Can you put yourself in the nannies shoes this time, Marypoppin'pills? She's doing her job right, her feeling should be considered, not the mother who employs her.

I would be absolutely fine with this if the photographers asked the nannies permission to sing their praises and post their photos. Was that permission sought? Granted?

There's nothing wrong with a pat on the back, but this is not what's going on here. It's exploitation & I've got no problem with it when nannies are being abusive, but not when they are doing their jobs in good faith I find it deeply creepy and I wish you would reconsider the policy.

I've posted to this site in the past about strangers taking pictures of my charges while in Central Park. And when that happened I approached him and asked him to stop quite firmly. I wish that all good nannies would do the same when strangers start getting snap happy.

Manhattan Nanny said...

OP, Thanks for the post. Good nanny posts always cheer me up after a long hard day!

Why would a nanny object to having her picture posted? Maybe she is wearing her roommate's favorite shirt, or she can't shed the freshman fifteen, her boyfriend testified against his former mafia cronies, and they are in the witness protection program. Personally, I'd be thrilled.

It is perfectly safe to put two little ones in these swings. People do it all the time.

world's best nanny said...

I've never seen anyone do the back to back swing like that! I wish I thought of it especially when I have 2 kids at either end of the swing set cuz all the other swings were occupied. Running back and forth so they can go "higher!!" Wasn't none too easy.

emily said...

I hate it when my friends put pictures of me without asking up on Facebook--why would I want strangers doing it?

The OP took the time to take the pictures, why not walk over to the nannies & explain her intentions? If it's such a great thing, surely they would have said, "Yes!" and the chances of the parents seeing this post would be much higher.

If you're doing something behind someone's back, it's probably not nice.

San Diego Nanny said...

Emily,
Why not just get over yourself (no offense) and join the rest of this and praise this good nannies behavior. It's not all the time that someone posts a sighting for a good nanny, so it is nice to see that they are still out there. I see nothing wrong with posting a picture of a nanny on this website, it's what it was created and intended to do. If the nanny has a problem (if she sees the photo), she can shoot MPP and email and ask her to remove it.
Thanks for the posting OP.

Ho Hum said...

Generally when Emily posts, it is to complain about something no one else would think to. One just learns to ignore her.

nanny2 said...

As a good nanny, I would also be uncomfortable with strangers taking photos of me and posting them to a website without my knowledge (although I realize it's not illegal). But more importantly, as a good nanny, I would have serious issues with someone snapping photos of my charges and posting them to a website (I realize that this site generally blocks kids' faces, but you have no idea what someone is going to do with photos once they have them). I know my employers would also have a problem with this.
In the case of a bad nanny, attempting to alert the parents and keep the child safe outweighs the right to privacy, but for a good nanny, it doesn't. Couldn't people just describe the nannies in these cases?

Cynthia said...

I've said this before and I stand by it. Posting people's photos on the internet without their permission or knowledge is WRONG. I would be furious if someone did that to me. Look at the website "People of Walmart." You think those people knew they were being posted on the internet? What about instances (and they are more common than you think) where a nanny may think she is secure where she lives and no one knows where she works or hangs out. Someone she may be avoiding who knows she does nanny work could see her photo online. Something similar happened to a friend of mine when she was photographed during a news program without her knowledge and her abusive ex tracked her down.

Concerned said...

I love reading good nanny sightings, it's so nice to hear about the "good nannies"!

I used to be a nanny. I'm now a social worker. I work at a women's center with women and children who come in seeking counseling and sometimes shelter from abusive boyfriends/fiances/husbands. My concern with nannies' pictures being posted on this site stem from my job. In severe abuse cases, our center relocates women to other states to keep them from being found by their abusive exes. One of these 2 nannies could be living in NY for this reason. Their picture being posted here could alert their abusive exes to their location, and as a result they could be abused yet again, or worst case scenario, killed. This not only puts her in danger, but also her charges, because the ex is likely to wait for her to show up at the park the sighting took place in. I think in the case of a good nanny sighting, only descriptions should be used, not pictures. It's just too dangerous. Now with bad nanny sightings, I agree with a PP that the good that comes from the sighting(parents being alerted to an abusive/neglectful nanny) outweigh the risk of any consequences from her photo being posted here.

Deni said...

Simple solution, just obscure the faces?

I'm an event photographer for a newspaper and take pics of children & families at events. I have to get express permission from each individual I photograph- not because it's against the law but because our paper respects it's readers. I am often mystified as to why but at nearly every event I shoot there is someone who refuses to allow me to use their picture. However, I respect their wishes!

jenuag said...

I always used the back-to-back when I cared for twins, its more secure and you can push at the same time.