Where: Chelsea Piers
When: Saturday Oct 16th 9:30 AM
Who: Female Hispanic petite nanny with two Caucasion girls about 3 and 5 years old, see picture
What: Your nanny was on the cell phone sitting against the wall the entire time. Even when the girls came over to get her attention, she stayed on the phone and didn't stop the conversation. She seemed very nice and clearly she is working on their Spanish when she speaks with them (she let one practice her Spanish by speaking to whomever she was speaking to and reminded her to speak in Spanish as well). She wasn't unkind, but I think the length of time in conversation was excessive.
Very sad. Good view/ pic. Hope parents see this.
ReplyDeleteOP here. I forgot to say that they were there about 45 minutes.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know who or why she was on the phone...perhaps she was making a phone call for her employer or something like that.
ReplyDeleteMYOB,
ReplyDeleteChill the eff out! Give OP the benefit of the doubt.
Or maybe, were YOU the nanny on the phone? Why are YOU so high-strung, hmmm?
I have to agree that this is not much of a sighting. Did the girls wander away? Did they cause any problems with other children? Did they get hurt? They answer seems to be no to all of them and I don't think this person did anything different than a parent would do. On the flip side, she could be the parent, you don't really know. But my point is that you can watch and supervise children and talk on phone at the same time, everyone does it, how do you think people are able to manage their time otherwise?
ReplyDeletecold nanny-who's the high strung one here, hmmm?
OP again. I know enough Spanish to know that it was a social call. The girls Spanish was pretty poor and they tended to want to speak English, so I am certain they were not her daughters.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, this was NOT a situation where she was unkind, but I think talking 45 minutes on the phone while someone is paying you to watch their kids is too much.
I had a friend tell me that the sitter I had used on occasion was using the time with my kid at a park to text and make longish personal calls so I chose not to hire her again. IMO, short or emergency calls are OK. 45 minutes continuous calls, are not.
Let the parents of these kids decide if that's OK with them, but I suspect it's not.
OP
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your last post. You are being non-judgmental in your sighting there and with posting it like that are saying: I wouldn't approve, but here - "I'll leave it up to the parents to decide".
Great attitude and great sighting.
I am a nanny and my employers do not have a problem with me talking on my cell phone, unless of course I am driving their child! If the children are otherwise occupied (for instance, playing on the playground,etc.), then it would be fine as long as her eyes were on the children and her back was not too them. I see lots of parents (and nannies as well!) at the park or other child-friendly venues and sometimes the parents/nannies are so engrossed in conversation w/others that they are momentarily distracted by what they are talking about. I think as long as the nanny was facing the children and her eyes were focused on the children, then it is okay. Esp. for older children. When I nanny my charges and speak on the phone, I do not get weird looks from others like I am doing something terrible or anything. But it's a personal thing I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI just know that as a nanny, I work for my employers...not every person in America!! I don't need anyone else to supervise me..I have one set of parents to make happy..I just think that its insane..things happen, she could have had an emergency with her family, and I myself have had to call and order stuff for my employers. The kids are 3 and 5, not little toddlers-although, OP thank you for responding..I myself am not the nanny in the picture, and I rarely talk on the phone while working, but come on. The kids were playing, they were supervised. That girl could be on her 72nd hour. I have been there...
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't think you should be making personal calls while on the job that exceed 15minutes. We are paid to care for and interact with the children. Just because the kids are at a sing along or playground doesn't mean your interaction isn't needed. You can easily join them in a game of tag, climbing the play structure, dancing and singing along to the music instructor.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting paid to do this job, and just because parents do certain things, doesn't always mean we can. Most parents pay us to do things they can't do, and to give all our attention to their children.
If a nanny/ babysitter spent 45mins on a personal call instead of giving my children her full attention, then I would let her go and find someone else that could do the job I expected.
I think this is a good sighting. I can understand short phone calls but 45 minutes when you are being paid to watch the kids? A little much!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great sighting. The nanny was hired to do a job, I am sure there were provisions, requests, do's and "don'ts" in place, only the children's parents/nanny's employer knows if this excessive phone use is okay in the job.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't fly with me.
What happened to the policy of not posting actual faces?? I hope someone sues the pants off you.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering what is up with all of the censorship going on on this blog. I mean, I believe it is your blog you can do what you want, but I have seen posts removed and way worse ones (profanity, etc.) remain. It just seems like arbitrary censorship to me.
ReplyDelete?? and Cyn
ReplyDeleteI personally don't agree with posting ANYONE'S face but the policy here seems to be that they will not post a child's face. Adults faces are still posted
I've never seen any post deleted that was from a person and not anonymous. It clearly states all anonymous posts will be deleted no matter what.
Ohh and spammers are deleted as well
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, if you are in a public place, it is absolutely legal for your photograph to be taken and posted on the internet. I *think* it is illegal to tape a conversation without the person's knowledge, but that's it. I'm also fairly sure it is legal to take photos or video of someone in your home without their knowledge, just not audio.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not an expert. This is just from what I've read.
I'd want to know if it was my nanny on the phone for 45 min. You wouldn't be on a personal call for 45min if you worked in an office. Not cool. Good post OP!
ReplyDelete?? said...
ReplyDeleteI am wondering what is up with all of the censorship going on on this blog. I mean, I believe it is your blog you can do what you want, but I have seen posts removed and way worse ones (profanity, etc.) remain. It just seems like arbitrary censorship to me.
~~~~~~~~~~
What censorship? Everybody has a say here. You only get deleted if you say something racist or do not take the time to pick a moniker (and even then, sometimes a Reader is kind enough to re-post it for them.) I would love an example of what you mean.
missmannah, you are correct. you can take video/photos, but not audio.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know. I would want to know more about the location and the children before judging the nanny too harshly.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I am at a bounce place in Bellevue, Washington and if anyone is watching me, by writing this post it should appear as if I'm texting like crazy and ignoring my charge. Bad nanny!
Want the whole story? It is a birthday party. Most of the other caregivers (parents, etc.) checked in and left. I was told by my employer I could too. I could go grab a bite to eat and come back in a couple hours.
I wasn't comfortable with the idea. So I sit here, by the main exit with the only other exit (set to sound alarms) and my charge in my line of sight, glancing up now and then. But if someone wants a sighting, I'm texting and barely paying attention.
So I don't know. I will say I prefer to interact with my charges and can't understand "nannies" who avoid it.
OP good sighting. I understand that many Nannies have kids of their own and need the cell phone with them at all times. That they also are in touch with their employers during the day too but 45 minutes for a personal if it is not an emergency is BS. some Nannies are paid by the hour and this was 45 minutes of sitting and not doing anything with the kids she was to be taking care of and interacting with. I would be unhappy with this and if she is doing this on a regular basis then she is in general ripping off her employers.
ReplyDeletecold nanny...you need to chill. MYOB isn't even freaking out. calm calm down. :)
ReplyDeletebasically this is a judgment call for the parents.
Personally, as a nanny I feel like it is important to play with your charges but if they are playing with other children who really wants the adult to join in? When I was a kid if my babysitter started playing tag with us I'd find it cool but I would begin to see her as more of a friend and not as much of an authority figure.
my point is, that sometimes it is okay for the adult to sit and watch the kids play. If there is more then one child. If there is one child then PLAY WITH THAT CHILD. Unless these kids were like "nanny why aren't you playing with us?" then what is the big deal with her sitting?
now about her being on the phone...yes 45 minutes is a long time while one nannies...depending on the ages of the children. Yeah, the parents are paying her but you don't know the exact situation.
I am a nanny and I keep my personal phone calls to 15 minutes tops at most. However, when my friend found out that her boyfriend of 6 years was cheating on her, (btw I was at the park with a 4 and a 6 year old I was nannying for at the time) I spoke to her for an entire hour. The kids were fine, I kept my eye on them, they made friends, they were safe and I even pushed them on the swings while I consoled my friend about her terrible situation.
Another time I was at this indoor park with these same boys and got a phone call from their mother who talked my ear off for a good 40 minutes about their son's birthday party. It probably sounded like a social call to ANYONE around me, because I had a pretty good relationship with their parents and we could casually talk. I'm sure that anyone there could have taken a picture of me, sent it to this site and claimed I was talking for 40 minutes without even knowing it was to the lady who was paying me to be there with her boys.
I'm just saying you need to give BOTH the op and the nanny in question the benefit of the doubt. Why? because its fair and decent to do so. This is a good sighting and the op is right, its a judgment call for the parents. But its also fair to hope that this girl doesn't do this all the time.
I don't see anything wrong with this. I myself can talk on the phone and do something else. She obviously wasn't ignoring the children or being mean to to them. She was able to multi-task. Do you not have a phone at home? Who do you hire to watch your children everytime the phone rings?
ReplyDeleteWhats the harm. The kids were getting entertained. Its not like she left them. It looks like she is in sight if they need her. I just hope the parents don't see this.
ReplyDeleteWhen my son goes to a birthday party. They have entertainment already there. And the parents usually watch and talk among themselves.
I bet if this was a parent it wouldn't have caught the posters attention. Would you put up a picture of a mom talking on her phone???
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletewhy my comment has been move because i speak the truth
~~~~~~~~~~~~
By all means, speak the truth... but pick a moniker first.
who ever posted this shut the eff up and mine your effing buisness. you dont know what the conversation was about. it's people like you who make nannies lose their job for no reason at all..... when you with your kids don't you ever be on your phone? but i guess that's ok for the parent, but not the nanny.... mine your effing buisness...
ReplyDeleteWhat a nothing post. What parent hasn't ever done this? There's a higher standard for employees than for family? Seems ass backward to me.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile you've just outed someone publicly, with a frigging picture and all.
Sad.