I was profoundly disturbed by what I saw while passing a park bench just outside the 2/3 Grand Army Plaza stop in Park Slope, right near Lincoln Street. A nanny sat using her cell phone between two small kids, who were perhaps 18-24 months old each and also sitting on the bench. One, a boy, dropped his red and yellow truck between the slats of the bench. He bent toward it, and the nanny turned from her phone to yell, "Sit there! Don't get it!" I went over and picked it up and said, "Here, I'll get it for him before you yell at him again." She laughed as if we were both sharing a joke.I walked on but was bothered by what I'd seen -- nothing horrible, perhaps, but what were these kids experiencing all day? A nanny who ignored them and yelled if they didn't simply sit and do nothing? What parent would want that for their child? I walked back to the scene but the three of them were gone.
Thanks for taking this submission...
op, thank you for your submission. Hannah Arendt wrote a book called -
ReplyDeletethe Banality Of Evil
Those who yawn do so at these kids peril
This is why parents should take the time to occasionally observe their nannies or other childcare workers with the children from afar.
ReplyDeleteI don't appreciate the negative comments towards the person who posted this. In all of the cases in the news where nannies abuse and neglect children to the point where devestating results occur; you don't think there were people around the nanny who saw something? People who noticed the nanny was impatient, indifferent or flat out mean?
ReplyDeleteThan You Jane Doe for standing up for the OP. I read this earlier and it really pissed me off ,the comments and thought I should cool down before posting. If that child had fallen off that bench he/she could now be in the ER getting stitches or worse. I think the OP did a good job of stopping that accident and that she was correct and letting this nanny know that she was NOT doing her job. I guess it takes a few stories about kids being kidnapped and hurt or dead to get the point across that nannies are paid to take care of precious children and not ignore them while they chat with grand ma. It takes 2 seconds to have a tragedy happen when we are not watching our kids. At my job we are not allowed to even bring our cell phones into the building. If we have a need to make a call we can ,we can get calls too but we cannot abuse it. We get paid to do our jobs not chat on the phone. I have seen a lot of women and men on the cell while the kids are at the park. I have seen kids fall off slides and get kicked by a swing because mom dad or nanny were not watching they were on the phone. God forbid we can take an hour to just be with the kids and not on the phone.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I liked reading the previous comments whether I agreed with them or not. They are what made this blog so fun to visit. Now I am getting bored...zzzzz......
ReplyDeleteTalk about buzzkill.....
Buh-bye!
ReplyDeleteOP should've said it loud so the person on the phone could've heard her. For all OP knows she was telling them the kids were playing in the sandbox or something not sitting on a bench next to her. I know if I heard something like that and then the person was accused of child abuse I would speak up about what I heard.
ReplyDelete