I want to submit a bad nanny sighting!! Thursday, June 9th, 2011 at the Slide Park across from El Dorado Park.Nanny: approx 50 yrs of age, Mexican with black sandals and a brown velour sweat suit.. shows up w/ 4 children and a white poodle.
Children: girl age 8, girl age 4, boy age 4, & baby age 1 and a half .. maybe 2. Nanny sits on bench and starts chatting on her cell phone. My husband & I are playing w/ our girls and chatting. Next thing you know.. the youngest (no more than 2) falls from a 7 foot high play platform, flips in the air and lands face first on the wood chips!! The nanny is still oblivious. I run to the baby and scoop her up.. this is when the nanny finally notices someone is touching the baby! I wipe the blood & woodchips away from the baby's mouth and once the nanny gets close enough, I hand off the baby. The nanny laughs it off "Oh you okay mommy" laughing, she repeats this several times. The baby cries for about 5 minutes.. then runs off to play.. her face already swelling.
The dog is being hauled up the steps and thrown down a slide by the 4 yr old boy. The dog having enough, bolts toward the road to get away and ends up running in front of a car. The children start chasing after the dog much to my horror. The dog came back and even though the nanny was no longer on the phone.. the kids were still much too close to the road and unsupervised. After telling the nanny she needed to pay closer attention to the kids.. we had to leave or I would have ended up in jail. I called the police to let them know I was concerned about the children and their safety. Unless we witnessed abuse they could do nothing. I was informed kids fall off slides all day long and that does not count as neglect. I pray this baby does not have any internal injuries. I have no doubt that mommy will never know the truth! I see this all too often.. parents pay for cheap labor and the children are neglected!!
If your daughter is between the ages of 1-2, was wearing gray stretch pants w/ a diaper and has dark hair w/ a nanny who trailers the kids around in a red wagon w/ a white poodle.. you need to find a new nanny and fast! Your child is too precious to be left unattended at the park! She walked to the park, so I am guessing she lives between Target & El Dorado Park. BTW, this happened in Salinas, Ca.
14 comments:
While I agree the little one shouldn't be climbing on something so high and the nanny should have reacted differently, I just can't stomach this sighting. It smacks of racism and if a stranger had touched my child's bloody mouth, I would have smacked her.
MissMannah,
I tried as best I could to edit the sighting and not disturb the pertinent facts.
I realize some parts of it are insensitive but the description of the Nanny is important and that includes her race.
I am hoping there is no correlation between that and OP's comment "parents pay for cheap labor and the children are neglected"... as we know this is unfortunately true of all races.
Everyone here knows I have zero tolerance for racism and hope that if there does appear to be an undertone with this sighting it will not detract from the fact that this Nanny was doing a poor job of supervising her charges.
Maybe the OP is insensitive or maybe I'm too sensitive. Who knows? I just hate the assumptions of "cheap labor" and of Hispanics all being called Mexicans. You're right, she was a crap nanny and that's all that really matters.
Most of the Hispanics in CA happen to be Mexican so since this happened in CA I see why she thought she was Mexican. I dont think there was any slam intended by assuming her nationality. DO you know any hispanic nannies in CA? I do and they are not getting paid as much as other nannies. Take a pol and ask because the ones I know are getting minimum under the table with no benefits. Some are illegal and are doing their best to support their families but they are considered cheap labor because they will work for less but I dont think you are getting a substandard person to watch your kids. You do what you have to do to make sure your family has food on the table. I see nannies from all countries on their cell phones ,ignoring the kids, reading a book, ignoring the kids. It happens all the time in evey nationality. BUT in order to describe that nanny you have to use the nationality,skin color ,hair color and body shape or weight and people right away jump that you are a racist or making fun of someone who is over weight. You are not doing that but you have to describe the person,heavy ,thin ,super skinny super heavy.
If MPP had to edit the post means maybe the OP was blunt or maybe nasty about things and that can ruin a post that should be on here but had to be fixed because of stupidity. Good going MPP you all do so much good on here!! That was a good post when you got done .
I honestly didn't read this as racists but a truly horrible nanny who needs to be watching the children (and dog) better. It is important information to know the race of the nanny.
Maybe she was just having an "off" day but imagine a toddler falling that high up? Someone needed to run to the aid of that child and considering it wasn't the nanny I am glad the lady did so.
I reside in CA and find that the majority of nannies in my city are indeed Mexican. Yes, many of them are illegal and work as nannies since they get to work under the table. Many parents employ these nannies cheaply than a professional nanny and their children get to speak Spanish fluently which is most def an asset here in CA. But honestly, when I take my son to the playground, I watch these nannies and even converse with them. (I speak Spanish.) They do an excellent job! They show a lot of love toward their charges as well as complete responsibility as they always are watching the kiddos. I do not see this post as racist one bit..the "cheap labor" part was probably referencing why a family with four young children and a doggie to boot, was only hiring one nanny. Considering the age of the kids, the family should have hired another nanny. That is a lot of responsibility to lay on just ONE person. If it were a parent, it would be okay..but nannies have huge liability dilemmas and this is just ridiculous.
Regardless of race, this nanny has too much on her plate. She simply cannot be an effective nanny if she has four youngsters to care for plus a doggie. (Yes, doggies are work too..ask anyone who has one.) LOL.
After reading my post, it looks as though I am defending this nanny's actions. I am not condoning a thing she did. Her first mistake of course was accepting this position. It is obvious she cannot adequately handle all of the responsibility here. She also needs to be more observant of her charges..esp. the youngest one. If their was blood and swelling, they should have all just left so she could put some ice on the youngest one's face.
My eldest charge recently had an accident doing something as simple as running to the steps, so I understand that accidents happen. And maybe this post is hitting too close to home. And maybe this nanny was having an "off" day (we have all been there). But I don't think that it is an excuse for not being aware of what your charges are doing on a playground, especially when it comes to something as serious as a child falling from such a great height (if I remember correctly, one should have the child checked by a medical professional if they fall from a height two times greater than the height of the child).
I pray that the nanny told the parents what happened at the playground and they took the necessary steps to make sure the child was okay. I also pray that they or someone they know reads this blog and informs them of what happened so they can act accordingly.
Nannies, like parents, are not saints and accidents do happen. But most of the time they are avoidable. If your nanny isn't taking necessary and reasonable steps to prevent accidents then she isn't doing her job.
Accidents happen, but the fact that the nanny was not supervising ANY of the children makes me very unforgiving of this incident. Many playgrounds are not designed for toddlers this age, so they really need to be watched carefully.
nanny12- I have heard it's actually if they fall from greater than their own height, they should be checked.
i dont see how this post is racist in anyway at all. Calling someone a Mexican isn't racist. That is their race and description. i don't get all bent out of shape when someone calls me a red head. how stupid.
this is a great post. The kids should have been supervised better and the nanny should have been watching that dog too! if she was doing her job no one would have ran into the road
You can't know if someone's from Mexico if they don't specifically tell you that. I don't like the assumptions. But it was more the "cheap labor" remark that sounded racist to me anyway.
Oi no posts since the 11th? Blah. Bye.
Phoenix, if someone calls you a red head, what's wrong with that? You have red hair! But any Salvadorian, Venezuelan, Guatemalan, Ecuadorian, etc., will take offense to being called a "Mexican", not because it's wrong to be Mexican (I'm Mexican) but because it shows how ignorant and careless some people are. They don't even assume you can possibly come from another Latin American country. If you look Hispanic - YOUR MEXICAN! Also, "That is their race"?! Honey, Mexican is NOT my race. You can call me Hispanic or Latino. No wonder you don't see anything wrong with Marypoppin'pills' post. You're just as bad as her.
mikitavi,
You are obviously new. I am the moderator of this Blog. Other people send in the Sightings and I just post them.
Post a Comment