I attended the (May 16) Wednesday morning storytime/singalong at the Temescal Public Library in Oakland CA and there was a jarring scare that's been nagging at me all day. After the storytime, when all the masses of nannies with children and strollers were getting their things together to leave, a lady with her charge stepped out of the elevator (storytime is held in the library basement) and gently guided a toddler girl out. The woman called to me, the closest adult, asking if she was mine -- I was confused and said no. "This little girl was two floors up, all by herself! Where is her nanny?!" the woman asked. I turned around and an older woman rushed forward for her. This lady was apparently caring for two children today and was distracted by the little boy with her so didn't notice her little girl disappearing into the elevator. Yikes! The little girl looked about two, is African American, was wearing a yellow patterned dress and had her hair in various braids with clips. I am sorry that I didn't have a chance to observe more closely; my own toddler was getting to be a handful too at the moment! Not so much a bad nanny sighting, but an alarming one, given how lucky this little girl was that another caretaker caught her before she left the building altogether.
well in all reality i don't think this was a bad nanny sighting. More like a bad accident sighting. If the nanny looked upset and rushed toward the child that means she was probably looking for her. This could have happened to anyone. My family lost my little sister in Target once. They are quick litte buggers when they want to be and it only takes a second. I would have been ultra concerned if the woman acted like nothing happened.
ReplyDeleteGood sighting. I feel that this was an accident and not a common occurance
I agree that it was probably just an accident. I was a nanny to triplets and they would zip about on high speed in opposite directions the second they thought they had the chance to split. I never lost one, but I can totally see it happening;especially in a busy library setting.
ReplyDeleteSorry guys, this thread went way off track and I had to clean it up.
ReplyDeleteNo BS allowed on Sightings.
when i was 5 and my brother was 3, we loved pressing the buttons for the elevator in the mall. we would sprint to the elevator to be the first one to press it! one day i guess we just got carried away because we ran, pressed the button, and got in the elevator. the doors closed before my mom, other 2 siblings, cousin and aunt could get in with us and you could hear us screaming all the way up and all the way back down until we got back to the first floor!
ReplyDeleteGlad the girl is OK! Glad she was found by a responsible person. I'm sure this was a huge wake up call to her nanny and other nannies as well.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the nanny told the mom about this on her own if it was in fact an accident. If it had happened to me, I would have told my MB.
ReplyDeleteGlad girl was found and by a good person. Hope nanny mentioned it to her boss It's bad, but it's 10 times worse for boss to find out throught the grapevine.
ReplyDeleteThis nanny may not be bad in the sense that she should never work with children again, but she might be at the point in her career where caring for 2 little ones is too much for her.
I had this happen to me as a kid, with my mom. This even happens to parents, it sounds like it was just an accident and probably scared the nanny more than the kid!
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