Wednesday

Target - Mountain View California

BADNANNYSIGHTING
Hello, I was in Target today (Tue, Dec 4, 2012) in Mountain View California. A little girl named Hannah was screaming "Enrica!" at the top of her lungs over and over again, pacing and frantically looking for her adult, and crying. I approached her and asked her if she was lost. She was terrified and obviously didn’t know whether to trust me. She told me she was looking for her nanny Enrica. I told her, "Let’s go see if we can find her.”" but she was reluctant to walk with me because she was clearly trying to decide if I was a good stranger or a bad stranger (good for her!)

Instead of encouraging her to walk, I quickly surveyed all of the aisles I could and then I called out to a Target worker and asked him to come over. I didn’t want to take my eyes off of her because honestly, there were quite a few people around and I didn’t know if they could all be trusted to help rather than take advantage. I asked the Target worker if he could page her nanny because she was lost. We went together to the nearest courtesy phone, where we proceeded to give the information to the announcer to page her nanny. This whole time, she’s still shaking and crying and terrified. An elderly lady that was seeing all this kept saying, "Honey, you’re safe. We’re gonna find her.." because she was in such obvious emotional distress.

This whole event took approximately ten minutes. As we were paging the nanny, she appeared, without a care in the world, chatting with her shopping friend, smiling, clearly unaware that she had even lost her charge. And she was at least six aisles away from where Hannah was! Hannah ran to her and with a huge cry of relief hugged her legs. Enrica’s reaction? She rolled her eyes, and said, "You knew where I was. Stop crying.”" in an annoyed tone. No shock at the realization that Hannah had been lost. No concern or apologies or thank yous. Just an eye roll and scolding the girl. The elderly lady that had been with us was so fuming mad she wouldn’t leave. I started to walk away and then I came back. I said to the nanny, "Not even a thank you for the people that helped her while she was lost???" Nanny replied with, "She wasn’t lost.”"  I said, "If she wasn’t lost, how come she was screaming YOUR name at the top of her lungs and crying, and you didn’t hear her or see the crowd gathering around her??? How did we have time to look for you and page you? Just be grateful someone less trustworthy didn’t find her!"

She was clearly unaffected by my words so I walked away. But it’s killing me to think that this woman is getting paid to watch this child and has such a casual approach to her safety. Her mother needs to be informed! It is every mother’s worst nightmare to have a nanny like that. Please post this. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will forward it to Hannah’s mom. Thank you.
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Please be respectful... all negative comments directed toward the OP will be deleted.

13 comments:

RBTC said...

you are a hero OP - you may have saved that girl's life! keep us posted !

MissMannah said...

That is so scary--I'm glad you were the one who found her. Hope Hannah's mom sees this.

BrooklynMomma said...

How scary for the little girl! Thanks for posting OP and for stepping up to help and say something to the nanny.

Susannah said...

There is so many things wrong with this scenario I don't know where to start so I wont try. Glad it was you Hannah found and hopefully her mom or dad will learn the truth about her nanny before something terrible happens.

Nay The Nanny said...

That brought tears to my eyes OP...thank goodness for people like you.

MissDee said...

When I read stories like this, I can picture the nanny telling the parents:

"Um, well, yeah, so I was browsing and I...Uh....she was right beside me and when I turned around, she was gone."

Can you imagine a nanny losing a child and telling a parent this?

melissa said...

This nanny was probably completely mortified. As soon as I read her initial reaction, telling the girl she knew where she (the nanny) was, I thought- she's so embarrassed. I'm appalled at how she handled the situation. The fact that she didn't even comfort the little girl blows my mind. I remember once I had a couple of my former charges with me at a huge pumpkin farm and I lost the little girl. She must have been 4 or 5 at the time. Thankfully I was the one who found her (she didn't know she was lost- she was watching a little show), but although I had to be firm with her about wandering off, I hugged her and let her know how happy I was that she was safe. I couldn't imagine treating a child any other way. Thanks OP for helping this little girl. I wish her all the luck in the future- it sounds like with her nanny, she'll need it!

NannyTastic said...

I was at Target today too! (quite a few hundred miles away) The two year old I watch walked behind me, out of my peripheral vision, only three feet from me my heart rate raised then told him I like to be able to see him to know where he is.

I applaud the OP for catching and posting this.

anon poster said...

What makes me so mad is that the nanny just rolled her eyes and did not say thank you to the people who helped this little girl.
In my previous job I had two kids in my charge and sometimes I had to take them with me to run errands for the parents. Thanks God I never had any problem like this. I always kept my eyes very well open, never let them walk behind me but in front of me, very close to me. Their mom told me that I was extremely careful, but I have my reasons. I can't imagine to lose my charge even for 5 seconds.

Sarah said...

I can't believe this nanny! This is right near where I work, just a city over. What if someone had grabbed the child?

Becky and Mike Mooers said...

Thanks so much for posting this! I am a member of Stanford parent net and have posted this to the grop as well as sent it to the Woodside/Los Altos mothers group as well as the Palo Alto/Menlo Park mothers group....good job OP!

Kathy said...

The reaction of this nanny was totally rude. Like...she just blew it off and even had the nerve to admonish the poor little girl for "not knowing" where she was.

When my son was young, I had the same thing happen to me at Target. My son walked away from me and before I knew it, he was gone in a flash.
What happened was he walked into the next aisle and a Target employee saw him and took him to the front of the store because my son looked lost. I couldn't find him for about 10 minutes and was in a panic. I never once admonished him for walking away...I was just glad the Target employee was responsible + aware.

anon reader said...

The bodies of two small children presumably missing 10 & 8 years girls were found in Iowa today. Its now a homicide case. Thank you those who kept the target girl safe!