Bickering & Emotional Abuse

art from the Irish Times

Does anyone else have fighting parents?

My female boss is bitchy with her husband but only as needed, because he doesn't seem to get anything or do anything. He is mean to her, like cruel. He says terrible things to her in front of me and the children and I don't know what to do. I'd like to leave the room, but the last time this happened, I was literally frying fish. 

She was complaining about him not being around this weekend to take the kids to get swim team supplies. He said to her, "You want me to play the Dad role, but you have no problem subcontracting out your mom role" and some other stuff ending with, "don't kid yourself, you're no mom."

How do you handle it? I feel myself getting nervous, my heart beating fast and almost feeling panicked. I'd rather not deal with this at all, but imagine that I will be so I am hoping for advice!

Have a question, experience or sighting? Email isynblog@gmail.com.

Am I Being Ripped Off?

Igor Braggin

I have been working for a family for about a year now. This is my first full time nanny job although I have extensive child care experience. The family has 3 children and the children as well as the parents are extremely rude and difficult. I often leave work stressed, overwhelmed, and frankly sad that these children are going to grow up thinking it's ok to treat people like garbage. Anyway, I'm getting a bit off the issue here. Although the family clearly has a lot of money, they don't pay me very well for the bs they put me through. Since I've started working for them, I've traveled with them several times. It has always been extremely stressful and they seem to think there's nothing wrong with making me share a hotel room with the three children. They act like I should be thanking them for taking me on their vacations. I was relieved when they said that they were planning a 9 day vacation that they would not need me for. However, when I looked at my schedule for the upcoming months, I noticed that they have tacked extra hours on to each week. My boss stated that they did this to make up for the hours I have off while they are gone. Is this normal? I was under the impression that since it was their vacation, I would not be penalized but I guess I was wrong. Am I unreasonable for being upset by this? The thought of weeks and weeks of overtime with kids that fight constantly makes me want to scream.

Email isynblog@gmail.com.