Tuesday

Enchanted Kingdom Play Area in Scottsdale, AZ

Receieved Tuesday, February 19, 2008
My daughter had the worst time on Saturday, (2/16/08) because of a little boy who was not being properly cared for by his babysitter. If you sent your babysitter to the indoor play area on Play Area in the Scottsale Fashion Square Mall on East Camelback Road in Arizona on Saturday with your son who is about three years old with dark hair and if he wore grey cords and a black sweatshirt, it would do you good to hire a babysitter who taught your son when he attacked and bullied other kids. But she couldn't since she paid him no attention. It was even difficult for me to even find out who his sitter was after he reduced my three year old to tears. If you know the person who employs a babysitter who is a heavier set white woman with brown hair and about 30 years old, who on that day was wearing blue jeans and a plaid shirt open with a top underneath it, please let that child's parent know that something should be done. Because your son was not caught in his behavior, he hurt my child and had other parents making faces at him and keeping their children away from him. A better babysitter would have been with him catching him acting up and setting him straight so that he could make friends. That is what these places are for. These places are to give the kids a place to get together and learn to be social and share and get along. This shouldn't be a place where one child gets to be a bully and one bad babysitter lets it happen. If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter. I hope the parents step in and do something.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since, the nanny wasn't paying attention. I would have pinched him hard on the arm. Or tug his hair. Then lets see if he would bully my kid again.

Anonymous said...

O.k. - ignoring the above answer (it's not the childs fault he wasn't taught properly), OP ... post was well-written and I agree 100% someone should have been there to guide this child and instruct him on what is acceptable behavior, or he will never learn to make friends.

Hopefully his Parents will see this and hire someone who'll take better care of him.

Anonymous said...

It does hurt the offending child even more than the others in the long run. The other children have momentary or periodic bad experiences when exposed to an ill behaved child, but the child who is not taught to behave in an acceptable way endures the disapproving looks and comments of pretty much everybody he encounters on an ongoing basis. Not good for the self esteem at all. He learns very quickly that he is "bad", and everybody he encounters confirms that for him. People who do not discipline their kids and people who let them go around thinking they can do whatever they want, or that they are better than other kids are doing them NO favors.

And this boy's behavior is likely the parents' fault. A well taught child is unlikely to turn into a hellion suddenly when out of the parents eyesight. I did know one child who was an exception to that, but his mom was so constricting (think Bree on desperate Housewives, if you watch that...everything had to be perfect at all times, right down to the very controlled voice and overly affected speech patterns)that I think he just "let loose" when she was out of sight. He acted like a British schoolboy in her presence and was uncontrollable when she was away. Of course, she believed he was perfect and would not hear from anybody that he had misbehaved...unless she could somehow turn it into that person's fault for not "supervising properly." At age 17, the kid is still the same...and so is his mom.
But anyway, generally speaking, if you are normal and teach your children manners, they will likely behave nicely even when in the presence of a babysitter.

Anonymous said...

Well said MOM!

Anonymous said...

Yes, well said, MOM. But the incident depicted here called for some intervention or correction by the babysitter, even if the child wasn't instructed properly at home on how to behave. btw, Bree and company are fictional characters who do not often act as normal people do. That's how they get laughs :-)

Anonymous said...

You're right FG, the nanny should have stepped in. but I blame the parents for the child thinking that even might be OK in the first place.
And, yes, while those charachters are fictional, they do resemble certain personality types. The one woman I am referring to above so resembles Bree in affect that others who know her have also mentioned it after seeing the show!

Anonymous said...

Excuse me, but how do you know the heavyset woman ignoring the boy was a babysitter, especially given it was the weekend? She is 30, he is 3, she could be his mother. Unfortunately, it is very much within the realm of possibility for a parent to ignore a child and his inappropriate behavior; in fact, being ignored tends to go hand in hand with inappropriate behavior.

I am a mom, not a nanny, and I do not assume that all attentive care comes from parents and all inattentive care come from nannies.
(Not do I assume that heavyset women are by definition nannies, as many on this board seem to believe.)

Once, while attending a class with my toddler, I saw a woman whom I assumed to be an inattentive nanny, playing with her text messages rather than interacting with a little boy in her care and participating in the music with him. I felt sorry for the lad, even more so when I realized the woman was his mother, and she started flirting with a younger baby not her own and gave a toy her son had been playing with to that baby. Maybe she just had an off day or moment, as we all do. I don't make assumptions, however, about the role of a caregiver I don't know.

Anonymous said...

If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.

THAT'S HOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

no wonder some posters get called stupid on here! not that i'm sayin'...

Anonymous said...

LOL ... well, she didn't know.
OP clarified it!

Anonymous said...

>>If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.
If you are even thinking of asking how we knew it was not the mom, it is because we asked the boy where his mom was and he told us he was with his babysitter.

THAT'S HOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<<

Forgive me, snarky anonymous and anonymous1, for missing this glaringly important penultimate line in a long post. Perhaps if the writer had seen fit to include a paragraph break or two, publishing her dispatch from the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall on East Camelback Road in a more readable format, I would have noticed this vital information.

Anonymous said...

ok, but its the next to last line in the post. ;)

Anonymous said...

That kid need to be smacked upside the head. And the caregiver