Wednesday

Carl Schurz Park in NYC

Received Wednesday, May 14, 2008
nanny sighting logo I saw your nanny at Carl Schurz Park at approximately 3:45 today, (5/14) with your two children. Your children are a boy and a girl, the girls is 4-5 and has a brown bob and blue eyes. She was wearing a blue sweater with a white collar poking out and jeans. The boy was about 7-8 and had lighter hair, some freckles and brown eyes. He had on a long sleeved t-shirt with the graphic of a tree and nuts on it. The nanny was wearing athletic pants that were brown and black Merill's with white socks. All of these people were white. The nanny had blond looking hair that was in a short pony tail. The nanny was approximately 140 lbs, about 5'5-5'6. In other words, the nanny is not fat at all! The nanny and the children sat on the bench outside of the park and had three cans of pepsi and a box of Suzy Q's. This is a box that probably has 8-12 cakes in it. And there are two cakes in each serving. The children are bordering on being classifed heavy. This might be the post you need to pay closer attention to your children's diet. Your nanny has an athletic build but your children do not! It's just not okay to allow children with weight problems to eat like this!

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its not okay to let children *without* weight problems eat like this either

Anonymous said...

Insane. What purpose would she have feeding those children all that garbage except to placate them because they might've been bratty and she couldn't handle it?

Anonymous said...

How do you know it was the nanny?

Anonymous said...

ick. poor kids. how about some fruit? :(

Anonymous said...

Oh! I hate the f'ing weight police! Not everyone in the world eats tofu and granola.

Anonymous said...

MPP, I don't think the nanny spent her hard earned money on a box of Suzy Q's to "placate bratty kids". If they are bratty, a sugar high is not what one wants.
Most nannies bring what the parents provide from home. The kids are heavy, the nanny isn't. 1+1=2.

Anonymous said...

10:49
Where have you been? Time and time again we've seen posts where nannies are feeding their charges crap because they are either lazy, or don't care, or just trying to shut the kids up.

Whether the kids are fat because the parents don't care, or the nanny feeds it to them because she doesn't care, it all adds up to = wrong.

Anonymous said...

Lazy nanny. She doesn't care what she's feeding those kids. How many parents do you know actually take the time to pack their kids lunch for the day??
ROFLMAO! Get real!!

Anonymous said...

All the nanny's fault, once again. Can't be the parents, right?

Ugh, I used to sit for people who fed their children sugary snacks, chips and candy ALL day....DINNER included. It was disgusting, but there really is only so much you can do.
In fact, in certain situations, that was all they had in the house. I'm not exaggerating either.
STOP BLAMING THE NANNY..if OP spotted a parent do this, the majority of you accusing the nanny of nutritional negligence would be telling OP to mind her own business.

Anonymous said...

To 8:44
MISTAKES happen! The "Blog Master" (I love that name, by the way!) ... is ONLY HUMAN!
I'm sure she got the dates MIXED UP!

Jersey
THANK YOU! I'm sick of the Nannies ALWAYS getting the blame, too. Parents can be just as lazy and neglectful .... they need to shoulder some of the blame, too!
And I vote THIS post by the OP is the parents fault, how about them apples!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if the nanny or the parent provided those ho-ho's or suzy q's or whatever the hell they were. Bottom line, the kids ate them. The parents should be more responsible in looking out for what their kids are fed, and the nanny shouldn't have been giving them to the kids. I doubt there is a big moral dilemma for the nanny - she isn't going to get fired for sneaking a flippin' banana to them. She has to shoulder *some* responsibility because she is the last line of defense for those kids and they depend on her. But I would bet that mom and dad didn't take the time to pack those kids their lunch for the day. That is a joke.
Crap is cheap, easy and fast.

Rebecca said...

I'm with jerseyxjacqui - I used to work for a family that had NOTHING but crap in the house. The only fruit was in heavy syrup, and there were ZERO vegetables. It was all chips, danish, fish sticks, corndogs, cheez-its, fruit snacks, etc. I felt bad feeding it to them, but I certainly wasn't going to spend my measly salary on food for them.

The parents are probably the ones with the snacks. And for those of you claiming that it can't be the parents because parents don't pack the lunches, I only have to say - use some logic here: the nanny doesn't pack the kids lunches from HER food - she packs what the parents have available.

10:49 is right: "The kids are heavy, the nanny isn't. 1+1=2."

Jane Doe said...

undercover regular,
You are correct. A typo, nothing more. (fixed)

Anonymous said...

My Daughter is 14. There is a boy in her class that weighs 280 pounds. His parents send him to school with two loaded sandwiches, 2 bags of chips, at least two snack cakes and 3-4 cans of soda.
When they have a pizza party, or order other food, he ususally orders 4 slices or two lunches. I've met his parents at PTA and parent night meetings and they are sweet people but they don't seem to care that all three of their kids are overweight.

I babysat on occasion for a slight woman who fed her children ages 2 and 4 whatever they wished from the moment they woke up at 6 or 7 am. MMs, ice cream, cake, whatever they asked for they got. She would pack snack packs for us to take to the park which mortified me. They would consist of a can of soda, a candy bar and chips. Her kids won't eat healthy stuff, she claimed. They were also allowed to eat non-stop. Lunch would be frozen pizza or pre-made mac N cheese. Both children were overweight.

I am not a granola chomping, tofu nut. I believe kids need a healthy amount of sugar and fat in their diets. I also believe children need to be indulged now and again if they crave sweets so they learn how to eat responsibly overall. Meaning they can get a small ice cream sundae with gummy bears today but not everyday. My point is, this type of snacking OP saw may be OK with the parents, I've cetainly seen parents whoa re fine with it. But it's nice that it's posted in case the parents are not OK with it.

Anonymous said...

My charges are 2,4,7 & 12. A blended family. They have meal times on a schedule during the week, breakfast is always at 7. Dinner is at 6. Lunch is at school. Weekends are more lax. The attitude about food in this house is that we buy all kinds of fruits and vegetables. I clean and cut vegetables on a regular basis so the children can grab celery sticks or strawberries as easy as they could grab chips. The only thing they are not allowed to drink is regular soda. Beyond that, if I go to the grocery store and a child wants twinkies, we get twinkies. If I go to a bakery and the 7 year old wants two cupcakes, she gets two cupcakes. I have to tell you I see a lot of food being wasted. When you don't make an issue out of it, children don't seem to want it as much. These children also know what healthy choices are. So they are told, this is healthy, this is not and this is why it isn't, but eat what you want. The 7 year old eats way too much candy. I think it is a phase. Taffy, toffee, sweet tarts, pure junk. And lots. The children are all thin to pin thin. I think this has to do with the fact that in addition to the food, every kid in this house and the parents all have bikes and roller blades. They hike together and are really physically active. Personally, I think I have learned a lot from this family. Healthy choices available. And positive influences who are physically active. Dad runs, mom plays tennis. They all swim like fishes.

Anonymous said...

What I worry about is type 2 diabetes. My family members have it. And it has alot to do with what you eat from childhoood-adulthood.

Anonymous said...

metronanny..just out of curiousity..where do live? What state? Here in California..our children cannot take soda or junkfood onto the school campus..it is a new regulation that was passed about 3-4 yrs ago.



I am surprised that your state does not have the same regulations!
Here they have pulled all soda vending machines from the school campuses and they do not allow any junk food for a childs birthday party excepting Pizza..no candy, cookies or chips at all..I was under the impression this was statewide as well as sweeping the nation.

Anonymous said...

I thought so, too?

Anonymous said...

I thought so, too?

Anonymous said...

Be honest. How many times did the kids you were watching get out of hand, and you gave them a snickers to shut them up!!
LOL

Anonymous said...

Mind your own business. Do we live in a police state now. You sound like a child tattling on someone.

Anonymous said...

11:53
I think your family has the right idea.
I try to feed healthy, but don't make a huge deal out of treats either, although I would not necessarily say yes to two cupcakes in a sitting for a small child. I have always bought treats to have on hand in modest amounts...so that they are here, but not in plentiful enough supply to cause problems.
My 14 yr old daughter has learned to make healthy choices all on her own and indulge herself modestly with sweets at times too. She's a good weight.
My 17 yr old son (skinny as a rail)...well, let's just say he gets the diabetes speech a lot. But he's at that age where he has a car and some of his own money...so he's feeling the freedonm of being able to buy food on his own. There is a giant box of Twizzlers on his desk right now (although it has been there for more than a week and is still more than half full, despite the fact that I poach them regularly too.)

Oldest son went through this junk food phase too and now eats healthily of his own accord.

I think if you're not fanatical on either end of the spectrum things sort of work themselves out in the end.

Anonymous said...

Snickers?

But Darvon crushes up so well in their mother's home made yogurt.

Settle down, yo!

Anonymous said...

Darvon??? You are scary, my friend, LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

Unless both of the cupcakes come from "Sprinkles"!! :)

Anonymous said...

The child who asked for the two cupcakes wanted them in the store. Forgot about them until the next day and ate about two bites before declaring them too hard. No offense, but the problem with fat children is they are shamed so whenever they can get their hands on food, they have to shove it down their gullets before someone takes it away from them. And they have parents who are inactive!I've seen the children when they come here. Maybe they aren't allowed to have chocolate or something, so the obsess and even steal! Not because they are bad children but because the adults have made food such an issue!

Anonymous said...

YUMMY!

Anonymous said...

The milk chocolate, please.

"JD", have you had these? I must send you some!

Anonymous said...

1:51 who are you talking to?

Anonymous said...

2:28
Duh. I think she said 11:53, LOL.

Anonymous said...

1:51 did not point out anyone so duh back yat ya babe!! LOL

Anonymous said...

I always have cookies on hand for after school I make them on saturdays and fill up the cookie jar. I know they eat 2 each after school with some milk until dinner is ready. I don't think it hurts them. They are not over weight by any means. They get balanced meals at home and at school they do not have vending machines or soda machines. Maybe I am lucky they don't like hoho's or twinkies?
They are not big on fast food either but they do like their junk every now and then.
One plays soccer and the other one takes dance so I kow they get exercise daily maybe that's why they can eat what they want. Yet I see kids that have a tendency for weight gain because of genetics.
If your parents were heavy as youngsters ,the kids will also have that tendency. I think the more we fuss about what they eat and how much they weigh could be worse than giving them the HOHO's.
I don't want my kids sneaking food,stuffing themselves and then throwing up or taking laxatives. Carrying on about their weight only makes matters worse.

Anonymous said...

6:08
Are you reading the same thread as we are?



MOM said ....
11:53
I think your family has the right idea.
I try to feed healthy, but don't make a huge deal out of treats either, although I would not necessarily say yes to two cupcakes in a sitting for a small child ...


Mom is referencing 11:53. She is talking to 11:53. She is directing her post to 11:53.

Anonymous said...

hey anon 648..there are 2 1:51's posted..keep your snide attitude to yourself!!

Anonymous said...

Bite me.

Anonymous said...

Children are capable of learning from a very young age how to make proper food choices.

We always keep fresh fruit and veggies cut up in the fridge in zip-loc baggies - very easy to get to.
When they want a cookie, they get a cookie. And I think "nanny for super family" wrote a really good post, because that's kind of how we roll in my house.
And no one here is overweight.
A little of this and a little of that, and avoiding any obsessions about food in particular, and your kids will come out on the healthier side.

Anonymous said...

when i shop, i buy a lot of healthy food, and then usually one container of ice cream. when that's gone, that's it until the next week. it doesn't kill kids to have to snack on real food instead of sweets. i never buy chips or crackers because i don't want to have them around for dh and i to eat. we have lots of fruit, veggies, cheerios, popcorn, nuts, yogurt, cheese, or dinner leftovers. i don't think we're nutty or anything, but i disagree that the children must have access to cookies and chips. some people just don't eat that processed junk.

i always feel sad for overweight kids because you know they get teased at school. i don't think parents whould focus on weight, but rather on the health aspects of choosing nutritious food. it's really a form of nelgect to not care at all what your children are eating.

Anonymous said...

We don't even buy ice cream anymore because after we open it and have our first bowl, it always ends up sitting in the freezer too long and ruining the taste.

It makes it more fun anyway, so we go out once or twice a month as a treat to an ice cream parlor. Other than that, we keep healthy snacks around the house and it makes it easier to make proper food choices.

Anonymous said...

Children will eat what you offer them. I only gave my son fish, fruits, and veggies and water or watered down apple juice when he was young. There was no soda, no candy, gum, or donuts. Believe me, he was not deprived. Ten years later, he doesn't drink soda, eat donuts, cupcakes, and rarely eats candy. If given the choice of carrot sticks or m&m's, he chooses the carrot sticks. Kids get used to what you give them when they are young. People are generally lazy and it's easier to unwrap a Ho-Ho than it is to cut up an apple or peel an orange and put it in a bag.

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:53 I wish it were that simple. At the age of one my oldest son all of a sudden became a very picky eater. He stopped eating most of the fruits and vegetables he had happily eaten as a baby. To this day he won't get near a banana or a strawberry, although he has overcome all of his other fruit and vegetable aversions by now, thankfully! My daughter ate salad from the beginning and could hardly get enough fruit to satisfy her desire. You just never know.

On the sadder side, there was a boy who lived four doors down from us and was in my son's kindergarten class. He was extremely overweight...as in he was about as wide as he was tall. He could hardly play. I noticed at snack time (because I was a classroom helper om a regular basis) that this boy would have for his snack something like a quart bag stuffed to the brim with oreos and a sugary drink...always somthing of that nature. Most of the other kids had what amounted to a tiny, well rounded lunch. I knew the parents slightly because their son liked to come play at our house after school. One day she came up and asked me if I could take her son to swim team with my son because her car was broken. I said "sure" and told her what time we would leave to walk over to the pool. She became upset with me and told me that her son didn't "like" to walk...which was why she was asking me for a ride. I told her that it was a short distance (maybe two longish blocks) and that we always walked and that her son was welcome to come with us if he could walk. She got sort of mad but I held my ground. (It was way more work to pack up a baby and all the pool toys and the stroller, seatbelt three kids into baby or booster seats, drive for two blocks, find a parking spot, and then unload and repack everything onto the stroller than it was just to plop the baby into the already packed stroller and go.)So she sent her child with us, and he whined and complained loudly the entire way...needing to stop for rests and even berating me for not taking the car. She was still aggrivated with me the next day. Whatever. I wanted to tell her how appalled I was that a five year old was so fat and so underexcercized that he couldn't even walk two blocks...but I didn't.

Another mom had a boy 2 years older than my son (which would have made him 7.) The boy was always stuck home and occasionally wandering over to mention that his mom had "another tension headache" so he had to be quiet and stay away from her. This child was also overweight, but not to the extent of the first. One day I called the mom and offered to be responsible for transporting her son back and forth to practice and games to be on a city league youth soccer team with my son if she wanted to sign him up. She told me that, no, her son didn't like running and exertion.
What is wrong with some people? Don't most of you remember running and playing outside until the sun went down...hardly ever feeling tired or out of breath? I do. Some of the best memories ever. How many kids miss out on that today?Kids are supposed to be eating real food and playing physically...daily.

Anonymous said...

Mom, I am where you were. My son hit age one and has only touched two vegetables since. Potatoes and cuccumber. Anything else he won't even try. If I sneak it into something you can bet he will find it. If he doesn't, he somehow separates it in his mouth and spits it out. I've tried to give him veggie juices. He recoils as though I have poisoned him.
I NEVER eat junk. I love fruit and vegetables. He loved them, too, before he hit age one. :(

Anonymous said...

hellcat...I am laughing. Smae thing here. We tried ot sneak bits of banana into all kinds of things and he always figured it out. Separating in the mouth and spitting out. Check. Looking behind what we have placed on the front of the spoon to make sure we haven't hidden anything yucky behind the good stuff. Check. Tasting a little piece of fruit hidden in a very chocolaty milkshake and refusung another sip. Check.

And my sister would tell me all the time that kids will eat what you teach them to. Bull****!

(But my other two did eat what I gave them for the most part (except for a long stint where we were forced to live mostly off of corn, peas, carrots, apples and grapes)...so I can see why a parent of an easy eater would think that is true.)

Anonymous said...

That nanny had absolutely NO sense. Suzi Q's? How common. Everyone knows Ding Dongs are so much better.

Anonymous said...

i strongly agree that kids should be exercising every. single. day. it's not that difficult if you make it a priority. mom, that was sad about both those kids, especially the five year old.

yes, one year olds often balk at certain foods. guess what? if you nonchalantly keep putting fruits and veggies on the plate, eventually they start eating them again. i don't think my three year old was eating any veggies at one, but today he asks for carrots, salad, and sweet peas.

UmassSlytherin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I am a nanny, and I am mortified by the things my nanny family feeds their little ones. None of the children have weight issues yet, but I certainly see it coming. It is pretty common for me to walk into work at 8 in the morning and find my charges sitting at the table eating icecream or cookies. It's totally insane to me to let the kids eat crap like that without eating "real" food first, and then complain about their behavioral issues. I love my nanny family but sometimes I am just boggled.

Anonymous said...

10:53 OP here...

I guess I am lucky that my son still loves his veggies and fruits so much. I still think you need to keep putting new things in front of the kids and see what they will take to. My son's new favorite is baked sweet potatoes. I hadn't given that to him since he was a baby but he tasted it at a friend's house and loved it. Super sweet and creamy. She had put brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon on hers when he tasted it. When I made them for him, he asked if I put the toppings on and I lied and said 'yes'. He couldn't tell the difference and loved it anyway and asked for more. Another trick is to 'hide' veggies in other food. Steam and mash cauliflower and mix into mashed potatoes. Mix in chopped spinach to meatloaf and meatballs. Grate a carrot into spaghetti sauce. With fish, I always fry it (not the healthiest, but hey) and always called it a chicken cutlet. Tilapia is especially sweet and delicious. There is a smoothie with several veggies and watermelon that your child would never think was healthy or contained any vegetables. There are several cook books out there with recipes on hiding certain ingredients so that kids don't know they are eating healthy. As I said, it's a little more work but it's worth it. It's so very important for these kids to have fruits and veggies as they grow. That's not to say that I don't take him for an occassional McDonald's meal or stop at the Mr. Softee truck after school. Everything in moderation. I cringed reading some of these posts about what some mothers give to their children! Pure laziness.
-NYC mom

Anonymous said...

Mcdonalds? Yeeechh ....
I wouldn't go there if my life depended on it. I've never been able to find one that didn't make me feel like I wouldn't walk out with botulism.

But hey, I'm glad you've found a bunch of neat ways to hide the good stuff in your kid's food!
Yay for you!

Anonymous said...

How is it the nanny's fault that the kids are fatties? Eating habits begin to form as soon as the baby is on solid foods and the parents are the ones who decide what food is available in the house. Trust me, a nanny alone can't make a kid fat but a parent can.

Anonymous said...

Your disgusting for posting this. Mind your own business. And the people replying are just as ridiculous. People like all of you make me sick. I'm embarrassed I'm even responding to this but I searched "first bday party in park" and sadly this came up. Get a life all of you. This is my profession and I still would never write anything about other people's kids and what their weight was!!!!