I am a new nanny to a couple on the UWS of NYC. They live in a very nice apartment and have two children under 4. The apartment has no balcony. The mother is a smoker. I am not supposed to know this. She is a secret smoker. I am not sure if her husband even knows. The problem is, she smokes in her master bathroom, in the mornings and usually her almost 4 year old is in there with her. She puts the exhaust fan on in the bathroom. When she and her daughter come down, they smell like a medley of all kinds of (honestly, nice smelling) oils and perfumes. It is to cover up the smoking. The younger child is 1.5 and just walking. When she wants to be with her mom and her mom is doing something, the mom will take her upstairs in her room and shut the door. I can smell the smoke at the threshold but I am overreacting? I really thought it was totally de rigor to smoke. After she has left the house, for the day, and she is a stay at home Mom, the housekeeper will go and clean her room and bathroom. I finally asked her, "did you know that she smokes in there?" The housekeeper looked disgusted and said, "let me show you something.". So we went in the bathroom, and there was a corner of the bathroom with a window seat cushion and three mugs there. Two had remnants of coffee and one was being used as an ashtray. There were butts in the toilet and ash in different places. She's not even neat about it. By the cushion were some magazines and things and the baby's stuffed animal she carries with her. I would say it isn't my business but sometimes, like once last week, I had taken the older child to school and came back and there was a note on the kitchen counter that said she had taken the 1 year old upstairs to take a nap with her. Should I be totally unconcerned that she will burn the child, especially now having seen how disorganized she is with her smoking?
6 comments:
You can't do anything about it. It's her body, her house, her kids and you work for her. Don't waste your energy on this, if she doesn't care that she's exposing her children to poison then you shouldn't either.
I would not work in the home of a smoker but it is,up to you.
if you are happy with the job and the pay - just deal, i have smokers in my family and they - have to, it's an addiction, you cannot do much about it
What she does in her own home isn't your concern. Her child, her home, her decision.
If you don't want to be around it, quit, but no one who still smokes needs to be told smoking is bad
De rigueur, as it is spelled, means a social obligation. You are using it backwords. Thought you would want to know.
None of your biz - keep your nose out of it!
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