Did you see the front page article in the City Section about I Saw Your Nanny, a blog that’s been around for more than a year?
"What happens is that a stranger, maybe
a passer-by in the playground, witnesses a scene between adult and
child that looks alarming. If the child is white and the caregiver is
not, as is often the case in New York, the passer-by tends to assume
that the caretaker is the nanny, not the mother."
I liked the part of the piece where the nannies got a chance to express their side of the situation.
"But
day to day, being the subject of such pervasive examination can feel
deeply unsettling. Back at J. J. Byrne Park, where some nannies have
been decried as “obnoxious” and “cliquey” in ISawYourNanny postings,
emotions ranged from fatalism to indignation.“What are you going to do?” said a Jamaican nanny named Gwen. “Life goes on.”
"By
early afternoon on that summer Friday, several nannies sat chatting on
the benches, a gathering that a poster on ISawYourNanny derided as “the
J. J. Byrne Bench Sitters’ Club.”“Mostly there’s a group of us
that get together,” said Joyce, a longtime nanny from Barbados. “And
parents start gossiping. They describe what you wear.”“We
gather together in little groups because we look out for each other,”
Joyce continued, stirring banana purée into oatmeal for the twin infant
boys being cared for by Prudence Forde, the nanny seated beside her.
With her other hand, Joyce gently rubbed the back of the boys’ sister."As
for the term “bench nannies,” Joyce shook her head. “I ignore it,” she
said. “Everybody’s got to sit down, and we sit on a bench.”"Resentment
is a common reaction to many of the complaints posted on the blog, like
the use of cellphones. “Wait, what mother doesn’t talk on her phone?”
Ms. Forde asked."As nannies are frequently several skin tones
darker than their charges, it can be easy to identify them. Ms. Forde
mentions that nannies are often automatically blamed when a child seems
to be neglected. “When a child starts crying in the playground,” she
said, “the first thing a person will do is strut over to us and yell,
‘Who’s taking care of this child?’ before asking the other parents.”
But, Ms. Forde said, “it’s often one of theirs.”"Another day,
several nannies sitting on the park’s benches shared some complaints
about their jobs: work hours that can extend from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
a pay rate in Park Slope of little more than $12 an hour, the
expectation that they also clean houses and apartments, and requests
that they work on Christmas. One nanny, from St. Lucia, recalled an
interview during which the mother, a lawyer, refused to pay her on the
books.“‘Why is it so important to pay Social Security?’ she asked me,” the nanny said. “And this is who’s spying on me? Please.”
I work for a family right now where the wife doesn’t work and i feed the babies everyday. She is always complaining to her husband,behind my back, that I don’t do this or that. But she smiles in my face and tells me that I am doing wonderful. Then I over hear her husband telling her to let me do my job and to stop asking me to do ten things at once. They don’t pay me much but when they feel that I am leaving, they want to give me a raise. She critiques me about everything but jokes to her friends how wonderful I am. She is always telling them how someone tried to steal/recruit me as their nanny right in front of her. Yet,she plays as if she is never pleased. So, I’m pulling a whodini on the crazy bitch.
Why the nastiness and general air of superiority is what I am concerned about. Most parents like to act high and mighty complaining about how these “lazy” slug nannies need to get off their butts and every single second should be spent on their feet going after the child. Well, don’t be a hypocrite, why don’t you just stay home and do the job yourself? Since it’s so easy. $15 an hour is decent pay for personal care.Most of you hire young kids in college that take less money, thats no different from exploitation if you ask me. Then some of you hire old women who NEED to sit down at some point. If you wish to pay less, then find cheaper labor. End of story.This is all just parental guilt. You all know you chose your jobs over your kids, you miss out on the best part of their childhood, and all you do is complain about the people YOU hired in the first place.And to label all nannies in the Park Slope area in such a way speaks volumes of the type of person you are. More parents abuse their children than caretakers in general, so give me a break with your so called “point”.It’s easy to generalize a group of people when you think you are better than them, and that speaks volumes of the type of person you are. You can measure a society by how it treats the elderly, but the same goes for it’s children.
I’ve seen the park slope nannies in action– oh, sorry, poor choice of the word “action”. What is the the nitty gritty here? A lawyer, who’s tells a nanny she is interviewing that she feels it’s unnecessary to pay Social Security taxes, is a lot different from a nanny who mistreats, abuses, mishandles or places a child in harm’s way. This isn’t some lonely episode of a group of nannies taking a break. It’s a bunch of lazy slugs not doing their jobs, not paying adequate attention to their charges or, in some cases, actually terrorizing them. Running after a toddler all day can be exhausting and no one would ever deny a childcare worker a proper break to rest when called for, but to not interact with or pay attention to a child that one is being well paid to monitor is being devious to one’s employers as well as being irresponsible to the welfare, safety and nurturing of a child. There have been numerous reported incidents of appalling behavior by nannies, with Park Slope possibly being at the helm of incompetent sloths who have endangered children, and/or even totally ignored those they were supposed to be protecting. The attorney mother, who was pointed out by the miffed nanny, is doubtfully out there spying on nannies. It is the public, simply taking a stand for children and not allowing these reprehensible acts of unacceptable childcare to go unreported. If I was a nanny who was less than stellar in taking care of my charges, to put it extremely mildly, I’d be watching over my shoulder. As caring human beings, it is our responsibility to look out for those who are unable to look out for themselves, whether we are speaking of children, disabled adults or senior citizens. I don’t call that spying.
This gets to the root of what’s expected of child-care. Some Park Slope helicopter parents believe that nannies, including other people’s, should be making every moment of playtime a learning experience, while the nannies (and many non-nannies) think adults at the playground should be ensuring the safety of children while they play with each other. I also wonder if anyone who condemns caregivers’ “conserving energy” has ever run after one toddler all day, every day.
Before most mothers worked, this city was full of mommies who brought out their folding chairs on nice days and gossiped while their kids rode bikes and played ball and street games.
Um, parents are not getting paid to watch their children. Parents are living their life. Some nannies may make $12, but many make $15- tax free. So, yes for that- these nannies need to get off their butts and do something. And nice picture that she paints there of the nannies working in unison. I see it as conserving energy. Why not get off their duffs and play some ball?>
Um, parents are not getting paid to watch their children. Parents are living their life. Some nannies may make $12, but many make $15- tax free. So, yes for that- these nannies need to get off their butts and do something. And nice picture that she paints there of the nannies working in unison. I see it as conserving energy. Why not get off their duffs and play some ball?>
Um, parents are not getting paid to watch their children. Parents are living their life. Some nannies may make $12, but many make $15- tax free. So, yes for that- these nannies need to get off their butts and do something. And nice picture that she paints there of the nannies working in unison. I see it as conserving energy. Why not get off their duffs and play some ball?>
Um, parents are not getting paid to watch their children. Parents are living their life. Some nannies may make $12, but many make $15- tax free. So, yes for that- these nannies need to get off their butts and do something. And nice picture that she paints there of the nannies working in unison. I see it as conserving energy. Why not get off their duffs and play some ball?>
You should link to the NYT article…
Who hasn’t seen a parent on a long cellphone conversation, sometimes in an angry “this child is a burden” type conversation, with the child in the stroller or in the vicinity?