If you're anti-nanny but both you and your partner WOH, could you please explain why?

[Anonymous]

We also liked the community that came from our neighborhood child care center. Not only did our children make friends but we gained some great ones as well.

[Anonymous]

I prefer a small daycare. Our provider is a preschool teacher too. Even tho prek isn't a requirement for kindergarten we would like to take our son to a big center when he is 4 or 5 years old to adapt a big class of 25 kids in kindergarten.

For now I prefer my boy to have more individual attention like a small daycare would give. Big centers for young kids are awful, too much noise, trouble kids, staff changes every month, babies nap in the same room for just 20 minutes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems as though I've come across a number of moms who say things like, "I don't believe in nannies" or "I would never let a non-family member watch my children" despite being in a HH where both parents work full time outside the home. I'm genuinely curious (no judgment) -- if this is you, could you please explain why this is your philosophy?

Nannies are great. Parents can be great, they lack experience especially first time parents.

Daycares are great too

Everyone loves kids. You choose what you want and is none of other people's business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok. I know, I know, this is a one-off horror story, but it happened to my cousin, so hits a little close to home.

She had an au pair that her mother paid for because she didn't make enough income to pay for an au pair and all of her expenses as a single mother. She also had shift work that was occasionally at night, so a live-in nanny was the only option other than family.

For the first two years, it was through a service and went well. The service she was using required the nannies to rotate after two years, but her nanny asked her to employ her directly so she could stay in the US longer.

A few months into this third year, the nanny snapped. No one knows what happened, but police were called. She ran out onto a major highway and was screaming at the sky. She ended up having an involuntary psychiatric stay at a hospital. The child was thankfully five years old at the time. She knew how to use the phone and called her grandmother for help.

My cousin had security cameras all over her house and didn't see or have any idea that this was coming before this happened.

I'm sure this is like a lightening strike, so I don't say this to scare anyone out of using a nanny, but it was traumatic for my cousin. She did get another nanny but used the service and their rotation until her daughter aged out.

APs are not nannies.