Nanny Report Forum?

[Anonymous]

Jeff,
I know there's a nanny discussion forum. This forum is viewed by many nannies. But what about another forum for those who wish to describe and report an observation of another nanny who might have done something that was wrong? Lots of parents who leave their kids in the care of nannies do so hoping that all will be well. But I think that if someone did notice bad nanny behavior, most parents would want to know about it. We have lots of people report bad experiences with doctors and other professionals. Could this be a new forum to add on DCUM in the interest of looking out for children?

[Anonymous]

This was tried and failed.

[jsteele]

Yes, just to emphasize what the previous poster said. We tried such a forum and provided very specific, yet simple, guidelines about how it should be used. Nobody followed the guidelines and just about every report involved a nanny of color tending white children doing something that was perhaps irritating but hardly dangerous. The majority of replies were attacking the original poster for being a busy body racist. Nothing good came out of the forum so I removed it.

Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit. But, those who were here will back me up.

[Anonymous]

Thats too bad. It's particularly sad that what may have been legitimate reports were thrown out because of a nanny's skin color. Many nannies are women of color. So it is hard to say the reports were motivated by racism. And as for being a busy body, I agree, they were being a busy body but hopefully for the right reason - to give a voice to children too little sometimes to speak for themselves. And I wonder how many of those vehemently complaining were the vocal minority - the nannies themselves.

Could it have been possible to just allow nanny reports and no replies or comments to the report?

Sad to learn about this!

[jsteele]

If a nanny is behaving poorly, frequently other nannies are the harshest critics because it makes all nannies look bad. But, to get a feel for how these things go, just read this thread:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/38642.page#257254

We don't have a way of not allowing replies. But, unless the original post included contact details, there would be no way to contact the original poster for more info. Including contact information was one of our guidelines with the old forum that was universally ignored.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:If a nanny is behaving poorly, frequently other nannies are the harshest critics because it makes all nannies look bad. But, to get a feel for how these things go, just read this thread:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/38642.page#257254

We don't have a way of not allowing replies. But, unless the original post included contact details, there would be no way to contact the original poster for more info. Including contact information was one of our guidelines with the old forum that was universally ignored.

I see your point. It read more like a mob attack than a DCUM discussion. The nannies seemed more upset with the OP than the actual incident. I think most people don't want to give out their email address for fear of retaliation from others who may have a vested interest in stifling bad nanny press. I guess the only way is to get a temporary new email address set up solely for the purpose of reporting on here and providing the parents contact info.

[Anonymous]

Terrible idea-might as well title a forum Trolls, Naysayers and People Who Want to Scare Mommies-feature this, a forum where nannies describe terrible families to work for. Nannies post information about families they not only feel are abusive, but employers who pay low wages, moms and dads who fight with each other, people who want you to mow the lawn, pot-smoking mommies, flirting daddies, etc. Obviously no names mentioned but general descriptions-Potomac family with 2 overpriviledged sons who wear alot of Polo shirts. I think you can see where this is going. This is DCUM, not Angie's List. Go to www.ISawYourNanny or better yet The Smoking Gun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:If a nanny is behaving poorly, frequently other nannies are the harshest critics because it makes all nannies look bad. But, to get a feel for how these things go, just read this thread:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/38642.page#257254

We don't have a way of not allowing replies. But, unless the original post included contact details, there would be no way to contact the original poster for more info. Including contact information was one of our guidelines with the old forum that was universally ignored.

I see your point. It read more like a mob attack than a DCUM discussion. The nannies seemed more upset with the OP than the actual incident. I think most people don't want to give out their email address for fear of retaliation from others who may have a vested interest in stifling bad nanny press. I guess the only way is to get a temporary new email address set up solely for the purpose of reporting on here and providing the parents contact info.

Part of the reason that it turned into a mob attack was because the OP wasn't truly interested in helping anyone specifically but simply converting a thirty second observation into an indictment of nannies in general. OP went on to say how terrible nannies are and had to be prompted many times before actually giving a rather generic description of the partcipants in question. Posts like these are akin to warning people about the dangers of Africanized Killer Bees, Flouride and anti-bacterial moisturizers. Simply creates fear without any basis or solution.