Have you ever been mistaken as your child's nanny?

[Anonymous]

Not as his nanny, but people do ask regularly if my son is adopted... He's mixed b&w and I'm white.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My children are mixed and were very fair at birth. I'm black.

[Anonymous]

there is a podcast on this on the shortest longest time. i haven't listened to that particular one but i like the shows i have heard there.

i was mistaken for the nanny once, by another nanny, who, in fact was INSISTENT that I was not the mother because she routinely saw our sitter (who is asian, like me, my dc is mixed race) and she was so affectionate with our child she simply could not believe that our sitter was not dc's mom. So that was a case where it was sort of nice in the sense that it confirmed what i already knew that our sitter really cared for our kid.

[Anonymous]

sorry make that longest shortest time. agh. mom brain.

http://longestshortesttime.com/category/podcast/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never and I became a Mom at 25. My son also looks like my clone and I'm very hands on and affectionate with him.

this is stupid. i see plenty of helicopter nannies and lazy moms in the park. nobody assumes someone is a mom or nanny based only on this factor.

Affectionate = helicopter? I wouldn't expect a Nanny to kiss a charge. So that's a dead give away IMO.

poor kids! i kissed my charges all the time. WTH?

Yeah, I think especially if you're caring for little ones, it's just natural and comes out. My au pair kisses our baby all the time and how could you not? Babies are just so snuggly, affectionate, and adorable. Plenty of nannies and I've even seen daycare workers kiss the babies they care for all day. It's human.

[Anonymous]

No one has ever mistaken me as my kids' nanny, at least not to my face or openly, despite my mixed race kids looking much more white (like their dad) than like me. It's probably because my youngest is always yelling Mommy this, Mommy that.

[Anonymous]

Yes. All the time when my child was a baby. I had him at 26 and look younger than my age by a bit. Nannies, oddly enough, were always the ones to act shocked that he was my own. Which is funny, because we look very much alike.

[Anonymous]

When I lived in DC (Friendship Heights) I was regularly mistaken for the nanny at the park because I was 27 so practically a teen mom there. In the Midwest where I now live, I am pretty much the Advanced Maternal Age mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Believe it or not, my wife, an African-American, has never been (openly) mistaken for the nanny of our 8 year old who looks white, has green eyes and brown hair with blond highlights. We live in DC. Clearly there is something in the way she carries herself and interacts with dd that communicates a parent-child relationship. I'm sure there's some study that has been done on how parents vs caregivers interact with relation to subtle differences in eye contact, touch, tone of voice, etc.

You're sure there is some study? Link it instead of guessing.
A good caregiver can interact with a child as well as a parent.
People probably don't even ask because they assume she is a nanny.
I'm a nanny and people are ALWAYS telling me how much my charge looks like me.

[Anonymous]

I think I've been mistaken for the nanny because our park is mostly nannies, I dress in old navy instead of Boden and I tend to chat up the nannies.

[Anonymous]

No, but my black husband gets a ton of "looks" when he's out with our white-looking mixed race daughter.

[Anonymous]

With my first, I was asked this question quite frequently. I was 28 in the burbs, but I did look quite young. Also, my babies have very light hair and I have very dark hair. The hair really throws people until they see my light haired husband and they see our kids are a pretty good mix of the 2 of us.

[Anonymous]

I haven't but I get asked EVERY.SINGLE.DAY "where does that blond hair come from?"

Both of my kids are white blond. My husband and I have brown hair but we were both blond as kids. It's pretty simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where I'm from, 29 is considered old for having a baby. Lots of people are grandparents by time they're in their late 30's.

This isn't really a good thing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I've been mistaken for the nanny because our park is mostly nannies, I dress in old navy instead of Boden and I tend to chat up the nannies.