Playseum offers to spy on nannies

[Anonymous]

Posted on another list serve today. I find this wrong for so many reasons, but wanted to let nannies know about this.

Gina also let me know that she is more than happy to have her staff "observe and
report" on the conduct of your nanny. All you have to do is call her, describe
your nanny, and give her an approximate time of arrival. She will have her
staff discreetly monitor the visit and report back to you on whether the nanny
was properly attentive to your child. This is a great community service that
Gina has been offering gratis for some time. Gina also pointed out to me that
unsupervised kids not only worry her as a fellow parent, but can cause damage
and make her job much harder - so if you suspect inattention, you should not
hesitate to call.

[Anonymous]

This was in response to a nanny leaving an 18 month old unattended for more than 20 minutes in which time the baby made it out to the street to wander around alone until a passerby handed the child over to police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was in response to a nanny leaving an 18 month old unattended for more than 20 minutes in which time the baby made it out to the street to wander around alone until a passerby handed the child over to police.

They are changing their entry policy because of this incident. No one from the Playseum staff noticed the 18 month leaving through the open door. The nanny absolutely wrong, but the note says that they have been offering this service for a while so no it is not related to this one incident.

I think the fact that they are taking the incident with the child seriously is good. They should have safe guards in place to ensure that an 18 month can't leave their place unattended. I do have a serious problem with the nanny spying though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was in response to a nanny leaving an 18 month old unattended for more than 20 minutes in which time the baby made it out to the street to wander around alone until a passerby handed the child over to police.

They are changing their entry policy because of this incident. No one from the Playseum staff noticed the 18 month leaving through the open door. The nanny absolutely wrong, but the note says that they have been offering this service for a while so no it is not related to this one incident.

I think the fact that they are taking the incident with the child seriously is good. They should have safe guards in place to ensure that an 18 month can't leave their place unattended. I do have a serious problem with the nanny spying though.

And please forgive all the typos, I should have proofread before hitting submit.

[Anonymous]

What would a nanny do in public with her charges that she wouldn't want reported back to the parents? I know exactly what they would find if looking into my nanny-- someone playing with and engaging my little ones without a second of inattention. Only someone who wasn't doing their job would be worried about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would a nanny do in public with her charges that she wouldn't want reported back to the parents? I know exactly what they would find if looking into my nanny-- someone playing with and engaging my little ones without a second of inattention. Only someone who wasn't doing their job would be worried about this.

What if the general description you gave matches someone else that was there at the same time and you got wrong information? What if a parent getting a divorce wanted them to spy on the spouse, would you think that is okay? What if a nanny is not feeling 100% and isn't as engaged as they normally would be? What if a thousand other things? I'm not a nanny, just a parent and I would hate for a business to be spying on me without my knowledge.

[Anonymous]

It's just a way for them to try to put blame on others.

Obviously in this situation it was mostly the nannies fault, but the company should have taken some blame too. It's not right, sorry, it's a complete invasion of privacy.

MB, if you don't trust me, fire me. Don't have others do your dirty work.

[Anonymous]

I completely agree that the child-losing incident was unfortunate and not even mostly the fault of inadequate security at the Playseum. That said, spying on nannies?!? Really? How is a 20-year-old worker at the Playseum to determine if a nanny is doing a good job or not? Will there be a rating scale of some sort? What about the nanny who might have gone into work a little under the weather, not wanting to let the MB down on a big work day, takes the kid to the Playseum, and uses the entertainment of the activities there to take a well-deserved chill on a bench while DC is happily playing? Is that nanny negligent? The toddler who has a horrible day and is throwing fit after fit. Is the nanny a crappy nanny? If you can't trust your nanny, there are better ways to sort this out.

If you really want to "catch" nannies ignoring their charges, try the North Hall of Eastern Market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely agree that the child-losing incident was unfortunate and not even mostly the fault of inadequate security at the Playseum. That said, spying on nannies?!? Really? How is a 20-year-old worker at the Playseum to determine if a nanny is doing a good job or not? Will there be a rating scale of some sort? What about the nanny who might have gone into work a little under the weather, not wanting to let the MB down on a big work day, takes the kid to the Playseum, and uses the entertainment of the activities there to take a well-deserved chill on a bench while DC is happily playing? Is that nanny negligent? The toddler who has a horrible day and is throwing fit after fit. Is the nanny a crappy nanny? If you can't trust your nanny, there are better ways to sort this out.

If you really want to "catch" nannies ignoring their charges, try the North Hall of Eastern Market.

Totally agree. I think the Playseum's offer is short-sighted and creepy. And the North Hall is a great place to go if you want to feel discouraged about the whole nannying concept.

[Anonymous]

"Only someone who wasn't doing their job would be worried about this. "

i like the policy. Takes a village.

I'm a playseum fan in general (although normally save trips for the weekends since it is really expensive now) but I do HATE that they have no security against kids leaving w/o parents. I love the Port Discovery approach of wrist-bands to make sure you match the kid's to the adult's but even a person posted by the door to monitor who is going out or a type of lock higher up out of kids reach would be an improvement on the open door they have now.

[Anonymous]

As nanny who has been to this location, I am disgusted that twenty something would be spying on me. Shame on playesum, will be boycotting and letting my MB know why.

[Anonymous]

*eyeroll* you shouldn't be treating your charges any differently than you would in front of your MB anyway. who cares?

[Anonymous]

"*eyeroll* you shouldn't be treating your charges any differently than you would in front of your MB anyway. who cares?"

exactly. Any nanny actually doing a good job should be happy about this - the prospect that a 3rd party, totally unbiased woul report how nicely she interacts with and plays with the kids. those that are seeing this only as a gotcha trap obviously know they are not doing as well with the kids as they should.

[nannydebsays]

Sounds like this place is playing CYA by diverting attention away from their crappy security (How the HELL did a toddler get out of their space unnoticed? Do they not have check-in and check-out procedures, along with manned doors? Even the raunchiest Chuck-E-Cheese has that set up!) by playing "nanny police".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"*eyeroll* you shouldn't be treating your charges any differently than you would in front of your MB anyway. who cares?"

exactly. Any nanny actually doing a good job should be happy about this - the prospect that a 3rd party, totally unbiased woul report how nicely she interacts with and plays with the kids. those that are seeing this only as a gotcha trap obviously know they are not doing as well with the kids as they should.

Not necessarily, the idea that I'm being spied on by a bunch of teenagers who obviously get paid less than I do is something I don't like. Like I said earlier, if my MB doesn't trust me (which she does) I'd rather she fire me than have some High Schoolers spy on me, invasion of privacy.