Are my concerns valid?

[Anonymous]

I want to start this post by saying that my nanny works around 20hrs per week and I pay her $20 per hour. I am a single mom to a 14 month old, and I own a business that allows me to be in and out of the house during the day. I really like her but a few things have happened that I am a little worried about.

1. she left my baby on the changing table while I was home and i quickly mentioned it and she said "oh my gosh (child's name) I forgot you were up there!" She was about 10 feet away.
2. She does not clean up after herself. I am not the most organized person but sprayed soda of the walls, floor and kitchen table is weird to find.
3. She pocketed my keys by accident when she was playing with my daughter and took them home with her.
4. She has a set of keys she uses to play with the babies she takes care of and after the first set of keys went missing I was looking for my neighbor's spare key just to make sure it was where it was supposed to be but I couldn't find it. When the nanny came to drop off the keys, I had my neighbor check her "play keys" and she found her house key on there.
5. She doesn't have a cell phone so I bought her a prepaid one for her to use incase of emergencies. She seemed opposed to use one for a really long time.
6. She brought a cat to my house without asking.
7. She accidentally forgot to close the gate to my yard and one of my neighbors found my dog down the street (my dogs are all indoor dogs)

In my opinion, she isn't malicious in any way, she is just forgetful and spacey. I have grown emotionally attached to her because she has really supported me through a rough separation, and more importantly, my daughter gets so excited every single time she sees her! She is VERY active, no TV to worry about but I find myself making excuses for her mistakes every time I tell someone one of the above stories. Are these normal nanny things that happen?

[Anonymous]

Not normal. Sorry. You can do better.

[Anonymous]

No, these things are not ok OP. I'm sorry.

Some of them are more serious than others, but overall that is WAY too long a list.

[Anonymous]

Start looking ASAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to start this post by saying that my nanny works around 20hrs per week and I pay her $20 per hour. I am a single mom to a 14 month old, and I own a business that allows me to be in and out of the house during the day. I really like her but a few things have happened that I am a little worried about.

1. she left my baby on the changing table while I was home and i quickly mentioned it and she said "oh my gosh (child's name) I forgot you were up there!" She was about 10 feet away.
She forgot your child? The child is her job, so how did she forget the child?
2. She does not clean up after herself. I am not the most organized person but sprayed soda of the walls, floor and kitchen table is weird to find.
No, that's not normal. Personally, I would want to know whether she was giving the child soda or whether she was drinking it in front of your child. Either way, it's not acceptable.
3. She pocketed my keys by accident when she was playing with my daughter and took them home with her.
You don't pocket keys accidentally.
4. She has a set of keys she uses to play with the babies she takes care of and after the first set of keys went missing I was looking for my neighbor's spare key just to make sure it was where it was supposed to be but I couldn't find it. When the nanny came to drop off the keys, I had my neighbor check her "play keys" and she found her house key on there.
Play keys are big, plastic and on a solid ring. There's no way that a house key could be put on a ring of play keys. If she's using actual keys, that's a huge issue.
5. She doesn't have a cell phone so I bought her a prepaid one for her to use incase of emergencies. She seemed opposed to use one for a really long time.
If she doesn't have a cell phone and you want her to use one for emergencies, yes, you need to provide it. Was she actually opposed to carrying and using it, or is she not used to carrying a cell phone, so left it at the house?
6. She brought a cat to my house without asking.
No, no and no.
7. She accidentally forgot to close the gate to my yard and one of my neighbors found my dog down the street (my dogs are all indoor dogs)
It doesn't matter if the dog is indoor all the time, indoor/outdoor or outdoor only. The dog got out because she left the gate open. She didn't realize and look for the dog herself, your neighbor found the dog.

In my opinion, she isn't malicious in any way, she is just forgetful and spacey. I have grown emotionally attached to her because she has really supported me through a rough separation, and more importantly, my daughter gets so excited every single time she sees her! She is VERY active, no TV to worry about but I find myself making excuses for her mistakes every time I tell someone one of the above stories. Are these normal nanny things that happen?

No matter how attached you are to her, she needs to go. She's not responsible, she has no common sense, and some of those (the cat and keys) are outside the bounds of what can be considered normal spaciness.

[Anonymous]

lord. fire this crazy b*tch OP please.


I know that the hiring process is an exhausting one and its tough to start all over again, but if this is a real post you need to get off of the internet and stay home until you at least hire someone with a brain. Not sure what could've impressed you during the interview in the first place with a nanny like this. If you don't mind my asking what were her salary requirements and experience? How did you find her?

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thank you for all of your replies, and kind words! I hired her after hearing rave reviews from a woman I know, and from another reference. I also spoke with one of the children she has babysat in the past and she loves her. Aside from those basics she came off as warm and loving versus some of the other people I interviewed. She also seems so invested in my daughter's mental growth. She takes her to explore things and and is very hands on. Lastly, she is extremely patient. Her hourly rate started at $18 per hour and she just raised it to $20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thank you for all of your replies, and kind words! I hired her after hearing rave reviews from a woman I know, and from another reference. I also spoke with one of the children she has babysat in the past and she loves her. Aside from those basics she came off as warm and loving versus some of the other people I interviewed. She also seems so invested in my daughter's mental growth. She takes her to explore things and and is very hands on. Lastly, she is extremely patient. Her hourly rate started at $18 per hour and she just raised it to $20.

You can do better. Your daughter could have broken her neck if she fell off the changing table. My kids are older and I'm not at ALL a helicopter mom, but holy shit I ALWAYS had at least one hand on the baby at ALL TIMES when they were on the changing table. Get someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thank you for all of your replies, and kind words! I hired her after hearing rave reviews from a woman I know, and from another reference. I also spoke with one of the children she has babysat in the past and she loves her. Aside from those basics she came off as warm and loving versus some of the other people I interviewed. She also seems so invested in my daughter's mental growth. She takes her to explore things and and is very hands on. Lastly, she is extremely patient. Her hourly rate started at $18 per hour and she just raised it to $20.

tuh...the nerve