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[quote=Anonymous]A new nanny started watching my 1 yo daughter.  She is in her 20s, has years of nanny experience with babies and toddlers, and her one big strength, which she emphasized during the interview and was and is very important to me, was that she loves to play with the kids and they love her for it.  She regularly flops on the floor so she's eye level with my daughter and seems very engaging.  Having said that, I have seen lots of nannies who ignore their charges in public and know that nannies can have very different personas in front of and away from the parents.  The nanny took my daughter to a library story time where my good friend goes regularly and I asked this friend to observe the nanny and give me her opinion of her.

After the story time, I talked with my friend and she said that her impression was that the nanny was one of those "lazy nannies" who don't really participate in the games or interact with the child.  She told me that she looked over at the nanny three times during the story time and each time long enough that she could gauge whether the nanny was participating.  (The story time has lots of songs where the caregiver is supposed to play with the baby.)  She said each of those times, when the caregivers were supposed to actively participate, the nanny was just sitting there holding the baby.  Later on, I asked the nanny how she liked story time and she enthused that it was great and that she knew all the songs.  I mentioned that my friend had spotted her and my daughter and what my friend said and the nanny vehemently insisted that she had been actively participating during every song.  I have compared their stories and asked for further detail from both of them and without going into everything, suffice to say there is no way they are both telling the truth.  For instance, there is a "tickling song" and the nanny insists she tickled the baby throughout the whole song when prompted.  I asked if maybe she took a break from the tickling or if she tickled not very long each time (I know, the conversation was getting ridiculous), and the nanny said no, there is no way my friend could have looked at her and not seen her tickling the baby.  I asked my friend if maybe she had just missed her tickling (like if she just glanced over) and she is equally vehement that the nanny definitely was not actively participating through parts of the song and that the nanny is lying.

Story time is only 30 minutes once a week and I would like the nanny to be actively engaged for those 30 minutes.  Having said that, if she had told me, yes, she took some breaks in participating because she was tired , I would be fine with this explanation and let it go.  But what bothers me is that she and my friend are contradicting each other and my friend has no reason to lie whereas the nanny does.  I feel like I have no choice but to think the nanny is lying.  Or maybe she sincerely believes what she is saying, but maybe is misremembering because she wasn't totally paying attention during the whole story time.  If she is lying, that is grounds for dismissal.  But if she is misremembering, I still think this is bad, but not as compelling as lying.  I am really ambivalent and would love to hear what other people think of the situation.[/quote]

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