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[quote=Anonymous]This happened to me once.  I had a part-time nanny who was great in many ways:  A bit young, but highly educated in a child-related field, lots of part-time experience with kids, good references, very polished and engaging, and sweet in her interaction with the baby.

We always encouraged this nanny to take our infant out for walks.  A couple of times she mentioned that she had taken the baby up to her neighborhood, which is a fairly long, but doable, walk from our house.  I didn't think much of it, because I tend to take long city walks myself and I thought it was great for the baby to get fresh air.  One day she stayed out for an unusually long time (I was working from home so I noticed).  I called her cell to check on them.  It turns out she had been taking the baby on the subway to her apartment and leaving her on a towel on the floor while she tidied up her place.

I think the nanny knew she was pushing the limits of appropriate behavior, which is why she used to casually disclose some but not all of the information (i.e. took the baby up to x neighborhood as opposed to took the baby to my home because I prefer to provide care there).  The baby wasn't yet mobile and still slept a lot, so aside from the unnecessary subway trip, it wasn't really a safety issue.  However, the fact that nanny had started doing this regularly without clear disclosure, and for increasingly long stretches of time, showed me that she was bored and my child's needs would always be secondary to her own.

I now give all nannies and sitters guidelines for where they can take the kids at any time without advance discussion (i.e., the library, a couple of community centers, three playgrounds, a stroller zone of a couple miles, and all the retail and playdate options within that zone).  Beyond that, all destinations need to be discussed with me in advance.  I'm always open to new places if proposed by a nanny, but I will never again assume that a nanny will share my sense of appropriate ways to spend her workday.
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