I guess no one here have been in small European towns: seeing a baby there napping on the street with parents in a coffee shop or a store is pretty normal... It's all about "fresh air". I had to remind my mother many times to sit next to the stroller on our porch when the babies were there -- she still thinks I'm crazy for requesting it and has left her "post" many times to get tea or something like that...

To PP about wedding ring: I can see how can someone steal a wedding ring if you stumble in the street onto it... You can sell the ring in a pawn shop, even if you are caught it might be hard for police to prove that you did not have that ring all your life... If you stumble on the street on a baby, even if you are a pedofile of something, I'm not sure that kidnapping a baby will be the first thing on your mind... It sounds like a much harder and riskier task than slipping a ring into your pocket...

I don't know -- I wouldn't fire a nanny for this if there was indeed only 3 minutes, it's a quiet suburban street (max 5 dog walkers passing by in a hour and you know all of them). To me it sounds like an over reaction showcasing to what our society has come -- watching kids every move till what age? 8? 10? And I'm not one of these "free range" parents, just as I think about it we are getting ourselves crazy and maybe trying to protect our kids way too much..

I personally did not fire a nanny for allowing my kids (8, 5 and 2.5) to play basketball on a cul de sac unsupervised for about 5 min while she was putting into freezer a project the 8 year old has started. My biggest concern there was a car hitting the toddler --- though we have only 3 homes here and like 10 max cars a day... We had a conversation, she is not allowed to let the toddler outside without her by the side, but she grew up in rural environment and originally saw nothing wrong with this.

I'm confused .... 3 minutes is a VERY long time. I live on a very quiet street in Rockville and have never left my child on the sidewalk for 3 entire minutes. To put this in perspective, put your stroller back in the spot that she left your Child (and leave something extremely valuable in the stroller - like your wedding ring, of course this Does NOT compare to your child, but I want you to get even a sliver of the feeling that your nanny should have had when she left your baby on the street), walk in to your house, and wait 180 seconds before you even peep back outside to look at the stroller ....

If the police were able to investigate without either your nanny or sister knowing until they came back outside this means that they did not even do quick checks / peeks to see how the baby was doing.

Also, if your sister was there, what the heck was your nanny doing for 3 minutes with your older child? Why not give the older child to your sister and run back out to the baby? She sounds way to comfortable to me and her decision making on this would cause me to never fully trust her again.

Lastly, who the heck leaves the baby by the sidewalk??? I'm not sure how your house is situated, but if you were going to run in to the house, at the very least - leave the baby right by the door.

Net net, even if you do keep her as your nanny, I am not sure how you could ever trust her again.

to all the PPs that have said they do this all the time - I'm the nanny with multiples and yes, sometimes I have to do that. BUT the children are ALWAYS in my eyesight and only left outside as long as it takes me to put one child in the house and come back or one child in the car and come back - ie, less than 45 seconds. this nanny went UPSTAIRS, out of sight of the child. even if she could see the child, what if the stroller had rolled into the street? then she would have to run down the stairs and back outside. she is not a few feet away from the baby unloading groceries or dealing with another child while keeping an eye on the other.

and as I said before, if after 3 years she does not understand how to handle the stroller and stairs, this is absolutely not the first time this has happened. and I'm not one to shout fire the nanny or quit your job, but I'm really disappointed that parents would ignore this due to 3 years of what they THINK has been safe and diligent work by the nanny and the inconvenience of finding a new nanny

Baby was on the sidewalk? No matter how quiet the neighborhood is that was absolutely inexcusable!! Also, the fact that the police were already on the block should've been a clue to nanny that now is especially not a good/safe time to abandon the baby outside! And if the police showed up after the fact that just shows how long the baby must have been left out there (likely much more than a minute or two). I'm sorry you'll have to deal with the inconvenience of finding a new nanny, but I agree with the PP who said that this is just the one time she got caught being unsafe, who knows how many other times something like this happened when the police (and your sister) weren't around? I'm a nanny and I would never ever EVER leave a child out on the sidewalk alone! If I absolutely had to leave the child outside for a second for some unforeseen extenuating circumstances I would at least push the stroller onto the porch, or if that isn't possible then in the driveway next to the house, etc. On the sidewalk? No way!

Baby was on the sidewalk, that's why it's a bigger deal to me. I think the police overeacted but that's beside the point. They filed a report on the incident.