Security cameras that your nanny
does not know about are a great idea. At best, you will feel like it was a
waste of money after a few years. If that’s true, consider yourself lucky, and
chalk the cost of the equipment off in the same way that you pay insurance for
your car, your home or your health.
There are also surveillance items that will help you
monitor phone calls, computer activity and other things. Items as simple as a
baby monitor left in the “on” position can let you know, in another part of
your house, what is going on, audibly, with your nanny and child in a separate
part of the house.
Sometimes they do
pick up a neighbor’s baby monitor frequency and you hear what is going on in
your neighbor’s house on the baby monitor. Be aware that they may be hearing
what is going on in your house, too!
It is always a good idea to make sure you have
proper insurance coverage on your house in case an employee working in your
house has an accident.
An umbrella coverage policy is one kind of insurance
that may cover your employees or any guests who enter your house (think other
nannies and their charges), and have accidents. Check with your insurance
broker if you have one, your business manager, or whoever sold you your car insurance.
If your nanny does drive, make sure that she is
covered by your insurance in your car.
Not every nanny will be as
wonderful as yours. In fact, some may be rotten eggs altogether! If you find
that your child is friendly with a nanny that is not professional, and not up
to your standards, have a talk with your nanny to find out more. If you still
think that this nanny is not someone you want around your child, then without
telling your nanny, call the employer of the other nanny to express your
concerns. The reason you don’t tell your nanny that you are doing this, is that
you don’t want her to be responsible for your interaction with the other
parent, or the parent’s interaction with her own nanny. The reason that you
need to contact the other parent is because they may or may not realize that
their nanny is behaving in the way that is offensive to you, and they may want
to remedy the problem. They may also feel that they don’t have a choice in how
their nanny acts – many parents feel that they are victims to their nannies
because they don’t use an effective hiring method, so that the idea of
repeating their (non-working) method (again, most likely) is worse than keeping
an offensive nanny that at least allows them to go to work.
