Military Woman Hires Perfect Nanny but Feels ‘Sick’ after Checking Cameras

OP had set up nanny cameras in the living room and their bedroom to monitor her children. She fully trusted her nanny and never checked the cameras, but one time, she was having a bad day and decided to check on her kids. She recalled:

“I never feel compelled to check for the simple fact that I trust my nanny. However, I was having a rough day yesterday and wanted to see what the little ones were up to so I decided to pop in. My nanny was sitting on my bed, rocking my son, and attempting to breastfeed him.”

The OP was disgusted. “I almost felt sick, it just seemed so inappropriate,” she expressed. The mother confronted the nanny, who was highly apologetic, saying she “just wanted to help” her because of her lactation issues. But deep inside, OP was still unmoved. She decided to dig through older footage and discovered more unsettling details.

After rummaging through recordings from the past few weeks, OP noticed a strange trend in the nanny’s daily routine. The woman would unplug the camera in the bedroom whenever she put the baby for naps and restart it on leaving.

The mom was unsettled and decided to ask the nanny the following day for a reasonable explanation. Eventually, more appalling details came to light.

The babysitter told OP that she was “uncomfortable” with the camera pointing at her while she attempted to put the baby to sleep. OP found it baseless as the camera didn’t detect motion and followed any target.

Still unmoved, the mom asked the nanny why she didn’t manually angle the camera towards the crib. The woman said she didn’t know, which OP felt was just another lie as she’d previously noticed that someone had angled the camera towards the baby, and the idea of her 5-year-old doing it was impossible.

OP checked more recordings to see if she was missing something else. She discovered that the nanny left her daughter in an enclosed pantry and her toddler unattended in the backyard. To her dismay, it didn’t end there.

It was too much for the mom, and she returned with an update after the people online suggested she check if there was theft too. Redditor InvisibleShadow2U wrote:

“Because no one has mentioned it: check your valuables, especially any that you keep in your bedroom. If she’s turning off the camera, she may well be digging through your stuff.”

In a follow-up, OP said she checked her room for anything missing and discovered that a couple of her toddler’s outfits and her daughter’s small blanket had vanished.

Even the box of old baby clothes she’d set aside for charity had gone missing. The nanny’s father later returned the things, except for the blanket because she claimed she couldn’t find it.

“I’ve worked as a nanny. This is beyond inappropriate. You need boundaries in place, like, yesterday,” user gatitamonster commented, adding:

“Part of making that my profession is recognizing and respecting the fact that I’m not the child’s parent.”

Several parents suggested what OP needed to do next after her horrific experience with the nanny came to light.

The ordeal placed immense stress on the mother, who was horrified that she unknowingly encouraged a situation that put her children’s health and safety at risk. This compelled her to make a tough call.

“We’ve decided to let her go… I’m going to be taking a few weeks of leave to take my kids in for check-ups, get them a proper caregiver, and overall spend time with them,” she concluded.

Do you think it’s okay for babysitters to breastfeed other people’s children?

Many people online, some nannies themselves, highlighted the importance of babysitters realizing the children they tend to aren’t their biological kids, thus, nursing them is inappropriate and unacceptable. If you were in OP’s shoes, would you also fire the nanny for having crossed that boundary?

Why is it important for parents to frequently check their nanny cams?

Several people online advised on the importance of random checks on nanny cams to ensure things stay within acceptable boundaries even when parents aren’t around. This would also be useful to parents to check for potential red flags concerning their nannies.