Nanny is to Montclair, as latte is to Starbucks. According to my unofficial observations, in Anderson Park, on any given weekday, nannies out number mommies 5:1.
One morning, as I walked through Anderson Park with my two toddlers, we passed a conglomerate of nannies, four in total, each charged with at least two children. We offered a quick greeting and continued along the footpath. A few moments later, I stopped to pick up one of my children’s toys, and noticed a stray child following us. Assuming this girl belonged to the group we just passed, I told her to return to her nanny. Being about two years old, however, she did not wish to cooperate. I turned to look back at the nannies to see if any may be chasing after her. Much to my dismay, none were. Apparently, they failed to notice the child left their care and was already thirty yards off. My caravan and I turned around to return the prodigal child.
Upon arriving in front of the nannies with their child in tow, the chatter halted, and cell phones closed, as they suddenly became alarmed at realizing the child had, unbeknownst to them, gone off with me, a stranger. The child was promptly chastised, and was told “Don’t you know you don’t walk off with strangers?”
This is neither an opinion, nor an opportunity to lay blame; I am personally familiar with many nannies that are attentive and fantastically patient. It is simply an incident, which despite its happy ending, left me rather disconcerted and uneasy. For me, it illuminated the fact that another individual with ill intentions could easily have taken tragic advantage of such carelessness and inattention. It begs asking, that if neither we, nor our nannies, are watching our children, who is?
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