Questionair: Can you be my nanny?

1) How many hours would you be talking on your phone while taking care of me:

• a. I do no such thing!


• b. Okay, I admit I do some talking.


• c. How many hours do I work?

2)And what do you tell my mum when she asks you to phone her in case of an emergency (something she didn't say before because she thought was obvious):

• a. Don't worry! Your mum, sister, doctor, hospital... I know all those numbers by heart.


• b. Sure, will do.


• c. My phone has only incoming calls.

3)Where would you take me for a walk? How long for? And at what time of the day?

• a.Well of course when I come at 14:00 and it's nice and warm (not yet summer). We'd go to the local playground for about an half an hour an hour and have a very good time.


• b. To the local playground when I feel like we should go.


• c. Taking you for a walk!? I don't think so! Your mum can nag & nag, I'll just take you for a ten minute walk up and down the street. And of course when it's dark and cold! Oh wait! I can sneak you to my house for an hour or two without your mother knowing, can't I?*

4) How do you feel about listening to children's songs, even if they're not in your language?

• a. That's a cool way to improve my English! Oh, and I see you also have classical music! We'll play music a lot.


• b. Well, I do prefer the songs I know, but I guess I can learn something new.


• c. I don't speak it - I don't play it! And take away those classical CDs! No, I'll stick to the good old absolutely nothing for kids radio.

5) What about safety in the house?

• a. Babies can get hurt. I'll take every safety precaution to make sure it doesn't happen.


• b. I'll try my best to keep you safe!


• c. O.K, so your mum showed me that gate thing at the top of the stairs [and yes, stairs lead straight to room where baby plays. No hall or anything]. She even showed me how to open/close it. But hey, what's the big deal!? Why would I want to bother and close it???**

* I must say huge improvement here! She finally, after really nagging her for 7 months, learned where the local playground is (5 minute walk with a pram!) and that it's much nicer also for her! She now goes with my sister's kids nanny [who has quite often asked "my" nanny to join]

** I had a rant post which I started writing (and accidentally published instead of saving), continued on paper and more or less got it out of my system. Until by chance I discovered today she doesn't know how to open/close the stair gate. We (my mum and I) always hand baby over to her downstairs (mum's place) or outside. It never occurred to us she is not using the gate! Beyond safety, I am quite upset that for over three months my daughter must have been hearing all these unnecessary "no"s.

P.S

Stopping here. And not because there no more questions..

EDT (which is kind of funny as I haven't yet written here the post..[wrote post on paper first]). I am so furious! As I mentioned, yesterday me and mum were shocked to find out she doesn't use the stair gate (doesn't even know how to use it). She was told how to. Today mum saw her as she was leaving and told her again to use the gate. I hand her the baby (down at my mum's) and ask her to go up and finish dressing her. After a few minutes I come up and..... the gate is open! OMG do you think we were kidding??? So she says to me I forgot. Damn was I cross with her. You can forget to take the baby for a walk. You can forget to change her nappy. You can forget to feed her. But you CANNOT forget to close the stair gate. I made her show me how she closes and opens it while she rolled her eyes. Yeah, whatever, baby safety.

1. [number only as I can't seem able to seperate this from previous paragraph, it keeps on sticking together..] Another Edit to Add: This is already a long post (and my girl is sleeping in the other room and I'm scared the noise of me typing will wake her..), so I'll be short. To say I'm not pleased with this nanny will be an understatement. At first I was frightened to look for someone else in case she finds out (and leaves me before I do find a replacement). But lately things are really bad. And yesterday, seeing her have my girl on the swing for almost half an hour, hardly paying attention to her, maybe once giving a faint push another time sang a song.. I was so upset. [the stupid nanny knew I could see. mum says she doing it to show me as I don't allow her to take baby for a walk at this hour (it's cold but more importantly, this is the time she takes her to her house..).But as mum also says, she's digging her own grave. I'm going back and forth between finding someone new and just swallowing it till the end of the year (mainly as I'm not sure it's good for my baby, at 9 months with all the fear of strangers of this age, to bring someone new. I think better done at the end of the holiday, slowly introducing this new person. Anyway I am interviewing, just hope I'll do a better job choosing (and if I see she's not the right person, don't keep her..). [yes, that wasn't exactly short..]