Keep your Eyes and Ears on your Nanny

I am a working mommy with two boys, Rafa who is almost 7 years old and Raemir who is 1 year old.

It all started when I found out that I got pregnant at the end of 2008. At that time, Rafa was 5 years old. It was a comfort zone for me because I was happily working and not too worry too much about leaving Rafa at home because he's a big boy and can take care of himself. He also had a Mbak who watched over him. Let's just call her Mbak L.

Panic button was on when baby Raemir was born. I panicked everyday thinking who's going to take care of my baby when my maternity leave was over. Of course, the option was to hire a nanny. And then the struggle to find the right nanny started. When I called all of the Yayasan Babysitter, everyone was still in 'pulang kampung' mode as it was right after Idul Fitri. But finally we managed to find Raemer his first nanny. Let's call her Mbak R.

The panic button was still on when she arrived. I watched closely on how how she carried, fed, gave bath to Raemir and so many other things. I felt my prayer was answered. Mbak R is great. She could give Raemir bath in 'tengkurap' position. Even I couldn't do it and she was only 19 years old.

Five  months have been passed until Mbak L who has been taking care of Rafa gave me a headache-induced report. Raemir fell down from the bed (luckily my bed was on the floor) twice and Mbak R never reported those incidents to me!

After that, I heard another scary story. Turned out, Mbak R was so mean to Rafa, she was so rude to Rafa, especially when Rafa entered the room when Raemir was sleeping.  Rafa is a little kid, so sometimes he entered the room while singing or talking loudly. Not too mention that the door also made a squeaky sound. There were many times when she crashed and locked the door right in Rafa’s face.

Sensing a dangerous behavior, I fired her immediately! But despite all of her bad behavior I still felt grateful that she took care of Raemir when I was out for work. She was good on with babies but not patient enough for my oldest son.

For other working mommies out there, please keep your eyes and ears on your nanny. I don’t mean to scare you or anything. But just be careful, sometimes what’s appeared in our eyes are not always the same when we leave the house. If you have older child, you can ask them casually like, "Ade sama mbak tadi ngapain aja?" Or simply, "Hari ini gimana Kaka? Maen apa aja?" . They usually will tell you all the detail. Like me, I can not trust the maid and nanny 100% because you know….it's hard to find loyal ones these days. I miss si mbok who was so loyal to my parents.

Now, I have Mbak S who is more gentle. It's been 3 months and there's no bad reports so far. I'm praying with every beat of my heart this one will last long. Whenever I leave for work, I always said to her to be careful on Raemir and please be patient to Rafa, he’s a big boy but still a little kid in some ways, just tell him what to do in a gently and patiently.

Well, that’s my story mommies. How about you? Have you found the perfect one?I always believe that there’s still a loyal caring nanny out there, unfortunately most of us haven't found them yet ;).

*Sent by Lila