Nanny Cam – right or wrong

We have a new childminder starting in the morning for our 17 month old girls, we’ve been really happy with our previous childminder but she’s had to give up, she was experienced and the girls loved her.

The new one has met them a couple of times and they haven’t really warmed to her yet, normally they’re not that shy. This will also be her first childminding job. We’ve got a clock with a hidden camera in it but we’re in a bit of a turmoil whether to use it or not, we want to see how they get on with her. This isnt a trust issue, if we didn’t trust her, we wouldn’t have taken her on, we just want to see how they interact. However we don’t want to tell her she will be filmed as we want to see her acting as she would naturally and this won’t happen if she knows she’s being filmed.

What does the singletrack hive mind think?

I think the problem is not with your childminder, or with her interaction with your children.

😯

If I worked for you an then find out you’ve filmed me, I’d be pretty flippin angry. Is it even legal to do that?

+1 crikey and emsz

Would you like someone to do the same to you?
No, of course you bloody wouldn’t.

Either ask her permission or don’t do it.
Nasty, horrible thing to do.

This isnt a trust issue, if we didn’t trust her, we wouldn’t have taken her on

Yeah, right.

go for it.. could be hilarious consequences

some people seem to have too much to hide..

+1 crikey and emsz

and Rusty + 1

I would say that if it reassures you do it for a short period to alleviate your fears but i do think it is wrong but I can see why you would.

I’m looking at you all, right now

What is that ? 😯

UncleFred – Member
We’ve got a clock with a hidden camera in it

Haven’t we all?

Out of interest, how much are you paying per hour for someone (you’re not entirely sure about) to look after your children?

If you do and you get caught – Nanny will be very wealthy and you will be divorced and very poor.

I reckon you should go for it. It would make for a great thread on here.

Jesus.

Take her on, ask the kids if they like her (or see if they cry about being with her). If she’s not popular, move on.

Being with someone they don’t immediately love for a few weeks isn’t going to damage their development ffs. I’m sure they’ll let you know if they are unhappy.

What exactly are you looking to gain from this

Am I allowed to suggest that this is a #firstworldproblem par excellence?

Probably best if anyone without kids steps away from this thread. How could you possibly understand?!

Oh don’t talk rubbish. 🙂

It’s nasty, cheap and unethical.
Being a parent doesn’t justify unacceptable behaviour.

Besides, how do you think the father of the employee would feel to find out that his daughter had been secretly filmed by some middle aged bloke she’d only just met?

If you are so concerned why dont you try looking after your kids yourself !

Anyone, with kids or not, might understand. We were all kids once, and most of us probably wanted to be looked after by our mum and dad. I don’t know the OP’s circumstances, but if they need a nanny because they both have “careers”, then my sympathy is in short supply.

Jesus no. What an awful thing to even consider. Plain WRONG. Natural progression. See how things pan out without hacking in. Shame on you.

WTF are you doing with a hidden camera clock in the first place?

It sounds spectacularly odd behaviour to me.

Oh! cLock. 😳

Do you live on either of these..

You need to turn that camera on yourself, take a good hard look at what You see.

“Tuts “

DailyMail reader I guess.

won’t someone please think of the CHILDREN!

Nothing sinister apart from wanting to make sure my kids are happy when i’m not there.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your straight to the point answers. I was uneasy about it, which is why i sought some external opinions, our thought processes can get skewed when we are concerned about our kids happiness.

The clock was bought specifically for this purpose and remains in its box, where it will stay.

As for looking after my kids myself, i would love too, however we have a mortgage to pay and if i want them to have a roof over thier head and a decent environment to grow up in then i don’t have much choice.

You have every choice in how they are looked after – send them to a nursery so they aren’t alone with someone if you can’t bring yourself to trust them.

And if the camera is ‘only’ to check that your kids are happy when they are with someone else may I suggest you don’t know your kids very well.

choice- of course you have choice. You could enrol it/them in a nursery which will have trained experienced staff and an ofstead record (not report)

EDIT M_F beats me to it…

Good choice OP, but then you really did know the right way to act.

With honour and with trust.

if you are so concerned why dont you try looking after your kids yourself !

That is a little harsh. Most working parents feel guilty about using childcare, often not much choice though.

To the OP, you will get a pretty good idea very quickly if things are working out or not. I assume the childminder is registered and does have excellent references………..

If I was in the OP’s position I would, but for a different reason, even if I thought I could trust her I’d run the nanny cam then I would know if I could trust her.

Edit – I regret my previous comment – hope it works out!

No vacancies at the local nurseries for twins of that age so we had to go with a childminder, she is registered and qualified but this is her first job.

MF – thanks for adding to the guilt we have about having to have someone look after them. I find it incredibly hard to walk away from them every morning and wish that i had the financial freedom to be able to stay at home everyday, but we don’t.

As for looking after my kids myself, i would love too, however we have a mortgage to pay and if i want them to have a roof over thier head and a decent environment to grow up in then i don’t have much choice.

I bet you`ll pack em off to boarding school first chance you get !

our thought processes can get skewed when we are concerned about our kids happiness.

No shit!…in your case.

Why not just gauge how happy your kids are?

choice- of course you have choice. You could enrol it/them in a nursery which will have trained experienced staff and an ofstead record (not report)

To be fair to childminders, the relationship you and your kids have with a childminder is completely different to that you have with a nursery – I think it’d be incredibly hard for childminders to get away with being abusive or just not very good, as it’d be really obvious, whereas it clearly is perfectly possible to get away with not being very good at all, or even quite horrible neglect or abuse in the larger nursery setting where parents don’t have direct contact with all staff.

As for looking after my kids myself, i would love too, however we have a mortgage to pay and if i want them to have a roof over thier head and a decent environment to grow up in then i don’t have much choice

I’m guessing a baptist chapel conversion in Guernsey doesn’t come cheap 😉

I think probably by law you MUST inform people if you are using CCTV (unless you got the clock from work and you have 12 passports and a watch with lasers in it)

If it was me and I found it I think I’d be reading the Human Rights act and employment law and looking at new cars.

True I don’t have children but FFS get over it

I don’t know the OP’s circumstances, but if they need a nanny because they both have “careers”, then my sympathy is in short supply.

Nice. 😕

You realise that around 68 percent of couples with children have both parents working these days? That’s a pretty large majority that you disapprove of.

It must be nice to have the choice though.

Fair enough people needing to work, but if you don’t have the confidence to leave your children with the person you selected to look after them then spying isn’t the solution. Perhaps he should ask her to keep a diary of activities and development (both areas of good and poor development) in the same way a nursery would to ensure she is doing her best for his children.

But, back to reality, I suggest the OP doesn’t invade this person’s privacy and lets her get on and do her job. He will soon know if the kids don’t like her (and he shouldn’t expect them to take to her straight away, they are only young and something like this is a big change).