Nanny cams

[Pretty Butterfly]

Thats true Lime..

But I babysat a LOT when I was young, but never a strangers kids, they knew me first.. and I certainly wouldnt leave mine with one either.. but then there are cases like yours where you have no choice.. so in your case, I would use one for sure.

On the other hand, I am a FDC worker, and if I found one of the parents had to film me, they'd have their kids out so fast... If they dont trust me, dont leave your kids here.
I am free in my own home to scratch my butt just like everyone else!!!

[LimeSlice]

Yes but if you are sitting in someone else's home, you are not...
An FDC carer needs to go through sooo many checks to get that status in the first place, I think it implies a particular amount of trust. Joe from Babysitters R Us, doesn't have that same implication of trust. Neither does Catarina, the Spanish Au Pair.

[Pretty Butterfly]

Actually our checks are no different to a proper agency.. Police check, and Working with children check.. thats it unfortunatly....

And we can have ANYONE in our house.. not making a good case for FDC am I???

But I agree, if you paid someone to sit in YOUR house, you'd want all the checks done first, AND references that checked out... anyone with good references from good people should pan out...

...on one side I see the need for nanny cams, and on the babysitters side it IS privacy invasion... I just dunno...

[Schmickers]

We have a little internet camera that I can turn on and off remotely that shows part of our house. Given that I can't really be bothered disabling it then I guess we would have a nanny cam. Its in plain view, though, so it wouldn't be without the nanny's knowledge.

I have heard of some high profile child care centres making webcam feeds available to parents, so the idea isn't completely far fetched.

[Pretty Butterfly]

Actually Schmickers, I did hear that awhile ago... they were live streaming from the centre so you could log in and watch your child at any given time!!!

[Floweryfields]

Actually Schmickers, I did hear that awhile ago... they were live streaming from the centre so you could log in and watch your child at any given time!!!

My concern with that would be confidentiality for all children - eg if Sam bit Sarah while you were watching, what is in place to stop the *****y mum from causing trouble - I saw Sam bit Sarah, Sam should be banned, blah, blah. (and yes I have had a parent want me to ban a child for biting).

[Pretty Butterfly]

Ohh, so true!!!

I can see now the cat fights out on the steps, mums pulling hair, screaming!!!!
Might sound far fetched, but i bets its happened!!!

[UsPlus2]

Would I use one? Yes, but I would also let the person know. Having said that I would only use it if the person was unknown to me, and I didnt have anyone I know available to babysit and I had no other choice by to leave my children.

In my opinion it is different then FDC or daycare in that the person would not be around other adults, by making the person aware of a nanny cam it kind of acts as a moral anchor another adult would normally provide (i.e keeping temper under control, no hitting/biting the child). Having said that, a nanny cam would only pick up once an act has been done, bit to late if any serious damage was done.

[Fleur]

Yep, I definitely would, no hesitation... it would put my mind at ease big time.

Like Lime said, it's not about not trusting a person, but not knowing them at all.

I guess I would let them know there were cameras.. although the thought occurs that if they didn't know, then it would really be a case of 'what you see is what you get' - good and bad.

And also - we were in a situation once where one of our children made accusations against someone we did know. So sometimes, knowing a person isn't knowing them.