Know Your Nanny

Guess I look pretty trustworthy. Because the following thing happened to me yesterday. I sat at my little table in the back of my Starbucks (don't you love how I'm getting possessive of a mega-chain coffee store?) and a nanny pushed a stroller up to my table and left it with me (without asking) while she went to the bathroom. Maybe she saw my furrowed brow indicating superhuman focus on my laptop screen and assumed (quite correctly) that I would not run away with the Maclaren.

But there was one little problem: there was a child in said (gray and orange) Maclaren. Yes, a living a breathing toddler. A cute one too. He was probably three, had shaggy blonde waves, and looked quite at home sitting with me. In fact, he finagled those safety straps off and all of a sudden, I had myself a handsome little coffee date on the chair next to me.

When his nanny came out of the bathroom, she zipped up her jeans (yes, outside of the bathroom. Lovely. She must have been so worried about this little boy!) and reunited with her charge. And I looked at her and thought: Who do you think you are? Someone trusts you to take care of this little boy. Wheel the freaking stroller into the massive bathroom like I have done practically twice a day for 2.5 years. But when I made eye contact with this woman, what did I do? I smiled sweetly. Didn't say a word. And off they went.

I could not stop thinking about this for the rest of the day. Was I supposed to chide this woman I didn't know? Was I supposed to scribble down a description of this nanny and post it on some bad nanny website because sadly I know they exist. Or, was I supposed to mind my own business just like I did, safely burying my nose and my conscience back in my keyboard?

Thankfully, we adore our nanny and it is up for debate whether our girls adore her more than they do us. This is a good thing. Husband and I joked last night about asking her if she's seen that Big Love show (the series about polygamy) to get a sense of whether she would marry us if we proposed. In all seriousness though, please know your nanny. I do not want any more impromptu coffee dates with your babies.