Hi all,
Just wanted to share my experience on my 1st confinement nanny whom I had hired based on a recommendation off this forum. As a first time mother with no experience, this nanny was definitely not "great at looking after my baby" nor was she an "amazing cook" as was recommended by the poster on the forum. Will not be sharing the name of the poster but you may PM me if you wish to know more.
This confinement nanny came highly recommended by a poster, you may see that she posts the same post in a lot of threads and in the different EDD monthly threads. She has a profile picture of a pregnant lady but I really doubt she is indeed a mother who had hired the nanny before. The so-called great confinement nanny is known as Sally or Sherry as how the poster calls her.
The confinement lady is not able to cook nor is she good with looking after my baby. If you call cooking buying expensive ingredients and dumping them all into the same pot to make "nutritious soup", then I guess she can cook. She insists on at least $500/week for marketing, cooks 4-5 dishes for a 2 pax dinner, and insists on buying a whole fish for herself for her daily dinner. I have no qualms on sharing my lunch/dinner with her as it is easier for everyone to eat the same thing anyway, but to have a whole fish for herself, and to cook such large portions at every meal is a waste of food. Food that is unconsumed is thrown away at every meal. She came to my house with 10 bags, of which she started to complain that my house was small as there was no space to keep her luggage.
To make matters worse, she speaks very loudly and is very rough with the baby. There were many times the baby was startled by her voice and cried when handled by her. When we tried to tell her to be gentle, all she replies is that " Its ok, the baby won't feel any pain". This was seen when she ripped off my baby's umbilical cord stump when she undid her diapers. Even though the baby was wailing, she continued dressing the baby and proceeded to make a phone call as though nothing had happened. She pulled off the common scam which many confinement nannies have been doing as well - telling me about a sick relative who was admitted in hospital who subsequently passed away and asked to leave early. She then wanted to introduce her friend - who would give her a referral fee in return. The nanny also cut up a branded bag as she had wanted to use the straps for her own bag - I had only discovered this the day that she was due to leave, she had not asked me if it was ok or if she could have the bag. To this day, I still have no idea what was taken from my house and new discoveries are being made everyday. What was supposed to be a restful and relaxing confinement period was more like the most stressful and tiring period of my life! I had to watch what the nanny was doing in my house as she was moving things around, I had to look after my baby myself as she would be busy "cleaning" something, and had no rest at all. She would tell me home cooked food is good for confinement but one day when she woke up late, she would tell me to go out and buy my own breakfast. Some days she would tell me bread is no good as it will give me "wind", yet other days she would say eating bread is good for the baby. I believe she has no idea what she was talking about. She would insist that I buy her a new cup, plate, specific brand of washing powder etc ( of which she conveniently removed from my house when she left) and would take every opportunity to buy things for herself.
Luckily for me, she left early, 2.5 wks into my confinement and I was recommended an awesome nanny by another confinement lady! After the nightmare, she was literally a dream come true as she could cook, clean and look after my little one.
So mothers-to-be, just be a bit more cautious when taking recommendations from the so called "mothers" on the forum, do try to meet up with the nannies beforehand, and check the past posts from the poster to see if the only posts that they post are only on recommending a nanny.
Am so tempted to post her full name up on the forum to deter her from cheating other mothers as it is simply not right that she stresses out people when she should be helping them instead!
Happy pregnancy!
