Nanny Cameras: Yea or Nay?

Nanny cams: Discuss

Top 7 Answers:

1. Lauren Ogrodnick I don’t think I could nanny for someone who doesn’t trust me. Just my two cents. Trust is a two-way street.

3. Lucie’s List I personally feel if you distrust your nanny that much, you should hire someone else. Also? #aintnobodygottimeforthat. Just my 2 cents. 

2. Stephanie Magan Speaking as a nanny, I worked for a family that had 2 cameras that they could log into from their iPhones and I didn’t find it creepy. They were both doctors and worked long hours (24 hour shifts often) and I knew that they got the cameras because they missed their girl. She made it clear that the long hours were the reason for the cams and that if they didn’t trust me then I wouldn’t work for them. Now that I am a mom, I agree; it is all about the reasoning and communication.

4. Molly Moran Lukenbill As a nanny for several years, I always assumed they had hidden cameras. And it didn’t bother me one bit. If they wanted to watch me eat Doritos while the kiddos were asleep, so be it. I think it’s fine and you don’t need to tell the nanny. When I have babysitters, I don’t have nanny cams. I only get my babysitters through personal contacts though. 

Also, I would never send my kids to a day care that doesn’t have the cameras where you can log in and see your kids at any time. Even doggy day cares have these – and those are for dogs. I would greatly distrust any day care that doesn’t have them – why wouldn’t they want you to see the care they are providing?

5. Emily Porter Having had a nanny for over 2 years now (our second nanny), we don’t have a camera, nor do we have video monitors. They wouldn’t have them at day care, and I have way more control over whom I hire and fire in my own home. I do occasionally come home unannounced, but that’s the extent of it. I think that you have to have a certain amount of blind faith in people as well. If you don’t tell the nanny you have the camera, there can be legal ramifications if they find out. If you do tell them and they’re a bad person, they’ll just beat and molest your kid outside of the camera’s reach. Bad deal either way.

6. Caitlin Wright I’d use a camera only if I suspected something was wrong and wasn’t satisfied after speaking with the nanny.

7. Signe Spencer I had au pairs before the days of video cams. The few bad actors were fairly easy to identify by the kids’ reactions and by mismatches between what they said and other evidence. but the main thing is you have to be nurturing and supportive to your au pair or nanny. Otherwise, they can’t be nurturing and supportive to the children. If you have a good warm relationship, you could have a nanny cam to relieve your missing the children and it would be fine. But if you do not have a warm supportive relationship with the nanny, it would be awkward and weird to have the camera. And as others have said, you need to be open about it.

See all the answers here.

You can purchase “covert” nanny cameras from BrickHouseSecurity.com and Amazon. If you’re out of the closet about it, you can simply use the Foscam wireless camera, which communicates with most smartphones and tablets.