A young woman is sitting on a couch with a 2 year old toddler trying to feed her some porridge. The baby exhibits difficulty in coping with the rough and speedy rate at which she is being fed. The young woman then starts eating the porridge herself.
Unable to contain the stuffed porridge down her throat, the baby throws up and this seems to infuriate the young woman who responds by slapping the child, throwing her off the couch onto the floor. The young lady then picks up a rechargeable torch and severely whacks the baby's bottom. She then kicks the baby's head like a football. For a while, the baby lies there unable to move. As if that was not enough, the young lady tramples on her limp body before hoisting her savagely by one hand, taking her into another room.
This is not a scene from a Hollywood movie but a true life incident which happened in Uganda. Many people who watched this video of this woman beating the 2 year old baby were shocked and angry. When I first saw the video, I thought about how the parents of that little girl must have felt when they saw what the person they were paying to take care of their daughter was treating her.
Anyone can understand why that video went viral and caused a lot of outrage on the social networks all over the world. The video raised a lot of questions on how many children go under such treatment everyday without their parents knowing anything. According to some sources, the when the father saw that video, he pounced on the nanny and beat her up. Despite the nanny going to the police and having the father arrested, the police were forced to release him after viewing the video because not even them could comprehend such inhuman treatment.
In my opinion, the person in the video does not even look like a nanny at all. I know you can not tell a person's qualifications just by looking at them but to me that woman looks like she is just a maid servant whose main chores are to clean the house and to wash clothes and dishes. Her demeanor also confirms that. Just the way she ate the baby's porridge shows that she a desperate person.
Whenever I hear the word Nanny, the picture that comes to my mind is that of a middle aged woman wearing a long dress with an apron and a headscarf in some cases. Of course nannies can be of any age as long as they are mature and capable of doing the job.
Many people who have employed a nanny to look after their child were scared when they saw that horrible treatment of an innocent 2 year old baby. I would not be surprised if many went home and started looking for signs of abuse on their children. Others may even have thought of investing in CCTV cameras.
Nannies are some of the most lovable people in the world and many of them are helping a lot of families to cope with the pressure of work and looking after their children. Many couples have entrusted nannies to care of their kids for more hours than they can spend with the kids themselves. A lot of kids around the world have grown up with nannies with some of them note even knowing that the person they spend a lot of time with was not a relative but an employee.
One thing that I have noticed with Zambian families is that they do not take proper caution when employing nannies. Most of the times people go for cheap labour or they would like to employ someone who is very desperate for a job because by doing so they think that they will pay that person less money. But what they do not realise is that cheap is expensive in some ways. When you hire cheap labour you must also expect cheap results.
When hiring someone whom you want to be taking care of your little ones, you must make sure you employ the best person possible. This person must be qualified and have some experience in child care. Do not just take in anyone that comes knocking at your door looking for a job. If possible ask for references or do a background check of the person you are employing. It would even be prudent to meet that person's kids if she has any so that you can have an idea how she treats her own children.
Secondly, when you employ a nanny, do not overload her with unnecessary chores. Remember that one reason why you can not cope with taking care of your child is because you have another job yourself. Similarly, a nanny's job is primarily to take care of the child or children and not to plant flowers, water the garden and even do your shopping. Child minding in itself is a tough job and this is one reason why you will find some families employ a house servant, a garden boy and a nanny. You cannot lump all these three jobs on one person because doing so may just overburden her and cause her not to perform accordingly.
Another thing that you must not neglect is to pay your nanny the right salary and on time. Do not let your nanny work on slave wages because she will not put in as much as she is getting out. A disgruntled worker does not perform at 100% capacity and most of the time that worker may be frustrated or stressed. She may even take out her frustrations by abusing your child. In the Uganda video, the woman started slapping the child after she had vomited. To me that was like punishing the child for giving her more work to clean up.
Having respect for your nanny is also cardinal. If you yell at her most of the time, she will definitely not like your child at all. She will yell at her and even do worse things like what was in that video. Every employee can make a mistake but you are not suppose to yell at them or treat them like they are lesser beings.
Most importantly, treat your nanny like she was a member of the family. I have seen kids who have become so attached to their nanny that even when the nanny wants to leave they will start crying. If your children do this, then you have no doubt employed a perfect nanny. This person will always look after your kids and protect them at any time. I know some adults who still have not forgotten their nannies despite many years having past. The names of the nanny pops up in every childhood story they tell. This also shows that they were taken care by one of the best nannies in the world.
Image by africa, freedigitalphotos.net
