NANNY NIGHTMARE

In August of 2007, I hired this All American Nanny, LTD to help me to find a suitable nanny to care for my 2 children while I am at work on a FT basis. The contract/agreement that I had with the service was for them to THOUGHROUGHLY review and verify the background of each of the Nanny's that they recommend, including referrals, criminal checks, etc... They recommended a nanny that I did hire. The woman they recommended was a sheer nightmare. I have a 9 and 12 year old in the house. The woman would meet strange men on the internet (on my computer!) and invite them into my home while I was not there. Clearly she put both my children and my home at serious risk. Additionally, part of her responsibilities was to retrieve my younger son from school everyday and walk home with him so he wasn't alone. On many occasions I would get a call from the school because she never showed up and my son would be alone waiting for her. On several occasions, he walked home alone. Additonally, she took the cell phone that I had for the children and used all the munites on the phone without telling me. Subsequently, when I tried to reach my son in an emergency, I was unable to do so and had to go out worriedly looking for him. These a just a few of the many irresponsible, outright dangerous situations that this woman brought into our home. Ofcourse, I fired her and later found out that she was in fact fired from her position before mine. To make matters even more deplorable, this woman filed a complaint against me with CPS claiming that I abused my children, a blatant vindictive act in retaliation for being fired. Both my children were devastated by this. My younger son was tramatized not understanding the situation and worried, losing sleep that someone was there to take him away from "mom". Ofcourse and without any difficulty whatsoever, the complaint was found to be "unfounded" and dismissed - but the termoil that she caused us was inexcusable.

The agency then placed another deplorable nanny in my home to make restitution for the first nightmare. Clearly, this second nanny's background was not checked either. Without going into further detail - the 2nd nanny no longer works for me either. I have asked for my fee back from the service (I paid $2,500) and feel that they should be happy with my asking for just that instead of taking them to court for negligence and breach of contract! They flat out REFUSE to return any portion of the fee that they charged me. THIS SERVICE IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE and I now have an attorney working on the case to restore my fee and to make sure that they become more aware of what they place into a home with children in the future. MY ADVICE TO ANY CARING PARENT(S) IS TO STEER CLEAR OF THIS HORRENDOUS SERVICE AND KEEP YOUR CHILDREN SAFE. Sincerely DD.