*EVA SMITH WAS SURPRISED** when she called her nanny and her seven-year-old son answered. He and his six-year-old sister were locked in the car in the parking lot of a Sydney shopping centre while their nanny ran errands inside. She had been gone for at least 30 minutes.
It was something that happened regularly, the little boy said, and today was actually quite a good day. Often, the nanny, 22, left them for hours while she shopped and caught up with friends, even when they begged her to take them with her.
Sometimes Eva’s youngest child, just three years old, was also in the car, left unattended in the bustling multi-storey car park at Bondi Junction Westfield.
But what happened when they returned to the family’s Randwick home each day was even more shocking. Instead of reading books or watching television, the little boy spent many of his afternoons locked in his bedroom, not even allowed out to use the bathroom.
“She took the tie from my bathrobe and put it around the door handle so he couldn’t get out,” Eva tells The Weekly online. “He begged to be let out but she only opened the door when he said he was going to wee on the floor because he was so desperate to use the bathroom.”
The following day, even more disturbing revelations came at the school gate where other mums told of the incidents they had witnessed in the six months the children had been in the nanny’s care.
“One mum said she had seen the kids wandering around Queens Park asking strangers ‘Will you look after me?’ because the nanny was locked in the car texting,” she says.
“I asked why none of them had told me and they said that I seemed very busy and they didn’t want to interfere.”
Eva sacked the nanny the next day and is now desperate to make sure no other families suffer similar experiences.
“We trusted her,” she says. “She came recommended by a family friend, who had known her since she was a child.
“She had an impressive CV, her mother was a client of mine and she seemed lovely. We trialled her for two weeks before giving her the job and everything seemed great.”
In retrospect, there were red flags that Eva, who had just started her own business, didn’t see at the time.
“Right from the start, my son said he didn’t like her,” Eva says. “But he’s a seven-year-old boy. He doesn’t like any nanny!
“Then my kids started playing up. They became very angry and aggressive. They were always screaming and fighting. My youngest one started waking up in middle of the night.
“One day the nanny was sick and they were so happy. My son promised he would never be naughty again if she never came back. They were trying to tell me something was wrong, but I just didn’t see it at the time.”
Eva’s kids are now back to their happy selves, but she is traumatised by what has happened.
“I have nightmares,” she says. “I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat. I had a new nanny start last week and when she didn’t answer her phone, I had a panic attack. She called me straight back but I was already hysterical.”
How to stop it happening to you:
1.Check your nannies social media accounts. When I looked at mine, I saw photos of her catching up with her friends when she should have been looking after my kids.
2.Check all their references, even if they come with recommended by family or friends.
3.Tell everyone you know to keep an eye out for your kids and let you know immediately if they see anything unusual. People seem to think they need to stay out of your business but you need as many people looking out for your children as possible.
4.Set really strict ground rules. It might seem like common sense that it is a bad idea to leave kids unattended, but spell it out. List every single do and don’t.
5.Get a nanny cam. You can never be too careful.
*Name has been changed.
