A mother playing with her son in Carl Schurz Park (perhaps you remember the location from its star turn in Harriet the Spy?) was disturbed by a nanny's behavior. It seems that the nanny, in playing with her young charge, was too enthusiastic, and the woman was inspired to write in to the blog where people like to bitch about other people's nannies. You know, isawyournanny.blogspot.com? Anyway, the woman basically accused the nanny of being retarded. Nice!

This occured [sic] late afternoon on Monday. A white nanny, with shoulder length hair, wearing a grey hoody with red designs on it and blue jeans was chasing her charge, a little boy around the playground. The nanny was up on the equipment running from one red hut through the next on the ramps. She was climbing up and down the ladders. There were not that many other children at the park at that time. My 7 year old son stopped what he was doing and just looked at her. Although the boy seemed to be having fun; possibly used to the the nanny's behavior. The nanny's behavior was off. The child she was watching did not seem to be special needs. He was about 6 years old, curly brownish hair, green eyes, l/s grey t-shirt style shirt with a print on it and khaki colored cargos. I know I am not putting this in to words correctly, but for my child to stop playing on the playground and stand off to the side just staring- something was off. The nanny was growling and running, which could seem fun, except that she seemed so frenzied, so aggressive that I just got the sense she was either on something or mentally imbalanced.

After all, even her little darling knew something was off.

Carl Schurz Playground, UES NYC [I Saw Your Nanny]