How's my babysitting?

Sample plate

I just got this tip from my wife, who got it from a local mothers' group e-mail list: HowsMyNanny.com is a service for the worried parent. Once subscribed (New York only, so far), you get a license plate-like plaque you zip-tie to your kid's stroller. When the help takes the kid out, the plaque serves as a beacon to passers-by: if they see your child's caregiver acting inappropriately (or exemplary), they are encouraged to log on to the HowsMyNanny site when they get to a computer, and report the incident.

Tagged

(Credit: HowsMyNanny)

It's the "How's my driving" bumpersticker for parents too skittish to trust their babysitters, and while there's a grain of a good idea in it, it's flawed in practice.

First, there's no telephone number to call. The service relies on observers to "make a mental note" of the unique number on the plate and its Web address, and then later, if they remember, to log in to the site and enter the number, the details, etc. By then, a clear memory of the incident is likely to have evaporated, if the observer even remembers to access the site at all.

Second, the plates are attached to strollers, not kids. If your child is in a group with others at a playground, how is an onlooker to know which kid goes with which stroller?

An incident report.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

There is a school of thought in parenting that says if you feel the need to rely on monitoring devices for your babysitter, you should trust your gut and get someone new to look after your child. I lean toward agreeing with that, although I still like the idea of having a way for people to help watch out for kids, and it's also worth noting that HowsMyNanny tipsters can choose to remain anonymous, which might help. In other words, there's nothing wrong with idea of HowsMyNanny, but the practicalities of the service need a bit of tuning for it to reliably work.

[heymannyc]

Some questions answered

Rafe,

You raise a very good question regarding telephone reports.  We have
received some interest in this method of reporting and are looking into it. 
The concern is that although an 800 number would be helpful for our
members in the U.S. (including New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Washington
and California), it would likely be a long distance call for our members in
Canada and London.  Apparently text messaging from the cell phone is very
popular in London so that may be a possible resolution.

The other consideration has to do with maintaining the anonymity and
timeliness of the reports.  While it may seem faster for the reporter to
make a phone call to report the bad nanny sighting or the good nanny
sighting, the phone call would then have to be relayed to the member via
email - this would require someone to be available 24 hours a day to
retrieve the calls and forward them to the appropriate member.  The way it
works now, the computer automatically sends the member the emailed report
- thus there is no delay and no room for human error.

Often times when someone sees something they think a parent should know
about (especially the bad nanny sightings) it stays on their mind for a
while.  As long as they write down or remember the 3 digit number, for
now, it is our hope that they will take advantage of this new, easy way to
communicate with the parent so the behavior can be rectified if necessary.

With regard to the plates being attached to strollers, not kids, we find that if
one watches for a few moments, one can figure out which child goes with
which stroller as most people are not inclined to walk too far away from their
valuables.

Additionally, we wanted to remind you that the HowsMyNanny.com stroller
license plates are meant to report positive nanny behavior as well. In this day
and age, parents really appreciate the confirmation that they have chosen a
wonderful nanny. You can never get too much positive reinforcement.

Thank you again for your comment.  We always appreciate feedback and try
to incorporate new ideas to make the service run more smoothly.

Jill Starishevsky
http://HowsMyNanny.com
646-262-7418