We have a wonderful nanny from Brazil. She is the sweetest 22 year old and takes wonderful care of our children. Our only problem with her has been impressing the extreme importance of proper carseat usage. I believe the miscommunication is coming from 1) our english-portuguese language barrier, 2) cultural differences - I'm not sure how strict the average family in Brazil is regarding car seat safety.
We've had 2 problems that I'll list below if you care to read. But my question is: - is there a simple video that I could show her that shows car seat installation, how to properly buckle the children in, and possibly even a crash test video that might show her how even driving down the street could result in a serious injury or worse? Keep in mind her english is fair at best.
The first problem was at my oldest son's school. At his school the teachers buckle the children in the cars while the driver stays in the vehicle. The teacher could not get my son's harness buckled and she told our sitter but the sitter did not understand. So she drove home with him unbuckled. My son told me and I explained for him to yell if he were ever unbuckled again. I also spoke with her and explained that she must check that he is buckled before driving away. Not her fault because it was a language barrier issue but gave me a good scare.
The second problem really showed me that she just didn't 'get it' when it comes to my car seat fanaticism (or hopefully any parent's basic car seat safety Our sitter took the car seats out of the car to transport some friends on an outing. She told me about it and I explained that it was difficult to get the seats installed properly so could she please not remove them - but I honestly don't think she really understood what I meant. I asked my husband repeatedly to install the carseats (he is stronger than me and can get them very tight) and he did not (I won't get into the argument that followed here Normally our sitter walks the children to camp but this morning was raining. So she took the kids in the car. They were buckled into the seats... but the seats weren't buckled to the car!!!... and the rearfacing baby was facing forward!!! (as if that would matter since it was just sitting in the seat) My stomach still hurts from hearing this from her. She could tell by the look of horror on my face that I was upset and she said, "No it is OK. The seats were very close together so they did not move. And it was only to camp so it was a short ride." Of course I visualize the left turn on the way to camp getting T Boned by an 18 wheeler and the kids carseats as 3 projectiles from the car. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since and just don't know where to start. We of course have properly installed the carseats in the car and will tell her to NEVER take them out again. But I worry that the gravity of the subject of carseats is not sinking in and REALLY want to explain it to her. She loves the children so much and would never want them hurt. So somehow I need to convey that she is risking their lives with this carelessness.
We've had 2 problems that I'll list below if you care to read. But my question is: - is there a simple video that I could show her that shows car seat installation, how to properly buckle the children in, and possibly even a crash test video that might show her how even driving down the street could result in a serious injury or worse? Keep in mind her english is fair at best.
The first problem was at my oldest son's school. At his school the teachers buckle the children in the cars while the driver stays in the vehicle. The teacher could not get my son's harness buckled and she told our sitter but the sitter did not understand. So she drove home with him unbuckled. My son told me and I explained for him to yell if he were ever unbuckled again. I also spoke with her and explained that she must check that he is buckled before driving away. Not her fault because it was a language barrier issue but gave me a good scare.
The second problem really showed me that she just didn't 'get it' when it comes to my car seat fanaticism (or hopefully any parent's basic car seat safety Our sitter took the car seats out of the car to transport some friends on an outing. She told me about it and I explained that it was difficult to get the seats installed properly so could she please not remove them - but I honestly don't think she really understood what I meant. I asked my husband repeatedly to install the carseats (he is stronger than me and can get them very tight) and he did not (I won't get into the argument that followed here Normally our sitter walks the children to camp but this morning was raining. So she took the kids in the car. They were buckled into the seats... but the seats weren't buckled to the car!!!... and the rearfacing baby was facing forward!!! (as if that would matter since it was just sitting in the seat) My stomach still hurts from hearing this from her. She could tell by the look of horror on my face that I was upset and she said, "No it is OK. The seats were very close together so they did not move. And it was only to camp so it was a short ride." Of course I visualize the left turn on the way to camp getting T Boned by an 18 wheeler and the kids carseats as 3 projectiles from the car. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since and just don't know where to start. We of course have properly installed the carseats in the car and will tell her to NEVER take them out again. But I worry that the gravity of the subject of carseats is not sinking in and REALLY want to explain it to her. She loves the children so much and would never want them hurt. So somehow I need to convey that she is risking their lives with this carelessness.